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Intel Pulling the Plug On McAfee/MX Logic Anti-Spam (mcafee.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the it's-the-circle-of-life dept.

New submitter d4nimal writes: Intel today announced that it is killing the MX Logic/McAfee/Intel Security spam protection service (PDF). The last date of service is January, 2017. This comes on the heels of numerous outages and a general rise in user and admin dissatisfaction. Intel purchased the service as part of its McAfee acquisition in 2010. MX Logic was bought by McAfee less than a year earlier.

31 of 42 comments (clear)

  1. Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as... by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 3, Funny

    Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as a firearms company buying a blood substitute firm.

    When I first heard this years ago I wondered if Intel was trying to strangle Microsoft OS's from both ends: crappy processor performance combined with bloated AV software that used up any cycles not currently being used to apply the latest updates or ship the user data back to the mothership.

    1. Re:Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as... by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Informative

      Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as a firearms company buying a blood substitute firm.

      Oddly enough, I can see the direct link between firearms and the market for blood substitutes, what with the bleeding which follows shooting.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as... by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

      Um...yes. In case anyone else is whooshing, the parallel there is that you're probably less likely to acquire either good from a company that provides both that you are from companies that specialize in each.

    3. Re:Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That may be but MX Logic was a very solid company that produced a very good product.

      I was partnered with them since before they got bought out, met their staff, and felt totally comfortable relying on them.

      However, I can't say that I ever saw any innovation, or extra funding, as a result of the purchases by McAfee or Intel. Maybe it was all about sales leads rather than software.

      The reviews I've seen have been very hot or very cold which leads me to believe customers under some SKU's ran in to a lot more problems than customers under other SKU's. My experience was definitely the latter and I'm disappointed I have to find another provider to fill their shoes.

    4. Re:Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as... by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No whooshing ... the MBA wankers call it "leveraging synergies". Selling you both the problem and the cure is very lucrative, as it ensures you can "monetize the product lifecycle throughout its various phases while having complementary product offerings providing multiple revenue streams from the same user".

      Let's face it, probably more malware and spam has been passed through x86 machines than any other platform on the planet. Intel definitely had skin in the game.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    5. Re:Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I work for Intel. At the time that this purchase was announced, there was a huge push internally for chip security. This was not that long after Joanna Rutkowska at Invisible Things Labs had discovered yet another SMM security hole. This leads me to believe that the VP who pushed for this acquisition somehow thought that we'd be able to take advantage of McAffee's "software security" technology to somehow improve "hardware" security. Of course the VP who was involved was largely a moron (Rani Borkar), and fortunately got pushed out very recently so this move does not surprise me.

    6. Re:Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as... by daninaustin · · Score: 1

      Yeah, i used to use them years ago. It worked great until they started having capacity problems so we switched to Ironport.

    7. Re:Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as... by mridoni · · Score: 2

      Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as a firearms company buying a blood substitute firm.

      Well, actually it did make sense: installing a McAfee product instantaneously doubled your CPU requirements.

    8. Re:Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as... by edxwelch · · Score: 1

      Only two posts and this discussion has already been steered off topic. Well done!

    9. Re:Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as... by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      No whooshing ... the MBA wankers call it "leveraging synergies". Selling you both the problem and the cure is very lucrative, as it ensures you can "monetize the product lifecycle throughout its various phases while having complementary product offerings providing multiple revenue streams from the same user".

      Reminds me of the Firesign Theater line:
      "But, Gee, Dad - I still don't understand how you can be the Peoples Prosecutor and my defense lawyer at the same time..."
      "Easy, son. That way I can see that you are persecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    10. Re:Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as... by hairyfeet · · Score: 2

      "monetize the product lifecycle throughout its various phases while having complementary product offerings providing multiple revenue streams from the same user"....

      Now who can argue with that? I think we're all indebted to Gabby Johnson for clearly stating what needed to be said. I'm particulary glad that these lovely children were here today to hear that speech of authentic marketing gibberish!

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    11. Re:Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as... by Martin+Blank · · Score: 1

      As a customer of some of McAfee's network security products (from the Secure Computing Corporation purchase McAfee made a bit earlier), it was explained to us that Intel wanted to try to integrate some of the security technologies into the hardware. Think of it like crypto functions that are commonly integrated into CPUs these days, but adding in AV and firewalls. I had no idea how this was supposed to work since firewalls are a hell of a lot more complex than a crypto algorithm and I said as much, and the SCC engineers didn't say anything, but shrugged and looked at me in a way that suggested they agreed with me. Within a couple of years, most of them had found new jobs outside the company despite having been with SCC for many years and sticking through the McAfee purchase.

      --
      You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
    12. Re:Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as... by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

      "monetize the product lifecycle throughout its various phases while having complementary product offerings providing multiple revenue streams from the same user"

      Oh my god, I'm so hard right now. Speak marketing to me, baby!

