MARCH 2005

Welcome to the Rockbridge Global Village, Inc. Newsletter. We have selectively found information and articles that may be of interest to our customers.  We hope that you find information and topics within this newsletter interesting and useful.

Topics in this newsletter:

House Continues Anti-Spyware Push
McAfee Enhances Anti-Virus Protection for SMBs
A Higher Google Standard?
Sony, Apple Seek Fame With a Little Flash
Ebay Launches International 'Village'

McAfee Enhances Anti-Virus Protection for SMBs
March 8, 2005  By Tim Gray

The battle for the rights to protect small businesses from computer viruses continued to heat up this week, as McAfee (Quote, Chart) released an enhanced version of its Managed VirusScan.

The Web-based solution is geared toward small businesses that may lack the expertise and personnel to implement and manage an anti-virus solution for their desktops and servers, the company said.

"The No. 1 priority of small business is protection," Lillian Wai, senior marketing product manager with McAfee, said. "McAfee provides a solution that automates as much as possible so end-users don't have to worry about it."

Wai said Managed VirusScan provides "transparent protection" against malicious threats like viruses, worms and Trojans, as well as unwanted programs, such as spyware and adware applications.

Although it is the first time the product has been upgraded since 2003 (it was developed in 2000 as VirusScan ASaP), the Santa-Clara-based vendor's play could be as much strategic maneuvering to remain a prime contender in the anti-virus game as a technology push.

As previously reported by internetnews.com, the competitive pressure for anti-virus vendors to keep pace in a growing field magnified last month when Microsoft (Quote, Chart) agreed to buy New York-based Sybari Software.

The acquisition was seen at the time as a positive step in helping enterprises protect their networks at the server level, especially among collaboration server systems. However, it also put pressure squarely on anti-virus vendors, such as Symantec (Quote, Chart) and McAfee, whose AV products are already in wide use across enterprise networks.

Later that week Bill Gates reaffirmed Redmond's commitment to security and promised a new version of Internet Explorer with enhanced security options. He even suggested the company could provide anti-spyware protection from the recently acquired Giant Software Company to Windows licensees at no extra cost.

"We understand Symantec and Microsoft are part of the competitive landscapes," Wai said. "And certainly McAfee is on the lookout for new threats, but we are comfortable with our technological lead."

That technology also includes the recent enhancements to VirusScan as part of the McAfee Managed Services portfolio, which has been integrated into the functionality of its previous brand, according to McAfee.

The company has also re-established its Partner Security Service to include Web-based administration and reporting, spyware detection and rapid-response technical support through McAfee's Avert division, said Wai.

The new solution provides a flexible contract under which to work and offers expanded upselling opportunities, Wai said.

According to AMI Partners, a New York-based firm that specializes in SMB markets, more than two-thirds of North American small to medium sized businesses don't have a full-time dedicated resource to manage security, which reduces their ability to identify and react to security incidents.

Among the other upgrades to VirusScan include proactive blocking of exploits and attacks without requiring an update, as well as an outbreak response that provides anti-virus updates to the client within one hour of an update being posted for a medium- or higher-rated outbreak targeting specific software vulnerabilities, the company said.

Sony, Apple Seek Fame With a Little Flash
March 9, 2005  By Michael Singer

Once a business storage tool, Flash drives are becoming the profit-maker of choice for digital music player manufacturers like Sony (Quote, Chart) and Apple (Quote, Chart). And they have the enterprise reeling over their storage ability.

One only has to look as far as the latest generations of the Walkman and iPod shuffle to see the phenomenon in action. Both devices are smaller and lighter than a pack of gum and hold as much as 1GB of music and/or data.

Sony's latest line of digital music players includes a song display and has approximately 70 hours of battery power. The entry-level Walkman comes with 256MB of Flash memory (define) and retails for about $130. The high-end version supports 1GB of storage and sells for more than $300.

Apple released the iPod shuffle, its Flash drive music player, in January. The device comes in two versions: a 512MB model that holds up to 120 songs for $99 and its 1GB cousin that costs $149. The devices come without a screen but are compatible with either Windows or Mac computers.

USB Flash drives are touted by manufacturers as being easy-to-use, as they are small enough to be carried in a pocket and can plug into any computer with a USB drive. They have less storage capacity than an external hard drive, but they are smaller and more durable because they do not contain any internal moving parts.

Market research firm Web-Feet Research forecasts that the worldwide market for USB Flash drives will reach $4.5 billion in 2006 and $5.5 billion in 2007.

The company that revolutionized the way consumers carry their music has been looking for ways to upset Apple's iPod cart. Apple holds about 60 percent of the portable music player market, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The company says a revitalized Walkman could catapult the Japanese company into a strong second place in front of similar Flash drive music players from SanDisk, Philips or Samsung.

"The digital player market is still in its early stages," Gregory Kukolj, a general manager for Sony told Reuters. "In the European Union alone the personal audio market is 20 to 22 million devices a year. More than 10 million of those are CD portable players ... there is a huge opportunity."

And even though these bulked-up USB Flash drives are being touted as music players, Enderle Group founder and industry analyst Rob Enderle noted that there is a fear of them in the enterprise.

"Companies are scared to death that employees are downloading files into their iPods and taking them home," Enderle said. "It's enough of a security risk that some government accounts are turning their USB ports off. They want to get rid of their pin-attached PS/2 keyboards, but they can't because of security concerns with iPods and other USB-attached storage.

"There are settings in the operating system that you can make to make it difficult to download files from a USB device, but it's not completely effective."

Ebay Launches International 'Village'
March 9, 2005  By Tim Gray

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