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McAfee Looks To Cash In On Compliance Lisa Lerer, 10.16.06, 12:01 AM ET For most companies, new laws regulating security and data management are a money pit. For security providers, they're a goldmine. Anti-virus software manufacturer McAfee thinks it's time to collect. Monday, McAfee (nyse: MFE - news - people ) announced it would be integrating a new compliance management function into its standard anti-virus, spam and spyware fare. The company also announced its $20 million acquisition of Onigma, a company that makes software that monitors, reports and prevents the loss of confidential data. Laws like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act require companies to follow increased security and data management guidelines. McAfee's new software aims to make it easier for companies to comply. "If you ask an IT operations group in an organization to start detailing their challenges, it's security and compliance," says McAfee senior director of marketing Vimal Solanki. "Customers are investing huge amounts of time, money and resources to keep up with compliance." McAfee's new programs will assess compliance levels and correct policy violations by upgrading patches or changing system configurations. The compliance function will be included in updated versions of McAfee's existing ePolicy Orchestrator software. McAfee will use Omigma's technology in the new McAfee Data Loss Prevention product, which will monitor and protect proprietary and confidential information, like trade secrets, legal documents and personal information. The Onigma acquisition is the third McAfee purchase of a compliance-focused security vendor in recent months. On Oct. 3, McAfee announced its $60 million acquisition of Citadel Security Software, a provider of policy compliance programs. McAfee bought Preventsys, a company that specializes in automated security compliance reporting, in June. The product announcement comes a week after the resignation of two major company executives. Chairman George Samenuk retired, and President Kevin Weiss was fired following an internal investigation into McAfee's stock granting practices. McAfee plans to restate ten years of financial records and take up to $150 million of charges to the adjust for unrecorded payments. The U.S Securities and Exchange Commission is formally investigating McAfee as part of its pre-dated stock grants probe. McAfee expressed concerns in recent weeks about Microsoft's (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) new Vista operating system, expected to start shipping to PC makers next month. In a full-page ad in the Financial Times, McAfee argued that Vista locks out competitors, forcing Windows users to relay on Microsoft's insufficient built-in security protections. "Microsoft seems to envision a world in which one giant company not only controls the systems that drive most computers around the world but also the security that protects those computers from viruses and other online threats," the ad said. Four months ago, Microsoft scared the security industry with its own security program, Windows Live OneCare security. McAfee's new offering won't give the company a major edge in the market, says analyst Daniel Ives of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. But it shows investors that the company is going to actively fight for its position in the industry, despite meddling from the Microsoft monolith. "I don't think in itself the product release is moving the needle," says Ives. "But in the long term it speaks to a direction that the company needs to continue in to stay one step ahead of its competitors."

[Forbes News] McAfee Looks To Cash In On Compliance