Intel will leave McAfee alone, but it can secure our chips
AN EXECUTIVE at Intel has said that the chipmaker will not change McAfee from what it is today, but will use some of the insecurity firm’s expertise in some of its future products.
Glenn Le Vernois of Intel’s programme office said, “[We] make great chips, but there’s a lot that we don’t know about security, like anti-virus for example. There’s a lot that [McAfee] can teach us about effective solutions in the environment it sells in every single day.”
“We’re going to be learning from McAfee, but at the same time it is going to be running its own business and revenue streams. But it helps us become a more security conscious and focused company in the way it does business.”
Intel was speaking with The INQUIRER at Infosec, London’s annual trade show about all things information security. Intel is obviously better known as a chip company, but Vernois explained, “Five or ten years ago it was all about the processor, but then we expanded into a second vector called communications.”
“Our third pillar is now security. The acquisition of McAfee and some of the things we’re doing is very necessary for Intel and other companies to create a secure environment.”
“If you look at websites, emails, phishing attacks, identity theft, trojans – all that nasty stuff affects our users on a daily basis, we want to provide stronger and richer solutions that protects users data.”
This year Intel is on its third generation of anti-theft technology, which among other things allows a user to disable a lost or stolen PC with a ‘poison pill’ that can delete vital encrypted material from the hardware and block the laptop from booting, essentially turning it into a brick.
Of new Sandy Bridge and Huron River devices Vernois said, “With the third generation we’ve added out-of-band capabilities. If I have a 3G modem I can send an actual text message to that PC to disable it.”
Sandy Bridge processor core Intel PCs also carry Identity Protection Technology (IPT), which works with the authentication systems of other companies by using an embedded token. The token can confirm a user’s identity for a portal, participating website or virtual private network using ISV algorithms. µ