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McAfee Corp. ( ), formerly known as McAfee Associates, Inc. from 1987 to 1997 and 2004 to 2014, Network Associates Inc. from 1997 to 2004, and Intel Security Group from 2014 to 2017, is an American global computer
security software Computer security software or cybersecurity software is any computer program designed to influence information security. This is often taken in the context of defending computer systems or data, yet can incorporate programs designed specifically ...
company headquartered in
San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...
. The company was purchased by
Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
in February 2011, and became part of the Intel Security division. In 2017, Intel had a strategic deal with
TPG Capital TPG Inc., previously known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital, is an American investment company based in Fort Worth, Texas. The private equity firm is focused on leveraged buyouts and growth capital. TPG manages investment funds in growth c ...
and converted Intel Security into a
joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
between both companies called McAfee.
Thoma Bravo Thoma Bravo, LP, is an American private equity and growth capital firm with offices in San Francisco, Chicago and Miami. It is known for being particularly active in acquiring software companies and has over $114 billion in assets under manage ...
took a minority stake in the new company, and Intel retained a 49% stake. The owners took McAfee public on the
NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
in 2020, and in 2022 an investor group led by Advent International Corporation took it private again.


History


1987–1999

The company was founded in 1987 as McAfee Associates, named for its founder
John McAfee John David McAfee ( ; 18 September 1945 – 23 June 2021) was a British-American computer programmer, businessman, and two-time presidential candidate who unsuccessfully sought the Libertarian Party nomination for president of the United States ...
, who resigned from the company in 1994. McAfee was incorporated in the state of
Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
in 1992. In 1993, McAfee stepped down as head of the company, taking the position of chief technology officer before his eventual resignation. Bill Larson was appointed CEO in his place. Network Associates was formed in 1997 as a merger of McAfee Associates,
Network General NetScout Systems, Inc. (stylized as NETSCOUT) is a provider of application performance management and network performance management products located in Westford, Massachusetts. In July 2015, NetScout acquired the communications business of Dana ...
,
PGP Corporation PGP Corporation was a company that sold Pretty Good Privacy computer software. It was founded in 2002, and acquired by Symantec in 2010, and by Broadcom in 2019. History PGP Corporation was co-founded in June 2002 by Jon Callas and Phil Dunkelbe ...
and
Helix Software Helix Software Company was a New York City based software company founded in October 1986. The company developed software tools and utilities for DOS and Windows. In 1993, Helix licensed some of its memory management technology to Microsoft for ...
. In 1996, McAfee had acquired
Calgary, Alberta Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Canadian Prairies, Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,30 ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
-based
FSA Corporation FSA Corporation (formerly Freedman, Sharp, and Associates) developed UNIX and Windows system level software for security and distributed system administration in the 1990s. The company provided the underlying technology basis for software offerin ...
, which helped the company diversify its security offerings away from just client-based
antivirus software Antivirus software (abbreviated to AV software), also known as anti-malware, is a computer program used to prevent, detect, and remove malware. Antivirus software was originally developed to detect and remove computer viruses, hence the nam ...
by bringing on board its own network and desktop
encryption In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can decip ...
technologies. The FSA team also oversaw the creation of a number of other technologies that were leading edge at the time, including
firewall Firewall may refer to: * Firewall (computing), a technological barrier designed to prevent unauthorized or unwanted communications between computer networks or hosts * Firewall (construction), a barrier inside a building, designed to limit the spre ...
,
file encryption Encryption software is software that uses cryptography to prevent unauthorized access to digital information. Cryptography is used to protect digital information on computers as well as the digital information that is sent to other computers over t ...
, and
public key infrastructure A public key infrastructure (PKI) is a set of roles, policies, hardware, software and procedures needed to create, manage, distribute, use, store and revoke digital certificates and manage public-key encryption. The purpose of a PKI is to facilit ...
product lines. While those product lines had their own individual successes including PowerBroker (written by Dean Huxley and Dan Freedman and now sold by
BeyondTrust BeyondTrust (formerly Symark) is an American company that develops, markets, and supports a family of privileged identity management / access management (PIM/PAM), privileged remote access, and vulnerability management products for UNIX, Linux, W ...
), the growth of
antivirus Antivirus software (abbreviated to AV software), also known as anti-malware, is a computer program used to prevent, detect, and remove malware. Antivirus software was originally developed to detect and remove computer viruses, hence the name. ...
ware always outpaced the growth of the other security product lines. It is fair to say that McAfee remains best known for its anti-virus and anti-spam products. Among other companies bought and sold by McAfee is
Trusted Information Systems Trusted Information Systems (TIS) was a computer security research and development company during the 1980s and 1990s, performing computer and communications (information) security research for organizations such as NSA, DARPA, Army Research Lab, ...
, which developed the
Firewall Firewall may refer to: * Firewall (computing), a technological barrier designed to prevent unauthorized or unwanted communications between computer networks or hosts * Firewall (construction), a barrier inside a building, designed to limit the spre ...
Toolkit, the
free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...
foundation for the commercial Gauntlet Firewall, which was later sold to
Secure Computing Corporation Secure Computing Corporation (SCC) was a public company that developed and sold computer security appliances and hosted services to protect users and data. McAfee acquired the company in 2008. The company also developed filtering systems used ...
. McAfee acquired Trusted Information Systems under the banner of Network Associates in 1998. McAfee, as a result of brief ownership of TIS Labs/NAI Labs/Network Associates Laboratories/McAfee Research, was highly influential in the world of
open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Op ...
, as that organization produced portions of the
Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
,
FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was based on Research Unix. The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993. In 2005, FreeBSD was the most popular ...
, and Darwin operating systems, and developed portions of the
BIND BIND () is a suite of software for interacting with the Domain Name System (DNS). Its most prominent component, named (pronounced ''name-dee'': , short for ''name daemon''), performs both of the main DNS server roles, acting as an authoritative n ...
name server software and
SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an Internet Standard protocol for collecting and organizing information about managed devices on IP networks and for modifying that information to change device behaviour. Devices that typically ...
version 3.


