McAfee is adding regulatory compliance safeguards and a new remote management appliance to its Foundstone line of products, officials said Monday.
Foundstone is the company’s IT management and vulnerability assessment arm, a subsidiary extension to its antivirus, encryption and other security software offerings. McAfee bought the company in August 2004 for $86 million.
Foundstone Enterprise 4.2, which features five regulatory compliance
templates, will help IT shops manage the business risks involved with security vulnerabilities.
In February, officials commissioned a survey, which found 52 percent of corporate IT managers weren’t aware of their responsibilities when it came to regulatory compliance in the security department. These results and customer requests led McAfee to release the templates.
They help customers recognize weak links in the network that would raise a red flag during a compliance audit. If a weakness is discovered, the software will describe what’s non-compliant and provide resolution information.
While the templates used in Foundstone won’t certify the company’s network as complying with government regulations, it will eliminate most of the preparatory leg work involved, said Patrick Bedwell, McAfee senior product marketing manager.
“What we’re doing is enabling them to understand where they need to address their efforts so they can get certified by the consulting team or professional service team retained to certify them for the regulations,” he said.
The five regulatory templates cover Sarbanes-Oxley, the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), ISO 17799/BS, Payment Card Industry (PCI) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
McAfee also announced the FS 850, a remote management appliance in its hardware line.
The new hardware is aimed at IT managers who need to manage vulnerabilities on remote locations but don’t necessarily have the manpower to send an experienced IT staffer to set it up.
Instead, even people without advanced networking skills at the remote location can set up the appliance using what officials describe as a simple three-step process.
“We’ve eliminated the need for sending someone with IT knowledge to go and sit in front of a console locally,” Bedwell said.
The templates will be available as a free update, Foundstone Enterprise 4.2, for customers Nov. 7; the FS 850 will ship the same day.
