Security: A key component of the fourth industrial revolution.

In the 21 st century, security has become a key ingredient of any Internet or e-commerce application. "Whoever is doing business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C) or any other use of the Internet cannot live without security," says Herbert A. Molina, vice president and general manager, Latin America and Caribbean, for Network Associates, Inc. (NAI). "Any application where key data is transferred needs to be secure."

In fact, Molina believes that security is the key component of the Internet, the world's fourth industrial revolution, following the adaptation of assembly-line techniques in the 1920s, the introduction of electronic components in the 1960s, and robot industrial applications in the 1980s.

"Today, both businesses and consumers are seeing an exponential rate of growth in e-commerce," Molina says. "It is quickly becoming part of our daily lives. And whoever uses the Internet needs to have security in place to protect those key online transactions."

Network Associates is a leader in providing security solutions with four suites of integrated products. Through its affiliate, McAfee.com, Network Associates offers leading-edge security and value-added solutions to businesses and individuals. McAfee.com is the technological response from NAI to the growing ASP/ISP market demands.

Recently, Network Associates introduced the revolutionary PGP 7.0, an encryption solution for the retail market based on the industry standard and award-winning PGP encryption technology that contains 128-bit security and a personal firewall to protect individual computers from hackers.

"As more and more people use the Internet to do business, we are going to reach the point where every consumer is going to be able to buy this kind of solution for personal computers online or in any computer store," says Molina.

Nowhere is the need for Internet security greater than in Latin America, where e-commerce transactions should reach US$1 billion this year, and climb to more than $8 billion by 2003, according to industry projections. Based on these numbers, Brazil alone should represent at least 50% of the security market in the region, while Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela all together would represent at least 45%.

"Network Associates' role in Latin America continues to evolve at a rapid pace," says Molina. "Businesses and individuals are becoming more aware of the fundamental nature of security solutions."

One example is the fast growth of McAfee.com, NAI's B2C application services provider (ASP). McAfee.com is currently involved in multimillion-dollar projects with telecommunications companies and ISPs across the region.

"They are taking advantage of the best technology that McAfee.com provides by transforming their sales concept into including valued-added services, and customers just love it," Molina says.

To protect business operations, Network Associates offers four integrated suites:

* Total Virus Defense, which provides protection at all points of entry. Info Exame, Brazil's leading computer publication, rated NAI's suite the best in virus detection, identifying 100% of infected programs.

* Total Network Security, which includes encryption, authentication, intrusion protection and firewall technologies. Recently, one of the most influential IT publications in the U.S. has cited NAI's Gauntlet 5.5 Adaptive! Proxy as the best firewall on 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. This is the worldwide leading help desk solution with the largest installed base of users on the Windows NT platform.

"Hackers are becoming more sophisticated, and any organization that wants to portray itself as a leader of B2B or B2C needs to show that it has effective security policies in place," says Molina. "Clearly, security is an essential element in the fourth industrial revolution. Many large, medium and small companies across the region who are using our technology one way or another are becoming convinced that perhaps having a robust and clear security policy/application in place means never having to say, 'I Love You.'"