Comcast announced yesterday that its offering its broadband customers three McAfee computer security products—VirusScan, Personal FireWall Plus, and Privacy Service—for free. The products retail for about $115, but are commonly available bundled with other McAfee products for about $50. The McAfee products require Microsoft Windows XP Home, XP Pro, 2000 Pro, ME, or Windows 98 along with Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher. The McAfee security products are not available for Macintosh, Linux, other platforms.
Philadelphia-based Comcast is the largest cable broadband provider in the U.S. with an estimated 7.7 million broadband customers. According to Greg Butz,senior vice president of marketing and business development for Comcast Online, "We want our customers to have the best broadband Internet experience. Security is a critical component to that."
Critical may not be too strong a term. Broadband providers face an escalating battle with spammers, virus-writers, and internet scammers who seek to take advantage of the wide pipes and substantially processing power available on the systems of home broadband users—systems which often sit idle for portions of the day and often lack up-to-date security software more commonly found in corporate or organizational networks. These systems are ripe targets for worms and trojans which seek to take over the systems for insidious tasks like sending spam or spreading viruses, or for online scammers and identity thieves, who attack these systems seeking personal information or to install clandestine software which peppers users with unwanted advertisements or monitors every detail of their computer activity. In a way, broadband access to the home is one of the great enablers of the spam and virus world, putting millions of potentially vulnerable computers and consumers on the Internet 24 hours a day.
Comcast says the McAfee software is one component of the company’s Comcast.net Security Channel, which features tutorials and computer security information, and also includes the Comcast Toolbar which provides Windows-based Comcast customers easy access to Comcast’s customer features. Comcast says forthcoming version of the toolbar will include anti-phishing features to help protect customers from potential identity theft scams.