2000–2009

In 2000, McAfee/Network Associates was the leading authority in educating and protecting people against the Love Bug or
ILOVEYOU ILOVEYOU, sometimes referred to as Love Bug or Love Letter for you, is a computer worm that infected over ten million Windows personal computers on and after 5 May 2000. It started spreading as an email message with the subject line "ILOVEYOU" ...
virus, one of the most destructive computer viruses in history. At the end of 2000,
CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
Bill Larson,
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Peter Watkins, and
CFO The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...
Prabhat Goyal all resigned after the company sustained losses. Company
president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Gene Hodges served as interim CEO before George Samenuk was appointed CEO in 2001. The company returned to its original name in July 2004. It restructured, beginning with the sale of its Magic Solutions business to Remedy, a subsidiary of
BMC Software BMC Software, Inc. is an American multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting, and Enterprise Software company based in Houston, Texas. Gartner has positioned BMC as a Leader for the eighth consecutive year in Gartner' ...
early in the year. In mid-2004, the company sold the Sniffer Technologies business to a venture capital backed firm named
Network General NetScout Systems, Inc. (stylized as NETSCOUT) is a provider of application performance management and network performance management products located in Westford, Massachusetts. In July 2015, NetScout acquired the communications business of Dana ...
(the same name as the original owner of Sniffer Technologies), and changed its name back to McAfee to reflect its focus on security-related technologies. In 2006, Dale Fuller became interim CEO when Samenuk resigned and President Kevin Weiss was fired after the company was accused of questionable stock options practices. David DeWalt took over as CEO on April 2, 2007. In 2007, McAfee launched the Security Innovation Alliance (SIA), a program focused on cultivating partnerships with other tech companies and integrating third-party technology with McAfee’s security and compliance risk management technology. On March 11, 2008, McAfee announced a license agreement with the
US Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...
. This agreement allowed the DoD to integrate McAfee’s Virus Scan Enterprise and Anti-Spyware Enterprise into the Defense Information Systems Agency’s cyber-security solutions.


