back to article McAfee all-in-one security suite covers PCs, tablets, and smartphones

McAfee has launched an all-in-one cross-platform security suite for consumers that incorporates online storage through biometric authentication as well as a host of other security technologies. Equally importantly, the Intel security division is trying to shake up the way security software is sold to consumers. The McAfee …

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  1. Fihart

    NO change, then.

    ........."LiveSafe will come preinstalled on Ultrabook devices and PCs from Dell starting on June 9. By contrast, a 12-month subscription for consumers' existing PCs and tablets will cost £79.99.......

    ......"All this is a big change from offering security software to consumers as part of a 30- or 90-day trial package"......................

    No it isn't. They're still paying to add their stuff onto new machines which then have to be de-cluttered to perform properly. This idea that hardware mfrs can rent out space on our computers before we buy them damages our perception of the hardware and software brands.

    I'm sure many people avoid McAfee or Norton products on principal because they have so annoyed them this way in the past.

  2. as2003

    Q: What do you call a piece of software that uses duplicitous techniques to install itself on your computer, often piggybacking on the installers and updates of completely unrelated software. After which it slows your computer and then later, tries to scare you into sending them money?

    A: McAfee

  3. Paul Crawford Silver badge
    Black Helicopters

    How safe?

    There are two issues that trouble me, beyond the usual McAfee crapware-trialware-scamware aspect:

    1) Are you really asking users to put all of their most important data in the hands of a USA company? Now it appears to be properly encrypted when 'at rest' but how sure are we this scheme has no designed-in backdoor?

    2) Even if the back-end storage is secure, what happens if the user accesses it on a machine already infected with a root-kit? I am presuming in this case it is compromised, unless somehow Intel's encryption hardware is able to bypass the OS to bring your data to the screen, etc.

    And if that is the case, it is also deeply worrying as you (as in administrator of your OS of choice) are no longer really in charge of the computer.

    1. Paul Crawford Silver badge

      Looking over the article again, it says both cross platform and "is delivered through Intel Identity Protection Technology".

      So will it only work on special Intel hardware, thus seriously limiting its usefulness on the phone/tablet front, or is this talk of special Intel hardware an aside to basically a software solution, in which case how can it be any more secure than other more open systems?

    2. Robert Ramsay
      Devil

      Re: How safe?

      I wouldn't trust them to manage a digital whelk stall.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Dear McAfee..

    You really are having a giraffe aren't you...

    Bloated, nag/crapware and now you want me to install you on all my other devices??

    You seem to grasp the point that, like myself, a lot of us actively go out of our way to REMOVE your dog-eggs from our desktops et-al....

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ...'allows online users to store their most sensitive documents'...

    Mmmh, can't see anything going wrong with this whatsoever! Surely using your own proprietary method of keeping this data would be best? i.e. Offline and redundantly backed-up... When this type of data becomes centralized it gets a nice big fat target painted on its back by hackers. Companies have been slow to admit breaches long after the fact too. Some memorable comments from the recent Reg article:

    "PayPal security boss: OBLITERATE passwords from THE PLANET" :---

    #1. Biometrics have been proven time and time again by some very well respected boffins to be unreliable in the everyday world in every sense of the word. Mostly by locking the authorized user out of their own stuff.

    #2. I'm guessing this guy has never seen an episode of Red Dwarf or the film Demolition Man...

    #3. I strongly suspect that the FIDO stack will allow you to be tracked amongst all these different sites, even if you're not Facebook or the Govt.

    #4.You can change a password, you cannot change your fingerprint, so what happens if the data used to recognise your fingerprint leaks?

    #5. Biometric is ... a braindead idea from the start. It does work in pass controls, credit cards in stores and all the other places where there is a physical person that checks you are not pulling out a fake finger.

    #6. Problem of Compromise: If an authentication factor such as a pass-phrase becomes stolen or otherwise compromised, one need simply change it. If a biometric authentication factor becomes compromised, say somebody captures your fingerprint, then you screwed.

    #7. Anything that connects to the Internet (or any other network) to verify identity is subject to the network route (including the USB host) being compromised. (Note the recent security certificate hacks!)

