Got 15 Minutes? Get Secure: McAfee

An hour a week is what the typical small and midsized business is able to devote to security, according to McAfee. The company's latest outreach aims to show you how 15 minutes can heighten your 24/7 security profile.Security company McAfee is addressing time and well as budget with its "15 Minutes To A Secure Business" campaign.

McAfee is pushing, on the product front, its Total Protection for Secure Business products, the campaign, which includes desktop and server protection, anti-virus and anti-malware, encryption, e-mail scans and url filters, encryption and compliance tools.

On the philosophical front, McAfee's appeal is to the harried and under-resourced business: in tough times everybody's got tightened belts, but even in tough times everybody can find 15 minutes a day. Naturally enough, McAfee feels that it's easier to get the most out that quarter hour with the company's products, but it's to McAfee's credit that it's making the calendar approach as much a part of its marketing as the product push. bMighty talked a few months ago with McAfee senior vp for midmarkets (and the security calendar's chief cheerleader) Darrell Rodenbaugh who made clear his commitment to sharing the security calendar with the universe of small and midsized businesses, not just the universe of existing McAfee customers.

Making regular tasks -- compliance review, content filtering checks, and so on -- routine, scheduled tasks on daily, weekly, monthly bases is, as we've said here before, a large step toward heightened security and, equally important, heightened security awareness within your company. (As long as routine regularly scheduled don't become synonymous with "taken for granted" that is.)

One tacky thing: on McAfee's "15 Minutes" Web page there's a button inviting you to "View the 15 Minutes to a Secure Business Calendar".

Click the registration button to get your look at it and you're taken to a fairly straightforward and not too intrusive registration page where, in addition to name, address and so on, you're asked the number of employees in your company. Check the drop-down for 1-5 employees and you get the following message:

The product you are evaluating is designed for corporate users. If your business has between 1 and 5 employees, please click here for a list of products designed to meet your needs.

and are taken to McAfee's small business products page.

Bad move on McAfee's part, I think. While the products they're pushing may not be appropriate for the smallest of businesses, the calendar -- which, admittedly, is easy enough to find -- is appropriate for everybody, not to mention to the rather "brush-off-y" language in the redirect.