McAfee Challenges Students

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- McAfee Inc. (NYSE: MFE) and the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) today announced its third annual computer security competition titled, "Build and Defend Your Digital Fortress."

The event, which will take place Thursday, March 15 and Friday, March 16, was designed by McAfee(R) engineers and RIT networking, security and systems administration professors to expose RIT computing students to real-world types of computer security threats.

Security and system administrators at any given corporation thwart computer breaches and security threats on a daily basis. They are the ones responsible for building and defending corporations' computer networks and systems against both internal and external attacks. An infiltration by a computer hacker can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost time and information.

According to data from McAfee Avert Labs, there are more than 232,000 known threats and thousands more that are yet to be identified. McAfee researchers discover on average approximately 100-200 new variants of threats daily.Given current trends, McAfee expects the 300,000th threat to be identified by the end of 2007, demonstrating the ongoing growth potential of malicious code threats.

"Today's network, system and security administrators are faced with many challenges ranging from limited resources to unreasonable business demands to determined attackers," says Daryl Johnson, professor of networking, security and systems administration at RIT. "A company's information infrastructure is limited by its budgeted resources and the vulnerability of providing services on the Internet. Those challenges are significant but can pale in comparison to the stress of fending off resolute attackers. This competition is designed to include as many of the choices and challenges that a network, system or security administrator might face in defending their corporate information infrastructure."

McAfee Inc. (NYSE: MFE)