      --
      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    13. Re:Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as... by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      Sure, I'll need your credit card details .. my consulting rates are $5000/hr, with a minimum billing of 5 hours.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    14. Re: Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as... by MikeTijerina · · Score: 1

      I randomly fall upon a Blazing Saddles quote! No f'n way! You, Sir, just made my day! "Fitsiscuttrr!" --Mike T.

    15. Re:Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as... by mvdwege · · Score: 2

      I used to work for a reseller before they got borged by McAfee. It sucked even then; the false positive rate was not any better than other solutions, and admin tools to manage false positives were deficient.

      And when you had to call in their support, you'd have to explain how SMTP works to them, because up to level 3, they just talked complete bollocks.

      --
      "I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
    16. Re:Intel owning McAfee made as much sense as... by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

      Sure, I'll need your credit card details .. my consulting rates are $5000/hr, with a minimum billing of 5 hours.

      So, the same as my call girl* charges? Will you screw me as good as she does? (You're in marketing so I assume that's a given but I just thought I'd ask.)

        -

      *She's technically known as a "Horizontal Hospitality Engineer".

      --
      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  2. FEC put pressure on Intel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Now that John McAfee is a declared candidate for the Presidency of the US, it was a clear conflict of interest on Intel's part.

    And even if it wasn't, it's a nice troll point.

    1. Re:FEC put pressure on Intel by Coren22 · · Score: 2

      John came out with this instructional video on the removal of McAfee Antivirus:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Well worth watching.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  3. Postini refugees abandoned again by Que_Ball · · Score: 1

    So all the people who were abandoned by Google when they discontinued the Postini service and then moved to McAfee/MX Logic are again looking for a life raft.

    Anti-spam filtering is tough, which is why everyone would like to outsource this thankless task.

    We are going to end up with 2 dominant mail systems at this rate.  It's going to be a Google Apps or Office365 (Exchange online) duopoly for mail servers.

    1. Re:Postini refugees abandoned again by JeffSh · · Score: 1

      Messagelabs, now Symantec.cloud still exists and it's a really good product.

      It's fair to say, though, that the usefulness of spam services is declining due to what you mention, google and Office 365.

      It's interesting watching the convergence happen, just as you say.

    2. Re:Postini refugees abandoned again by RandomFactor · · Score: 1

      Proofpoint is another place Postini refugee's went that I'm partial to. Exchange shops particularly are being be sucked into O365/EOP as MS leverages their other products to draw them in. Interesting Times for email filtering providers other than GoogleSoft for sure.

      --
      --- Mercutio was right.
  4. LOL, suckers by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

    Anyone who would buy anything from McAfee given his incredibly dubious track record gets exactly what they deserve.

    Apparently Intel never heard of the phrase "due diligence", or else they just figured, "Nah, John McAfee would never screw us over..."

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    1. Re:LOL, suckers by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      The third option, and the one which I think is more plausible AND more scary ... "sure, they're lying weasels, but they have established brand, and you can't become lying weasels as cheaply as you can buy lying weasels".

      I mean, if you're trying to get into the lying-weasel business, why not just buy an established player?

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:LOL, suckers by mvdwege · · Score: 1

      Erm, MXLogic existed long before McAfee bought them. A large part of the customer base is pre-acquisition.

      --
      "I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
    3. Re:LOL, suckers by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

      >I mean, if you're trying to get into the lying-weasel business, why not just buy an established player?

      I like the way you think.

      --
      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    4. Re:LOL, suckers by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

      Erm, MXLogic existed long before McAfee bought them. A large part of the customer base is pre-acquisition.

      What's your point?

      --
      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    5. Re:LOL, suckers by mvdwege · · Score: 1

      Ah, I see. You referred to Intel acquiring McAfee-the-company. I thought you were referring to end customers buying McAfee.

      --
      "I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
    6. Re:LOL, suckers by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

      Ah, I see. You referred to Intel acquiring McAfee-the-company. I thought you were referring to end customers buying McAfee.

      Correct, I hold the end users pretty much blameless. They had no idea what was going to happen and probably relied on Intel making sure that they were protected.

      Intel is a billion-dollar company and a) should have known better, and b) should have taken care of their customers instead of their shareholders (while in the end they both got reamed).

      --
      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  5. Is it fixable? by ITRambo · · Score: 1

    If the product is fixable so the outages don't occur, that should be done. Killing off a product seems like laziness on Intel's part.

  6. There's only one thing to do now by Minwee · · Score: 1

    Now Intel needs to produce their own version of this informative video explaining how their customers can remove the MX Logic/McAfee/Intel Security/Partridge-in-Pear-Tree product.

    I believe that Treasure, Carmella and Sasha are available for consultation although Bianca and Diamond have left the IT support industry.