McAfee and Wind River Announce Strategic Agreement for Security Protection beyond the PC

RSA Conference:

McAfee, Inc. (NYSE:MFE) and Wind River today announced a strategic agreement to develop, market and support security solutions for non-PC devices, specifically embedded and mobile devices. Together McAfee and Wind River will create comprehensive, purpose-built security solutions specifically designed for these increasingly connected devices or networks of devices.

The number of connected devices is increasing exponentially and is expected to grow to 50 billion by 2020, according to internal McAfee estimates. The lion’s share of this growth is expected to come from traditional embedded and mobile device market segments such as industrial control, energy management, automotive, national infrastructure, defense, networking and smartphones as well as emerging segments including smart grid, connected home health care, home gateways and tablets. Historically, devices in the embedded market segment were discrete or had limited connectivity. However, today there is a big push to connect these devices to the enterprise and public networks.

This tsunami of connectivity is creating a huge increase in security vulnerabilities. A security breach of an embedded device (e.g., nuclear reactor controls, utility grid, defense communication system) could have serious implications. In addition, embedded devices are now targets of organized crime and nation states as evidenced by the recent Stuxnet attack.

Since embedded devices have technology requirements that differ from traditional IT equipment, namely limited power, memory and performance constraints, traditional security solutions are insufficient. Together McAfee and Wind River will offer purpose-built security and management solutions for this unique and explosive growing market segment.

“Embedded devices are everywhere, allowing us to communicate and improve aspects of our daily lives,” said Dave DeWalt, president and CEO, McAfee. “These instrumental pieces of our lives also pose a great risk and securing them is imperative. The teaming of McAfee and Wind River will allow us to implement security measures to protect these critical devices and keep people more safe and secure.”

“Our customers across nearly all market segments have elevated embedded security to a top priority,” said Ken Klein, president, Wind River. “Together with McAfee, we will deliver the most comprehensive security solutions in the embedded industry, with security solutions designed to protect all layers of the software stack. This will address our customers’ concerns and protect their embedded devices as they are increasingly used on public and private networks.”

McAfee and Wind River will offer protection and management capabilities to this exploding market of connected devices everywhere, with initial integrations between Wind River Linux and McAfee security solutions, followed by additional integrations with other Wind River operating systems and embedded virtualization technologies. A phased rollout of security solutions will be delivered in 2011. Additionally, Wind River will include McAfee security offerings in its future products to make it even easier for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to build secure devices.

About McAfee, Inc.

McAfee, Inc., headquartered in Santa Clara, California, is the world's largest dedicated security technology company. McAfee delivers proactive and proven solutions and services that help secure systems, networks, and mobile devices around the world, allowing users to safely connect to the Internet, browse and shop the Web more securely. Backed by unrivaled McAfee Global Threat Intelligence, McAfee creates innovative products that empower home users, businesses, the public sector and service providers by enabling them to prove compliance with regulations, protect data, prevent disruptions, identify vulnerabilities, and continuously monitor and improve their security. McAfee secures your digital world. http://www.mcafee.com.

About Wind River

Wind River, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), is a world leader in embedded and mobile software. Wind River has been pioneering computing inside embedded devices since 1981, and its technology is found in more than 1 billion products. Wind River is headquartered in Alameda, Calif., with offices in more than 15 countries. To learn more, visit Wind River at www.windriver.com or blogs.windriver.com.

NOTE: McAfee is a registered trademark or trademark of McAfee, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Other marks may be claimed as the property of others.

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