McAfee Starts Beta Test Of Security Services

McAfee on Friday unveiled betas of two of the four consumer security subscription services it plans to launch this year, making the Santa Clara, Calif. company the first to answer Microsoft's Windows Live OneCare.

The betas of the services in the "Falcon" platform -- McAfee Total Protection and McAfee VirusScan Plus -- work only on Windows XP-powered PCs, but the final versions will include support for other Microsoft operating systems, McAfee said. Both can be downloaded free-of-charge from the McAfee site.

McAfee Total Protection includes anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-spam components, a firewall, wireless network security tools, identity protection features, and automated backup. Beta testers of this suite will also have the option of participating in a test of an online backup service McAfee intends to roll out along with Falcon.

VirusScan Plus, meanwhile, deals out anti-virus and anti-spyware modules, and a firewall.

Prices of the services and final availability are still unknown. McAfee has only said that the Falcon services -- which will also include Internet Security Suite and Protection Plus -- will debut before the end of the year.Microsoft beat long-time partners McAfee and Cupertino, Calif.-based Symantec to market when it launched Windows Live OneCare at the end of May. Symantec has named its competing service Norton 360, but won't begin beta testing until next month.