2010–present

On August 19, 2010, Intel announced that it would purchase McAfee for $48 a share in a deal valued at $7.68 billion. In September 2016, Intel announced their strategic partnership with TPG to turn McAfee into an independent cyber-security company as a joint venture. That deal closed on April 3, 2017. CEO David DeWalt resigned in 2011, and McAfee appointed Michael DeCesare and Todd Gebhart as co-presidents. In 2011, McAfee also partnered with SAIC to develop anti-cyber espionage products for use by government and intelligence agencies, along with telecommunications companies. On January 6, 2014, Intel CEO
Brian Krzanich Brian Matthew Krzanich (born May 9, 1960) is an American engineer and Krzanich joined Intel as an engineer in 1982 and served as chief operating officer (COO) before being promoted to CEO in May 2013. As CEO, Krzanich was credited for diversifyin ...
announced during the
Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...
the name change from McAfee Security to Intel Security. The company's red shield logo would remain, with the firm continuing to operate as a wholly owned Intel subsidiary. John McAfee, who no longer had any involvement in the company, expressed his pleasure at his name no longer being associated with the software. However, as of 2016 the products still bore the McAfee name. On September 7, 2016, Intel sold its majority stake to TPG and entered into an agreement with TPG to turn Intel Security into a jointly-owned, independent cyber-security company with the McAfee name. After the deal between the two companies closed, the company was spun back out of Intel on April 4, 2017." Chris Young assumed the CEO position as the company became an independent entity. In 2018, the company unsuccessfully entered talks to sell majority control of McAfee to minority stakeholder Thoma Bravo. In 2018, McAfee also expanded its Security Innovation Alliance partnerships to include companies such as Atos, CyberX, Fidelis Cyber-security, Aujas, and Silver Peak. In July 2019, McAfee began meeting with bankers to discuss returning to the market as an IPO. As an
IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
, the company was estimated to be valued at $8 billion or higher. However, no deal or decision to join the public market was confirmed. Near the end of 2019, McAfee partnered with
Google Cloud Google Cloud Platform offers numerous integrated cloud-computing services, including compute, network, and storage. Products Past and present products under the Google Cloud platform include: Current * Google Cloud Datastore, a NoSQL databa ...
to integrate McAfee’s Mvision Cloud and endpoint security technology with Google’s cloud infrastructure. In October 2020, McAfee and its shareholders raised $740 million in the initial public offering and had valued at about $8.6 billion based on the outstanding shares listed in its prospectus. McAfee shares were traded on the
NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
stock exchange under ticker symbol MCFE, marked its return to the public market after 9 years. In 2020, former McAfee CEO Chris Young left his position and was replaced with Peter Leav. However, the stock were delisted from NASDAQ and the company taken private again in March 2022 by a multi-national investor group under the Advent International Corporation, consisting of the
Canada Pension Plan The Canada Pension Plan (CPP; french: Régime de pensions du Canada) is a contributory, earnings-related social insurance program. It forms one of the two major components of Canada's public retirement income system, the other component being Old ...
, the Singaporean
GIC Private Limited GIC Private Limited is a sovereign wealth fund in Singapore that manages its foreign reserves. Established by the Government of Singapore in 1981 as the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, its mission is to preserve and enhance the ...
, and the
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority ( ar, جهاز أبوظبي للاستثمار, ADIA) is a sovereign wealth fund owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (in the United Arab Emirates) founded for the purpose of investing funds on behalf of the Gover ...
. In May 2022, Peter Leav stepped down and McAfee named Greg Johnson its new CEO.


Products

McAfee primarily develops digital-security tools for
personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...
s and
server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called clients Role * Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers and su ...
devices, and more recently, for
mobile device A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Mobile devices typically have a flat LCD or OLED screen, a touchscreen interface, and digital or physical buttons. They may also have a physical ...
s. McAfee brands, products and sub-products include: : Current products * McAfee Total Protection * McAfee LiveSafe * McAfee Safe Connect VPN * McAfee Mobile Security for Android * McAfee Mobile Security for iOS * McAfee Virus Removal Service * McAfee Identity Theft Protection * McAfee Gamer Security * McAfee Safe Family * McAfee DAT Reputation Technology * McAfee Small Business Security *McAfee Personal data clean-up : Renamed products * McAfee VirusScan Enterprise (Changed from McAfee VirusScan) * McAfee Network Security Platform (Changed from IntruShield) * McAfee Application and Change Control (Changed from McAfee Change Control) * McAfee WebAdvisor instead of SiteAdvisor : Former products * McAfee E-Business Servers * McAfee Entercept


