FOCUS 16 – Intel Security Unveils its Commitment with a New McAfee Logo

In vibrant Las Vegas, the vibes are pulsating. FOCUS 16 proves to be Intel Security’s most significant yet. It announces a plethora of defences and strategies leading us into the new digital economy. It also uses this stage to unveil its new brand logo, that of a rejuvenated, recoloured McAfee logo.

TPG Capital’s USD1.1 billion purchase of a 51% stake in Intel Security from Intel, announced recently, means that Intel Security will embark on its journey as a new independent company, hence the new logo. Intel will retain a 49% stake in Intel Security (in future, to be called McAfee) and Chris Young will continue to lead this new entity. The corporate name of Intel Security transitioning to McAfee is expected to be completed by April 2017.

During the first day of FOCUS 16, Young and his leadership team could not emphasise enough that no longer is our economy a physical one, but one of connected networks and systems where cybercriminals have put us on a defensive. This new “second economy” has put us in a world where more than money is at stake and where private and public sectors are fighting against time and working to justify trust. 

“Cybercriminals are forcing cybersecurity companies to redraft the rules of engagement for defending the civilized world, to effectively counteract them, to abandon old security playbooks to become more unpredictable and collaborative and make cyber defense a priority,” said Young. He adds, “Our strategic charter is simple, yet disruptive: integrate, automate and orchestrate the threat defense lifecycle to drive better security outcomes – ultimately reducing risk, be faster yet use fewer resources.”

Built upon the industry’s largest open ecosystem leveraging on intelligent integration, Intel Security announces a unified defense architecture which is to be enabled by four protection systems – Dynamic Endpoint, Pervasive Data Protection, Data Center and Cloud Defense, and Intelligent Security Operations.

Across this unified architecture, Intel Security announces ten new products that feature organically developed capabilities such as machine learning-based malware classification, cloud-based advanced threat detection service, and cloud access security broker, among others.

The highlight of today’s announcements must be that Intel Security will open its McAfee Data Exchange Layer (DXL) to the industry, henceforth termed “Open DXL”. This initiative will serve as a concrete means of disrupting cyberattackers’ advantage.

Through an open source strategy and the beta release of a new software development kit (SDK) for DXL, organisations and technology providers will gain the ability to attach to a shared real-time communication fabric and exchange security intelligence. This would well lead to the ability to orchestrate actions for the shortest possible execution of the threat defense lifecycle. This simple connection fabric provides a secure, real-time way to unite data and actions across multiple applications from different vendors as well as internally developed applications.

“Together is Power” slogan accompanies the new logo of McAfee. That in short, is the sound bite reverberating through McAfee’s belief that there is power in working together to deliver solutions across the entire threat defense lifecycle of our ecosystem.

(This journalist is a guest of Intel Security’s to FOCUS 2016, in Las Vegas)