Free AntiVirus from Computer Associate

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Computer Associates International plans to give away security software to consumers to stop them from spreading computer viruses--but the deal could undermine the strength of its competitors.
The deal, announced Tuesday, allows each consumer to download for free CA's eTrust EZ Armor software, which includes virus protection and a personal firewall. Customers of the security software company also can receive a free year of updates to fend off the latest threats.

CA decided to take the step because home users with vulnerable computers help a virus epidemic grow, which then affects corporations, said Ian Hameroff, senior security strategist for CA.




"Our focus is and remains to be at the enterprise," he said. "The risks today are not necessarily in the enterprise, but they are ending up affecting the enterprise."

Hameroff said the deal wasn't about weakening its competitors in an industry in which the company has traditionally not competed.

"Our main focus was not to erode the market share of our competitors," he said. "If that is a side effect, then that is a side effect."

However, antivirus software giant Symantec's stock price shed more than 7 percent on the news, finishing the day at $61.68, while No. 2 antivirus software maker Network Associates ended down more than 5 percent at $13.29.

At least one security industry analyst believed the drop in the two companies' stock was an overreaction to the news. CA has about 6 percent of the worldwide antivirus market, but has less than 1 percent of the consumer market for the software, said Donovan Gow, vice president of equity research for market analysis firm American Technology Research.

"Computer Associates has long been a player in the antivirus space but has never managed to gain much traction," he wrote in a research note about the declines in stock prices.

Microsoft, which has teamed up with CA to direct consumers to the new offer, recently announced that it created a $5 million fund to reward people that provide the FBI with information leading to the arrest of those who released certain viruses. The first two bounties already have been announced: $250,000 each for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the groups responsible for releasing the Sobig.f virus and the MSBlast worm.

CA looks at its free software offer as a carrot of a different sort--this one aimed at consumers with insecure PCs.

"The percentage of home computer users that don't update their antivirus software is very large," Hameroff said.

The 18MB eTrust EZ Armor software package is available on CA's Web site.

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Source : http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5108904.html

Download Link from AntiVirus: http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/

Have fun getting a good Anti-Virus from Computer Associate pay by Microsoft!!

Personally, i think it is a great idea. one reason why a lo of friends of mine put off buying AV software was cuz they thought it was too expensive. what they need to do now is advertise advertise advertise! the more attention they get, the better chance people are going to download it and protect their PC's. IMHO, the reason why many other free AV programs didn't make it is because they cause a bit of a stir in the security world when thy were released, but died out before they made it to the mainstream. we'll just have to wait and see :)...



slick

as some one who uses the AV part of the EZArmor (have used it since the free version called InoculateIT) I can fully recommend Computer Associates software - at least the AV part of it. As long as MS don't get their hands on the code or have a part to play in CA product development I'm quite happy to recommend them above Norton, Symantec and the other big names. I don't know what the firewall part is like but if it is anything like the AV - it's likely to be good.

Z

Well its a good start except that as soon as that one year of free updates goes by then people might not pay for another year.

PeacE
-BoB

Yep, just like InnoculateIT..............as soon as a year was up they pulled the update support:(

The idea isn't new either H+BEDV Datentechnik have been providing a free home version of their product for years. They even cited the same reasons.:)

Cheers

actually Nihil I used InoculateIT for 2 years before they pulled the plug... however having said that... if people aren't going to pay for another year then it's likely they wouldn't have purchased an AV prog in the first place. At least this way they are given some kind of sweetner... and possibly some reason to keep up a subscription.

Just like a crack dealer :D - get the first free and pay for the rest

Z

Yeah, come to think of it it did run a bit longer, I probably had it for 18 months, and it is a good product.

I think that it is hearts and minds? you have to persuade people to use it, after all AVG has been free for some years, as has AntiVir.

Part of the problem I lay at the door of the "package box" providers............(Dell, HP and so on). OK the kit comes with AV but it expires after 3 or 6 months, and people don't want to pay to renew it................it was probably not set up properly in the first place (scan all files, heuristics on, autoupdate on, and so on).

I think it would help if the package suppliers bought into the project as well?


Cheers

yep can't argue with that - package suppliers should be encouraged to 'buy in' to the project as well - having said that to take an example of a friend of mine... new computer purchased 6 months ago... first 3 months with Symantec AV on there... I told him 6 times that he should either renew the AV after it expired or get AVG (cos it's free and it's not bad)... I get a phone call from him a few weeks ago... he's infected with blaster AND sobig AND half a dozen minor trojans.... what happened to his AV renewal.... couldn't be effing bothered could he! I slapped him SOOoo bad - it's like you say hearts and minds (and by the balls too if I had my way :D)

Z

I used to run InnoculateIT for quite a while before the pulled the plug myself. Wasn't a bad little program either. I remember them saying that they were only going to stop distributing it and were still going to provide updates for it, but if I recall correctly they pulled the plug soon after that.