Acquisitions

; Dr Solomon's Group plc On June 9, 1998, Network Associates agreed to acquire Dr Solomon's Group plc, the leading European manufacturer of antivirus software, for $642 million in stock. ; IntruVert Networks On April 2, 2003, McAfee acquired IntruVert Networks for $100 million. According to ''
Network World International Data Group (IDG, Inc.) is a market intelligence and demand generation company focused on the technology industry. IDG, Inc.’s mission is centered around supporting the technology industry through research, data, marketing technol ...
'', "IntruVert's technology focus is on intrusion-prevention, which entails not just detecting attacks, but blocking them. The IntruVert product line can be used as a passive intrusion-detection system, just watching and reporting, or it can be used in the intrusion-prevention mode of blocking a perceived attack." ; Foundstone In August 2004, McAfee agreed to acquire Foundstone, a vendor of security consulting, training, and vulnerability management software, for $86 million. ; SiteAdvisor On April 5, 2006, McAfee bought out
SiteAdvisor The McAfee SiteAdvisor, later renamed as the McAfee WebAdvisor, is a service that reports on the safety of web sites by crawling the web and testing the sites it finds for malware and spam. A browser extension can show these ratings on hyperl ...
for a reputed $70 million in competition with Symantec, a service that warns users if downloading software or filling out forms on a site may obtain malware or spam. ; Preventsys On June 6, 2006, McAfee announced that it would acquire Preventsys, a California-based company offering security risk management products. The acquisition cost McAfee under $10 million. ; Onigma Ltd On October 16, 2006, McAfee announced that it would acquire Israel based Onigma Ltd for $20 million. Onigma provides host-based data leakage protection software that prevents intentional and unintentional leakage of sensitive data by internal users. ; SafeBoot Holding B.V. On October 8, 2007, McAfee announced it would acquire SafeBoot Holding B.V. for $350 million. SafeBoot provided mobile data security solutions that protected data, devices, and networks against the risk associated with loss, theft, and unauthorized access. Through the acquisition, McAfee became the only vendor to deliver endpoint, network, web, email and data security, as well as risk and compliance solutions. Gerhard Watzinger, CEO of SafeBoot, joined McAfee to lead the Data Protection product business unit. The deal closed on November 19, 2007. ; ScanAlert On October 30, 2007, McAfee announced plans to acquire ScanAlert for $51 million. The acquisition integrated ScanAlert's Hacker Safe service and McAfee's SiteAdvisor rating system to attack website security from both sides. It was the industry's first service to help consumers stay safe as they searched, surfed and shopped. The deal closed on February 7, 2008. ; Reconnex On July 31, 2008, McAfee announced it would acquire Reconnex, a maker of data protection appliances and software. Reconnex sold
data loss prevention software Data loss prevention (DLP) software detects potential data breaches/data ex-filtration transmissions and prevents them by monitoring, detecting and blocking sensitive data while ''in use'' (endpoint actions), ''in motion'' (network traffic), and ' ...
, designed to prevent sensitive documents and data from leaving corporate networks. The acquisition added content awareness to McAfee's data security portfolio. The $46 million deal closed on August 12, 2008. ; Secure Computing On September 22, 2008, McAfee announced an agreement to acquire
Secure Computing Secure Computing Corporation (SCC) was a public company that developed and sold computer security appliances and hosted services to protect users and data. McAfee acquired the company in 2008. The company also developed filtering systems used ...
, a company specializing in network security hardware, services, and software products. The acquisition expanded McAfee's business in securing networks and cloud computing services to offer a more comprehensive brand of products. The deal closed on November 19, 2008 at a price of $497 million. ; Endeavor In January 2009, McAfee announced plans to acquire Endeavor Security, a privately held maker of IPS/IDS technology. The deal closed in February 2009 for a total purchase price of $3.2 million. ; Solidcore Systems On May 15, 2009, McAfee announced its intention acquire Solidcore Systems, a privately held security company, for $33 million. Solidcore was a maker of software that helped companies protect ATMs and other specialized computers. The acquisition integrated Solidcore's whitelisting and compliance enforcement mechanisms into the McAfee product line. The deal closed on June 1, 2009. ; MX Logic On July 30, 2009, McAfee announced plans to acquire managed email and web security vendor MX Logic. The acquisition provided an enhanced range of SaaS-based security services such as cloud-based intelligence, web security, email security, endpoint security and vulnerability assessment. The deal closed on September 1, 2009 at a price of $140 million. MX Logic staff were integrated into McAfee's SaaS business unit. ; Trust Digital On May 25, 2010, McAfee announced a definitive agreement to acquire Trust Digital, a privately held online security company that specialized in security for mobile devices. The acquisition allowed McAfee to extend its services beyond traditional
