Intel acquired security vendor McAfee for $7.68 billion in 2011, and earlier this year rebranded the division as Intel Security.
Helping lead the new Intel Security division is CTO and General Manager of Corporate Products Mike Fey. In a video interview with eWEEK, Fey explains his role within Intel Security and how McAfee technologies fit in. He also details why antivirus (AV) is still at the core of the business and continues to evolve to deal with the evolving IT threat landscape.
“As CTO, I look to try to set a core strategy,” Fey said.
The McAfee brand is well-known as an antivirus vendor and as part of Intel Security that is an attribute that will continue to add value. Fey noted that on the enterprise side, there is a lot of revenue that continues to come from McAfee antivirus technologies, though he stressed that Intel Security has more security technologies.
“It’s unfortunate that people don’t realize how many industry-leading products we have that are not AV,” Fey said. “On the other side, we’re very proud of what we have built there with AV; despite all the chest-thumping, there is not a company out there that is going to run without that level of protection.”
Though some of Fey’s competitors might argue that the AV market is dead, the truth is somewhat different. Fey said that AV is far from dead, though some of the detection models of the past associated with AV, including signature-based detection, have evolved significantly over the years.
“The concept of endpoint protection, protecting people from malware and viruses is something that is far from over,” Fey said.
In the modern IT world, software vendors like Microsoft patch applications regularly in a bid to reduce security risk. Fey noted that even before Microsoft issues its monthly Patch Tuesday update, McAfee users are usually protected. He added that McAfee has been building behavioral detection technology for some time, so when a security issue is found, there is typically already a detection in place.
“If I already have a security guard at the door, if you discover that the door isn’t locking correctly, doesn’t that all of a sudden make us vulnerable,” Fey said. “You’ll get the lock fixed, but my security guard was still defending that door.”
Watch the full video interview with Mike Fey, CTO of Intel Security, below:
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEK and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
