Trend Micro Helps Extend Life of IT Systems

Dubai, United Arab Emirates - Trend Micro is helping enterprises extend the life of out-of-support systems so they can migrate off Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server and Windows XP Service Pack 2 at their own speed. Although systems with older operating systems may be no longer supported, many enterprises have not yet been able to upgrade to newer versions and are, as a result, unfortunately increasing the attack surface of their organizations.
While Microsoft announced that after July 13, 2010 it will no longer provide support, issue bug fixes, patch releases, or provide workarounds for its Windows 2000 and XP SP2 family of operating systems, many enterprises have not yet been able to upgrade to newer versions leaving them susceptible to new malware and other cybercriminal exploits that target these operating systems. Trend Micro™ Deep Security, the company's flagship solution for virtual patching, and Trend Micro™ OfficeScan™ products with Intrusion Defense Firewall can help protect organizations still using outdated Windows 2000 and XP SP2 against vulnerabilities until they can move to newer platforms.
Migration to a newer operating system version on deadline is simply too difficult, and organizations need an immediate, cost-effective stop-gap 'virtual patching' solution to maintain their security posture. With support for Windows 2000 and XP SP2 ending July 2010, Trend Micro's virtual patching solutions will help enterprises ensure a level of protection for these and other unsupported systems," said Harish Agastya, director of product marketing, Datacenter Security, Trend Micro.
Trend Micro's virtual patching technologies, found in Deep Security, and OfficeScan with Intrusion Defense Firewall, can protect vulnerabilities in critical systems. They permit customers to deploy patches on a more scheduled basis, thereby reducing system exposure and frustration associated with patch management.
Trend Micro Deep Security with virtual patching helps reduce system exposure for servers and endpoints running Windows 2000 and XP SP2 through:
Intrusion Detection and Prevention
Enterprise-grade, bidirectional, and stateful firewall
Recommendation scanning
Security updates from a dedicated team of security experts
Protection across physical virtualized and cloud deployments
Trend Micro OfficeScan with Intrusion Defense Firewall protects Windows 2000 and XP

McAfee Signs OEM Deal to Secure USB Devices

McAfee announced that it has signed deals with a number of USB manufacturers to ship McAfee security software on their devices in an effort to block malware from spreading via USB drives.
The antivirus giant has signed OEM partnerships with companies like Kingston Digital Inc, MXI, Rocky Mountain Ram, SanDisk, SPYRUS, Hagiwara, and Yoggie Security Systems, which have secure USB devices in their portfolio. The deals involve McAfee preloading an anti-virus solution onto the devices.
According to McAfee, when a secure USB drive running its anti-malware software gets plugged into a PC, the built-in software will automatically scan the PC for malware. If any threat is found, the software will block any file transfers to the USB device.
McAfee said it now has deals with two-thirds of the world's secured USB manufacturers -- Hagiwara, Kingston Digital Inc, MXI Security, Rocky Mountain Ram, SanDisk, SPYRUS and Yoggie Security Systems -- to install the malware scanning and blocking software on their secure USB devices. Presumably, those manufacturers will also ensure that their own USB devices start off malware-free, unlike promotional malware-infected USB drives shipped by IBM to security conference-goers earlier this year.
Some of McAfee's secure USB relationships predate this announcement, and also hint at all of the levels of security required to actually secure USB drives, both in terms of keeping unwanted malware out and sensitive information in.
For example, MXI Security said that since 2008, it has been using McAfee's encrypted hard disk and biometric software on its secure USB keys. Currently, it said, its drives also work with McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator, a centralized security management console that allows IT managers to set, enforce and monitor security policies for USB devices, including banning unauthorized devices.

AVG joins Opera on stage

The first beta of Opera 10.60 was released only two weeks ago, and it graduates to a wide release and sheds its beta tag. Opera 10.60 for Windows, Mac, and Linux incorporates security enhancements provided by popular freeware antivirus vendor AVG, improves performance, adds further HTML5 compatibility, and makes a noticeable tweak to the browser interface. New security feature indicates that while Chrome and Firefox are looking to further isolate plug-ins and add-ons, Opera address the immediate threat from malware-infected sites. Opera now comes with AVG's real-time Web threat data feed built in. It means when you encounter a page that's been detected by the AVG network to be malicious, you'll see the warning instead.

New feature uses multiple techniques to protect users. It uses exploit signatures to detect sites serving drive-by downloads, the AVG Online Shield and contextual analysis to detect social engineering scam-driven viruses, and reputation lists for safeguarding against malicious URLs. 

Version 10.60 is compatible with several nascent HTML5 features, including the next-generation video and audio codec WebM, geolocation compatibility, Web Workers, and App Cache. This update places Opera at or very close to parity with beta and development versions of Chrome and Firefox. Opera has also created an HTML5-geolocation-powered map showing real-time downloads and active users of Opera. The Windows changelog, Mac changelog, and Linux changelog are available at the Opera Web site.