McAfee & Threat Levels

[TEX4S]

I have a question I hope someone can answer for me. I always wonder things like this - what set the wheels in motion, all of the possible vairables at play to bring things to their current place.

It seems anytime there is talk about a large network intrusion for some big company (Google, Yahoo, Visa, BoA, etc) the article, regardless of its author, will have quotes from McAfee leaders. I was reading about Google & Operation Aurora. Someone from McAfee made the comment, "..we never ever have seen this level of sophisticated outside of the military" (quoted from memory)

My first thought was, why in the world is McAfee, arguable the worst damned product on the planet, always throwing in their 2 cents ? Who cares what McAfee thinks ? Those clowns' reputation for sucking is only upstaged by themselves !

I know there is a difference between a consumer-level (idiot consumer actually) product & corporate security - but anything McAfee does is garbage !

I wonder whose ass did they kiss to get themselves always quoted on articles of this nature ? Do they have dirty pictures of someone up high and blackmail em ?

One would think a different company would be the "go to" company for comments on the overall well-being of all things secure...

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

If the news article references only one anti-malware company or features quotes prominently from them, than that is the one which likely pitched the story to them. Or, the reporter may be working on a story and reach out to the anti-malware company (or their PR firm or department) to ask for commentary. At least that's how it worked when I was at McAfee Associates, and now at one of their competitors. One anti-malware company that I know of (no, not McAfee Associates or my currently employer) has weekly "threat" meetings where they decide which threats they are going to pitch to reporters.

Making sure the company gets continuously/prominently mentioned in news articles helps marketing activities, such as branding efforts. Basically, because it's not an advertisement, it has greater "impact" then a print ad, which is why anti-malware companies invest in expenses like PR firms.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky