Online security firm McAfee Inc. made two announcements in the wireless security arena with an acquisition and a partnership for over-the-air security.
McAfee, which has previously warned the threat of mobile viruses will increase, said it acquired Wireless Security Corp., a privately held company that offers Wi-Fi security solutions to protect home and small business wireless networks from unauthorized access. Under the terms of the agreement, McAfee has acquired all the outstanding stock of Wireless Security Corp., including all associated technologies and assets, but the purchase price was not disclosed.
“The world we live in has become increasingly wireless, yet most users do not have the proper security enabled and additional protection installed to secure their wireless networks. This acquisition builds on our existing security technology and enables us to further protect the growing wireless environment,” said George Samenuk, chairman and chief executive officer of McAfee.
McAfee plans to further develop Wireless Security Corp.’s technology with plans for a fall consumer product launch. Additionally, the company will integrate the technology into its small business Managed VirusScan solution to protect business users.
McAfee also partnered with Bitfone Corp. to deliver security protection for mobile phones over the air. Under the agreement, Bitfone will offer an embedded McAfee scanning engine as part of Bitfone’s device management solution, allowing mobile operators to detect, recover from and prevent security threats to mobile-phone software from viruses, worms, auto-dialers and spyware.
“Device integrity is a natural extension to our over-the-air device management portfolio, and we wanted to partner with the security leader, McAfee, to deliver the industry’s first active threat management solution to market,” commented Gene Wang, CEO of Bitfone.
Last year, Japanese wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc. announced a new phone series featuring anti-virus technology from McAfee.
