READ: Hotmail dumps McAfee's antivirus for Trend Micro

MSN's Hotmail service, which has almost 200 million users worldwide, has dumped McAfee as its antivirus partner in favor of rival Trend Micro. According to Microsoft, e-mails and attachments sent or received by any of Hotmail's 187 million Web mail customers will be scanned in real time by Trend Micro's antivirus software beginning Monday.

Hotmail's antivirus service was previously provided by McAfee and the reason for the change is unclear. However, Martin Hoffman, chief executive of Ninemsn, which operates Hotmail in Australia and is half owned by Microsoft, said in a statement that Hotmail will be able to provide a "safer online experience" using Trend Micro's products because they provide "deeper antivirus protection."

Full story: news.com

In related news, McAfee Middle East:
McAfee updates security line for 2005

Security specialist McAfee has updated its home user line with the launch of its 2005 software family. The vendor’s updated range includes firewall, anti-virus, anti-spam and anti-hacking titles in the form of VirusScan Home (and Professional) 9.0, Personal Firewall Plus 6.0, Spamkiller 6.0, Privacy Service 7.0, Internet Security Suite 7.0 and QuickClean 5.0.

McAfee’s new $35 version of VirusScan Home is the ninth incarnation to hit the market and includes an enhanced user interface. It also features a new web dialler detector, an improved scheduled scan that detect viruses and spyware, automatic updates that scan for spyware signature files and inbound and outbound e-mail and Instant Message (IM) scanning for popular e-mail clients. The Professional version meanwhile is available as a two-user licence and bundles McAfee’s SpamKiller 6.0 and Shredder titles, all for $45.

Full story: itp.net (Arab Site-->English Language)