endpoint security Endpoint security or endpoint protection is an approach to the protection of computer networks that are remotely bridged to client devices. The connection of endpoint devices such as laptops, tablets, mobile phones, Internet-of-things devices, ...
and move into the mobile security market. The acquisition closed on June 3, 2010. The price for Trust Digital was not disclosed. ; TenCube On July 29, 2010, McAfee announced a definitive agreement to acquire tenCube, a privately held online security company that specialized in anti-theft and data security for mobile devices. The acquisition allowed McAfee to complete its diversification into the mobile security space, and announce its plans to build the next generation mobile platform. The acquisition closed on August 25, 2010. ; Sentrigo On March 23, 2011, McAfee announced its intention to acquire privately owned Sentrigo, a leading provider of database security, including vulnerability management, database activity monitoring, database audit, and virtual patching—which ensure databases are protected without impacting performance or availability. The acquisition enabled McAfee to extend its database security portfolio. The acquisition closed on April 6, 2011. ; NitroSecurity On October 4, 2011, McAfee announced its intention to acquire privately owned NitroSecurity, a developer of high-performance security information and event management (SIEM) solutions that protect critical information and infrastructure. NitroSecurity solutions reduce risk exposure and increase network and information availability by removing the scalability and performance limitations of security information management. The acquisition closed on November 30, 2011. ; ValidEdge On February 26, 2013, McAfee announced it had acquired the ValidEdge sandboxing technology. ; Stonesoft On July 8, 2013 McAfee completed the tender offer for Finnish network firewall design company
Stonesoft Stonesoft Corporation was a public company that developed and sold network security solutions based in Helsinki, Finland. It was publicly owned until 2013 when it was acquired by Intel's subsidiary McAfee. Stonesoft does business globally, with ...
Oyj worth $389 million in cash, or about $6.09 a share. The Next Generation Firewall business acquired from Stonesoft was divested to Forcepoint in January 2016. ; PasswordBox On December 1, 2014, Intel Security announced the acquisition of PasswordBox, a Montreal-based provider of digital identity management solutions. Financial terms were not disclosed. ; Skyhigh Networks In November 2017, McAfee acquired Skyhigh Networks, a CASB security company. The acquisition closed January 3, 2018. In March 2021,
Symphony Technology Group Symphony Technology Group (STG) is an American private equity firm based in Menlo Park, California. Its Chairman and CEO is Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, who founded the firm in 2002. Investments The company has investments in the following companies: ...
acquired McAfee Enterprise, including Skyhigh Networks. In January 2022, STG announced that McAfee Enterprise's security service edge (SSE) business would operate as a separate company to be known as Skyhigh Security, built on McAfee Enterprise and Skyhigh Networks. ; TunnelBear In March 2018, McAfee acquired TunnelBear, a Canadian
VPN service A virtual private network (VPN) service provides a proxy server to help users bypass Internet censorship such as geoblocking and users who want to protect their communications against data profiling or MitM attacks on hostile networks. A wide va ...
. ; Uplevel Security In July 2019, Uplevel Security, a data
analytics Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data. It also entails applying data patterns toward effective decision-making. It ...
company using
graph theory In mathematics, graph theory is the study of ''graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of '' vertices'' (also called ''nodes'' or ''points'') which are conne ...
and
machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...
, announced it had been acquired by McAfee. ; NanoSec In August 2019, McAfee acquired NanoSec, a
container A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...
security company. ; Lightpoint Security In March 31, 2020, McAfee acquired Lightpoint Security, which will extend the capabilities of multiple McAfee products. The amount of this acquisition remains undisclosed.


