Intel’s purchase of McAfee highlights cybercrime fears

Source: Joseph Menn, The Financial Times.

“Chipmaker Intel’s $7.7bn purchase of McAfee, the security software provider, on Thursday gave dramatic proof of how concerns about cybercrime and cyber espionage have penetrated deeply into the technology establishment.

At the moment, both organised crime groups and national governments have the upper hand in the security fight, with some former US officials declaring that the era of cyberwar has already begun and that the west is losing.

Most PCs have some form of malicious software on them at any given time, security companies say, and the percentage that are the most dangerous – the variants that record every keystroke, sucking up passwords, financial information and corporate secrets and transmitting them elsewhere – is also on the rise.

US President Barack Obama devoted an unprecedented speech solely to cybersecurity in May last year and more recently appointed a White House co-ordinator on the issue.”