Network Associates: How much security is necessary?

In early May, the "ILOVEYOU" virus swept through Latin America, shutting down corporate networks and email systems throughout the region. The worldwide cost of the attack has been estimated at US$7 billion just in the first five days after it was unleashed.

"The 'love bug' attack, like last year's Melissa virus, shows once and for all that the time to implement proper security policies has arrived," says Herbert A. Molina, vice president and general manager, Latin America and Caribbean, for Network Associates, Inc. (NAI). "Companies that fail to address this issue are going to keep suffering big losses of equipment, information and productivity."

One of the first companies to address the ILOVEYOU virus was McAfee.com, a wholly owned subsidiary of NAI that provides online antiviral updates and upgrades to U.S. and Latin American users through a paid subscription service. "We posted the necessary antivirals on our web site (www.mcafee.com), and worked with the U.S. government on several continents to help track down the originators in the Philippines," Molina says.

Preventing email virus attacks is only one aspect of network security, says Molina. Intruders must be detected, firewalls must remain secure, and key information must be encrypted. For example, a recent survey by GTE Internetworking Services Group showed that 70% of web sites with certified firewalls were still vulnerable to attack due to misconfigurations or improper deployment.

"How much security is necessary?" asks Molina, "The answer depends on the potential cost of sabotage or loss of key information. If a large-scale corporate network were down for even an hour or two, the ultimate cost could be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Ninety percent of medium-size and large enterprises in the region do not have clear guidelines to know the cost/hour of having their entire network down, and hackers and intruders these days could be located outside or inside of the company's network."

To provide total protection, Network Associates offers four integrated suites:

* Total Virus Defense, which provides protection at all points of entry.

* Total Network Security, which includes encryption, authentication, intrusion protection and firewall technologies. Recently, one of the most influential IT publications in the U.S. cited recently NAI's Gauntlet 5.5 Adaptive/Proxy as the best firewall in the market.

* Total Network Visibility, using the highly regarded industry standard Sniffer for protocol/system analyzers.

* Total Service Desk, a fully integrated web browser help desk solution for Windows NT and SQL-based systems.

"Our active security strategy ties together all these suites," says Molina. "In multivendor environments with more than 2,000 users, it takes around eight hours just to detect where a network failure is happening. In a single integrated vendor environment, that time is reduced to less than one hour."

To respond quickly to users' needs, Network Associates is turning its software products into value-added online services like McAfee.com and Mycio.com.

Together with its channel partners -- including value-added resellers (VARs) and systems integrators (S/I), NAI will be launching Mycio.com in Latin America in the third quarter. Mycio.com is a management service provider (MSP) that helps small, medium and large-scale enterprises manage their networks, from requisition analysis through complete implementation.

Network Associates is also addressing the needs of smaller companies by developing an application service provider (ASP) strategy and e-appliances. "Companies will be able to lease small boxes with three configurations: antivirals, antivirals and firewalls, and antivirals, firewalls and virtual private networks (VPNs), depending on their needs," Molina says. "We expect this service to be extremely popular with companies that do not have the budget for dedicated security people."

Based in Santa Clara, California, Network Associates (NASDAQ: NETA) now ranks third among all desktop software providers worldwide, after Microsoft and Novell. Network Associates ranks 10th among all software companies worldwide, with 1999 revenues of nearly $900 million.

Since entering Latin America in 1996 as McAfee & Associates, Network Associates as grown more than 1,000 percent in revenues. Network Associates currently has offices in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, and Plantation, Florida.

"Our goal is to give users the protection they need to run their businesses effectively on a day-to-day basis," Molina says. "By providing a complete set of network security tools, we allow our customers to keep their cost of ownership (TCO) running low and to sleep better at night."