McAfee, Wind River Team To Build Security Protection For Embedded, Mobile Devices

SAN FRANCISCO -- RSA Conference 2011 -- McAfee and Wind River, both Intel companies, here yesterday unveiled plans to combine McAfee's security software with Wind River's software for mobile and embedded devices, including point-of-sale, ATM, medical, IP cameras, and industrial control systems.

The first products from the development initiative are planned for the second half of the year, initially with McAfee's ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) security management agent added to Wind River's software. "We'll do reporting and compliance and whitelisting," said Dave DeWalt, president and CEO of McAfee. Network access control, DLP, and host intrusion prevention also will be integrated into Wind River's software over time, he said.

Ken Klein, president of Wind River, which was acquired by Intel in 2009, says the booming number of connected devices need to be secured. "This is purpose-driven protection for all layers of the stack" that specifically addresses the power and performance constraints under which these devices must operate, he said. The companies will integrate their sales, support, and joint marketing efforts for the new product line.

McAfee estimates some 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020, with much of that growth fueled by consumer devices and other non-PC devices getting IP connectivity.

"This [relationship with Wind River] opens up a new world for [McAfee] as a company," DeWalt said.

The companies will integrate McAfee's whitelisting technology atop Wind River's Linux platform, as well, and later add a hypervisor solution for its VxWorks and Android platforms. "Hopefully, security will become a differentiator for these OEMs," Klein said.

McAfee also announced it has OEM relationships with several device manufacturers for building in security: NCR for its ATMs, NEC Infrontia for its PoS systems, Sharp for its printers and PoS systems, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories for its energy substation servers, Meridian for its kiosks, Clearwave for its medical kiosks, PFU for its graphic order terminals, and Sysmex for its medical devices.

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