Controversies

Channel stuffing lawsuit: On January 4, 2006, the
Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...
filed suit against McAfee for overstating its 1998–2000 net revenue by . Without admitting any wrongdoing, McAfee simultaneously settled the complaint, and agreed to pay a $50 million penalty and rework its accounting practices. The fine was for accounting fraud; known as
channel stuffing Channel stuffing is a business practice in which a company, or a sales force within a company, inflates its sales figures by forcing more products through a distribution channel than the channel is capable of selling. Also known as trade loading, ...
that served to inflate their revenue to their investors. SEC investigation into share options: In October 2006, McAfee fired its president Kevin Weiss, and its CEO George Samaneuk resigned under the cloud of a recent SEC investigation which also caused the departure of Kent Roberts, the
General Counsel A general counsel, also known as chief counsel or chief legal officer (CLO), is the chief in-house lawyer for a company or a governmental department. In a company, the person holding the position typically reports directly to the CEO, and their ...
, earlier in the year. In late December 2006 both Weiss and Samaneuk had share option grant prices revised upwards by McAfee's board. Weiss and Roberts were both exonerated of all wrongdoing from the claims of McAfee in 2009. DAT 5958 update: On April 21, 2010, beginning at approximately 14:00 UTC, millions of computers worldwide running Windows XP Service Pack 3 were affected by an erroneous virus definition file update by McAfee, resulting in the removal of a Windows system file (
svchost.exe Svchost.exe (Service Host, or SvcHost) is a system process that can host from one or more Windows services in the Windows NT family of operating systems. Svchost is essential in the implementation of ''shared service processes'', where a number ...
) on those machines, causing machines to lose network access and, in some cases, enter a reboot loop. McAfee rectified this by removing and replacing the faulty DAT file, version 5958, with an emergency DAT file, version 5959 and has posted a fix for the affected machines in their consumer knowledge base. The University of Michigan's medical school reported that 8,000 of its 25,000 computers crashed. Police in Lexington, Ky., resorted to hand-writing reports and turned off their patrol car terminals as a precaution. Some jails canceled visitation, and Rhode Island hospitals turned away non-trauma patients at emergency rooms and postponed some elective surgeries. Australian supermarket Coles reported that 10% (1,100) of its point-of-sales terminals were affected and was forced to shut down stores in both western and southern parts of the country. As a result of the outage, McAfee implemented additional QA protocols for any releases that directly impacted critical system files. The company also rolled out additional capabilities in Artemis that provide another level of protection against false positives by leveraging a whitelist of hands-off system files. DAT 6807-6808 update: In August 2012, an issue with an update to McAfee antivirus for home and enterprise computers turned off the antivirus protection and, in many cases, prevented connection to the Internet. McAfee was criticized for being slow to address the problem, forcing network operations to spend time diagnosing the issue.


See also

*
Internet Security Internet security is a branch of computer security. It encompasses the Internet, browser security, web site security, and network security as it applies to other applications or operating systems as a whole. Its objective is to establish rules a ...
*
Comparison of antivirus software This article compares notable antivirus products and services. It is Wikipedia list article rather than a deep analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each. Legend The term "on-demand scan" refers to the possibility of performing a manual ...
*
Comparison of firewalls Comparison or comparing is the act of evaluating two or more things by determining the relevant, comparable characteristics of each thing, and then determining which characteristics of each are similar to the other, which are different, and t ...


References


External links

* {{authority control, state=expanded American companies established in 1987 Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Software companies established in 1987 Computer security software companies Antivirus software Companies based in San Jose, California 1987 establishments in California 2020 initial public offerings Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Software companies of the United States John McAfee 2022 mergers and acquisitions Private equity portfolio companies