Posted by Virus Bulletin on Nov 2, 2010
Business-focused firm takes first step into home-user arena.
Sophos has announced the release of a home-user edition of its Mac anti-malware solution, which is being given away free to anyone who wants to use it.
Unprotected users of Apple's Macintosh range of computers (reckoned by many to constitute the majority of users at the moment), look set to decline in number as Sophos adds its weight to the selection of solutions currently available, many of which are provided by Mac specialists. Most of the major security vendors produce paid-for Mac products, which mainly target business users. Home users have a few free Mac security products to choose from already, notably PC Tools' iAntiVirus and several solutions based on the open-source ClamAV detection technology.
The release of the Sophos product marks something of a departure for the firm, which until now has operated only in the corporate sphere, selling its products to businesses. In most cases, the employees of its corporate customers are permitted to use Sophos products at home, and there has been much speculation over the years that Sophos would one day follow the likes of Avast, AVG, Avira, and more recently Microsoft, in giving away its products to home users. While not exactly inexpensive to set up and maintain, such schemes have been shown to provide companies with excellent insight into the latest threats hitting users around the world, as well as improving brand visibility.
Mac users can access the free product here, with a company blog entry on the release here and an open forum for support issues and other questions here. More comment on the release and its implications can be found in TheRegister here.
Posted on 02 November 2010 by Virus Bulletin