    #8. Surely authentication needs to include identity + secret. Biometrics start being used to protect big amounts of money and you can bet a whole heap of ingenuity will be focused on forging/fooling biometric scanning devices.The more flexible biometrics are made to cope with natural variations due to age, environment, injury and disease, the easier it'll become to fool the reading devices.

    #9. As soon as someone finds a way of lifting your fingerprints off the glass you drank your last pint from, and sorts out a method for creating a facsimile/feeding the correct hash from that into an authentication system, it will be busted wide open. And if there is a single hashing method, that will not take very long. Sounds soooooo secure to me!

    #10. Paypal gets its wish, and we all get a device to authenticate ourselves. Great - so if that device is stolen, whoever has it can masquerade as us. So we need a way to authenticate that is really is the device's proper owner using it. Hmm, I wonder what that would be. Something easy, that won't fail like a fingerprint scanner after you've been working on that engine block all Saturday. Something that doesn't require a bunch of extra, costly hardware. Something that works with existing hardware, like a keyboard. Something like, I don't know, maybe a string of characters known only to the user and the device. Brilliant! I just wonder what we should call it....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: ...'allows online users to store their most sensitive documents'...

      @AC: If you are going to quote me, cite it correctly:

      http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2013/05/10/paypal_password_obliterate/#c_1821280

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A one stop shop

    for the Feds/GCHQ/etc snoopers to go for all your 'stuff' that you need to keep secret.

    anyone that relies on this is IMHO just asking for trouble. Just how secure are their servers?

    Isn't offering a service like list like putting a big target on your back labelled 'Hack me'?

  7. nuked

    How much do I have to pay to keep this off my system?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Adverts

    I have never really understood these "adverts posted as news" stories. All this does is make me doubt other articles by this author as he is clearly just typing out a press release.

    Unless there has been a sudden overhaul of the product, this bloated pre-installed mess is the first thing that I take off any new computer purchased by my clients. And the difference of performance is noticeable. I just can't understand why a company would not notice the bloat they are selling.

    I did find the El'Reg article about John McAfee funny when he was saying about how embarrassed he is to see his name associated with this level of programming.

  9. Kingston Black
    Black Helicopters

    WTF?

    "Personal Locker – that allows online users to store their most sensitive documents, including financial records and copies of IDs and passports". Oh, that sounds like a really good idea then, with the added bonus that it's provided by paragon of software excellence McAfee... duh.

    I expect <insert TLA agency of choice> are currently getting all excited again, and can't wait to get their hands on all that lovely new, very personal, data. Is it just me or will those of us who don't fall for this cloudy bulls**t soon become noticeable by our absence? "Excuse me Sir, you seem to use the internet everyday but don't store information in the cloud, you must have something to hide. Bend over..."

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    But it is still McAfee....

    This means its a pile of shitty bloatware and will never be installed on my computers and will be uninstalled on any computer I work on. just like Norton crapware. It could be the best product in the world but there have been to many years of dealing with their shit.

  11. Benchops
    Coat

    Ooooohhhhh!

    I always thought McAfee was free on the Windows platform. Hence the name.

  12. Anonymous Coward 15
    Facepalm

    Ooh, I can safely store my credit card and passport scans on it!

    Erm, why would I want to store copies of any of that, at all? A copy of my passport won't get me through immigration. A copy of my credit card won't work in a shop.

    1. Buzzword

      Re: Ooh, I can safely store my credit card and passport scans on it!

      I did once use an online copy of my passport, displayed on my smartphone, as proof of ID to rent a car. I don't think it was standard procedure though :)

      (it was in my "sent mail" box, having recently been sent to a recruitment agent)

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    financial records and copies of IDs and passports

    all in the cloud. And they promise it's safe, honest, we employ the latest technology. Where do I sign to this fail-safe system, can't wait.

  14. Robinson
    Thumb Down

    Ah.

    Full Spectrum Bloatware.

  15. ItsNotMe
    FAIL

    "...a tamper-resistant hardware authentication mechanism,..."

    "tamper-RESISTANT"?...Oh THAT's reassuring.

  16. richard 7
    Joke

    Is this the same McAfee

    That nuked all their customers PCs.....TWICE?

    yeah, go for it, what could possibly go wrong, where do I sign up?

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