Business-focused firm takes first step into home-user arena.
Sophos
has announced the release of a home-user edition of its
Mac
anti-malware solution, which is being given away free to anyone who wants to use it.
Unprotected users of
Apple
‘s
Macintosh
range of computers (reckoned by many to constitute the majority of users at the moment), look set to decline in number as
Sophos
adds its weight to the selection of solutions currently available, many of which are provided by
Mac
specialists. Most of the major security vendors produce paid-for
Mac
products, which mainly target business users. Home users have a few free
Mac
security products to choose from already, notably
PC Tools
‘
iAntiVirus
and several solutions based on the open-source
ClamAV
detection technology.
The release of the
Sophos
product marks something of a departure for the firm, which until now has operated only in the corporate sphere, selling its products to businesses. In most cases, the employees of its corporate customers are permitted to use
Sophos
products at home, and there has been much speculation over the years that
Sophos
would one day follow the likes of
Avast
,
AVG
,
Avira
, and more recently
Microsoft
, in giving away its products to home users. While not exactly inexpensive to set up and maintain, such schemes have been shown to provide companies with excellent insight into the latest threats hitting users around the world, as well as improving brand visibility.
Mac
users can access the free product
here
, with a company blog entry on the release
here
and an open forum for support issues and other questions
here
. More comment on the release and its implications can be found in
TheRegister
here
.
Posted on 02 November 2010 by
Virus Bulletin
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