I remember when PGP did this in 1991... released their software for free based only on the belief that everyone should have access to good encryption. They saved the desktop encryption industry, and thanks to this marketing ploy, encryption is not illegal. That was a major turning point for the industry.

Perhaps doing this with AV will have the same effect. I am hoping it will become a norm that AV companies will release the home-user edition of their software for free, and make their money off marketing to large business. Hopefully this will also be amajor turning point for this industry.

Now if they only advertised it...

The InnoculateIT freebie for home users concept has been around for a while. CA isn't the first, and isn't alone (as mentioned above).

I actually bought InnocuLAN from Cheyenne Software for an enterprise, prior to it being bought up by CA. I have long, painful experience with CA when it comes to enterprise and mid-/main-frame licensing.

Everyone thinks Microsoft is the largest software company in the world. Not so. CA is.

Now -- Free for home, charge the corporations or enterprises for the software?

How commercially viable do you really think that is? CA can afford to do this because they have so little market share to begin with. They can only expect to gain something. In this market, a couple points would be huge.

Who would be paying for the behind-the-scenes research, support and response necessary to maintain a fully functional, responsive and effective AV product? The corporate, government enterprise-level users? So, in essence you are asking the corporations and government institutions to subsidize the AV on your desktop. That probably won't wash, largely because--pound for pound and across the board--individual users pose a much larger support burden to software publishers than enterprise level customers. I doubt very much that enterprise customers would feel compelled to pay the overhead for the benefit of the home user.

Yeah, socialized software.

a few days ago and am happy with it. It uses the VET engine and the firewall is ZoneAlarm Pro, although an older version 3.7.179 but not that old. I've heard and read good things about VET and none of the users have many complaints about it.

I posted about the freebie, though, on another forum and one guy downloaded it and promptly went to KAZAA to some files he new were virused. He posted a couple of hours later that EZArmor sucked, that it had let in W32.Sddrop with no warning at all. EZ did advise him AFTER the infected file was on his computer but said it couldn't clean it.

The W32.Sddrop is an over one year old worm. I wonder if the guy just didn't have EZ configured right.

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I wonder if the guy just didn't have EZ configured right.

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mmm.. I wonder if he had the real time protection on?

Incidentally even if he did have EZ configured correctly, this type of behaviour would not be confined to EZAV - half the network at work became infected with a worm (don't recall which one - travels over network via SMB and only affects Win95/98 machines, not a terribly destructive payload, systems should have been patched ages ago but weren't) about 4 months ago. Again it was only AFTER a machine became infected that McAfee and Norton actually tried to do anything (essentially to say 'hey there's a virus on your system').

Personally I've never had a problem with EZ AV as a standalone product - it's been used on my home system in conjuction with ZAPro, Outpost, Sygate or WinRoute at one time or another.

I've also d/l the freebie - bit disappointed to see the firewall is an older version of ZAPro though (current version is something like 4.5) so probably shan't use EZArmor as a whole but will continue to use the AV portion

Z

don't particularly like the GUI, but will stick with it for a while. Even though it's several versions out of date, it passed all the tests at the various sites I tried such as pcflanks, sygate, auditmypc, and three others. I spent a whole morning fooling around with it.

My usual firewall is LooknStop. I haven't looked at the new ZA Pro but have been wondering if it would be possible to download it and somehow work it into this EZ offering since virtually everything in there, including registry, is ZA. I suppose they've got some proprietary something in there to block that.

I like the EZ av and the license is good until Feb 2005, so will probably stick with it. I'm not sure what happens to the av and firewall after that. I know you just won't be able to get more updates for the av, but not sure about the firewall. If it's just a case of not being to upgrade the firewall, I can live with that. Many of the guys over at Wilders.org run this or the next version of ZA and they're perfectly happy.

This deserve a bump.

CA still give it away.

The offer sounds pretty darn good, but my loyalty definately still remains with Symantec. I use Norton Antivirus at home, while we have Inoculate here at work. As those of you who've read my zillions of recent post recently know, I've had a lot of headaches with Inoculate, but never any issue whatsoever with Norton. Also, you have to dish out additional $$$ for phone support if you go with CA. I dunno though, CA's still some pretty good stuff, especially for free.

On the other hand, I'm a huge ZoneAlarm fan. I have basic ZA running at home and on a network I work on for community service work, and it has performed superbly. Does this ZA Pro package come with any support or the ability to update?

AngelicKnight, I tried upgrading to the current ZAP and no luck. I guess it's wait for EZ to upgrade and then try. The EZarmor suite is fully updateable so if EZ ever moves to the latest ZA, it should work. The v3.7.x isn't that old, and it works, so I can live with it.