Recap of McAfee Happenings at IDF 2011

After listening in to the McAfee & Intel joint sessions, panels and demonstrations at Intel Developer Forum 2011, it’s hard to believe that only a little more than a year ago marked the beginning of our future with Intel. We promised a joint vision that would tackle security in a fundamentally new way, a vision that is finally coming into focus through the new technologies and initiatives that were announced at IDF.

As always, some of the biggest moments at the Forum happened during the keynote presentations. On day one, Candace Worley, senior vice president and general manager, Endpoint Security at McAfee, joined Intel CEO Paul Otellini on stage to introduce our DeepSAFE technology platform. DeepSAFE is a new McAfee technology platform, developed in partnership with Intel that allows McAfee to develop hardware-assisted security products that take advantage of a “deeper” security footprint. The technology sits below the operating system, which provides a new vantage point for protection technologies, enabling them to proactively detect and prevent stealthy APTs and malware. Worley demonstrated an implementation of the security technology during the keynote, running DeepSAFE to detect and stop a zero day Agony rootkit from infecting a system in real time.

After the keynote, we listened in to McAfee’s Gold Sponsor Session with Dave Marcus and Tony Jennings: McAfee and Intel – Security Beyond the Operating System. Marcus and Jennings offered their take on the current security landscape, detailing how and why we are working with Intel to move security beyond the operating system, down to the silicon level. Dave Marcus pointed out how the security landscape is changing – attackers are getting smarter, they’re downloading the details of every security solution out there, decompiling them and learning to work around them. Many stealth techniques, like rootkits, actually embed themselves outside the OS, and the attacks are growing: every day, over 60,000 unique pieces of malware are unleashed on the world. In addition, with the increasing consumerization of IT, solutions not only need to take into account sophisticated attackers, but consumers and employees who have continually demonstrated a love for clicking on foreign (and often malicious) links. Because of its position outside the operating system, DeepSAFE provides a direct view of system memory and processor activity, a vantage point that takes security away from the threat of a consumer’s clicks and enables the recognition of stealthy APTs and malware.

In another big McAfee-Intel announcement, McAfee’s Todd Gebhart joined Mooly Eden during the day 2 keynote to announce the development of new McAfee consumer anti-theft solutions for Ultrabook PCs. The new software will leverage unique, Intel chip-level technologies to provide device and data protection and is scheduled to be publically available in Ultrabook devices in 2012.

Down on the IDF technology showcase floor, the main McAfee booth was full of energy as attendees stopped by to view demos, learn more about our Security Innovation Alliance, check out the Safe Never Sleeps chopper and put their name in for a chance to win a remote control motorcycle in our Passport to Prizes sweepstakes. In addition to our main booth, McAfee showcased two other stations, including a Business Client Community booth with demo pods to showcase the capabilities of ePO Deep Command, EEPC with AES-NI and EMM, along with an embedded space with demos of medical device security with McAfee, Intel and Wind River

Alongside our Passport to Prizes sweepstakes, we also held a social media video giveaway with @McAfeeBusiness on Twitter. Attendees were asked what impressed them most about the McAfee booths or McAfee happenings at IDF, and those who gave a quick video response were rewarded with a signature McAfee backpack and Safe Never Sleeps shirt. Dan Dahle, senior strategic architect at Intel, gave his insight on McAfee Global Threat Intelligence for his 20 seconds of fame, while attendee Kevin was excited about his copy of McAfee Total Protection 2011, which was included in each attendee’s IDF backpack:

Other highlights from the show include the Intel Networking Nightcap featuring DJ ap.de.ap and will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, held on Tuesday night at the San Francisco Metreon theatre. Will.i.am even stopped by the conference to sign Intel’s SiMan, an 18-foot silicon man built up piece by piece throughout IDF with limbs signed by conference attendees. We looked on Wednesday as the completed SiMan was lit up with an impressive 1,500 LED bulbs, the entire structure meant to symbolize the importance of collaboration in a world driven by embedded technology.

Also worth noting was Intel’s thorough integration of social media, in evidence throughout the conference with installations such as the pre-keynote Twitter roll and social media pods featuring top #IDF2011 tweets in real time.

Finally, we captured some great video of one of my personal favorites at the show – Intel’s Industrial Control in Concert, a collection of digital vibraphones, xylophones, high-hats and other musical devices powered by Intel Atom processors.

For those of you who missed out on the show or just want to look back on all of the exciting events and announcements that took place last week, check out Intel’s IDF Newsroom for a complete recap, including photos, video and blogs covering each day of IDF. And for more on DeepSAFE and the other joint technologies that will shape McAfee and Intel’s integrated future, follow us at @McAfeeBusiness and stay tuned for updates from our annual FOCUS security conference in Las Vegas, October 18-20.

Tags: DeepSAFE, enterprise security, IDF 2011, intel, McAfee FOCUS