Verizon Business Helps Medium-Sized Businesses Combat Cyberthreats With New, Affordable Integrated Security Suite

Launches Affordable ’Security-as- a-Service’ Model
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BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - Small and medium-sized businesses face more hacker threats than ever, especially as the economy continues to pressure security and IT department budgets. In fact, according to a recent McAfee security study¹, SMBs worldwide are at the highest risk of any size organization for a security breach, having experienced a 322 percent surge in attacks in 2009 alone.

Verizon Business has a new offering to help medium-sized businesses address this critical issue. The offering, an integrated security suite from McAfee, provides five-way protection against cyberthreats for an affordable monthly per-user fee. Specifically, the security suite helps protect against network, endpoint, Web, data and e-mail security threats.

"Medium-sized businesses have a serious and unique security handicap: They face the same number of security threats as enterprises, yet lack the resources of larger companies" said Carrie Gray, Verizon Business executive director of SMB solutions marketing. "With our new integrated security services suite, Verizon customers can tap into one complete solution - rather than juggling multiple security products - to more easily and efficiently safeguard their business"

Darrell Rodenbaugh, senior vice president of global midmarket for McAfee, said: "Being proactive when it comes to security costs far less than what companies spend cleaning up after a breach. With solutions tailored specifically to mid-size organizations, these companies can significantly reduce the complexity and control the cost of maintaining a strong security defense"

Verizon Delivers McAfee Total Protection Services for End-to-End Protection

Verizon Business’ new security suite consists of two solutions for mid-market customers - McAfee Total Protection Service -Advanced and McAfee Total Protection for Secure Business software.

McAfee Total Protection Service is a powerful Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution designed for companies that do not want to purchase premises-based equipment or incur excessive software installation and maintenance costs. With McAfee managing the security infrastructure, businesses can tap into these benefits:

* Web-based console - This self-service security management tool allows virtually any office worker to quickly update security policies and configurations via easy drag-and-drop icons. It is accessible 24 x 7.

* Rapid deployment - Because it is a cloud offering, customers can quickly deploy the solution to all users, in all locations.

* Robust protection - It offers virus, spyware, spam, firewall, safe searching and Web-filtering protections, as well as vulnerability assessments - at both the desktop- and server-level. The service is constantly updated and is engineered to combat the most aggressive existing and emerging security threats.

The second offering, McAfee Total Protection for Secure Business software, is well-suited for a security specialist or IT manager looking for a highly customizable and flexible solution. It resides on the customer’s corporate LAN (local area network), enabling more internal control over the solution.

Key features include:

* Full protection at a low price - It provides protection against the security attacks mid-market customers experience most often, including attacks at endpoint, network, data, e-mail and Web applications. By consolidating multiple security products into one overall solution, customers can benefit from a cost-effective, easy-to-manage security suite.

* Strong protection and management - It offers malware, host IPS (intrusion prevention service), endpoint encryption, device control, spam, malware, content filtering, Web filtering and firewall (desktop and unified threat management) protection - all centrally managed on-premises, using McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator.

"These products are customized to help medium-sized businesses combat their unique security challenges" Verizon Business’ Gray said. "Many security products are built for home users and then repackaged for this market. The McAfee technology, however, was built to withstand the rigorous security challenges faced by business customers"

The new solutions, available to Verizon Business’ medium-sized business customers in the U.S., are backed by Verizon Business’ expert security team and customer service specialists who can offer support before, during and after the solution is deployed.

Verizon is committed to providing small and medium-sized businesses with cost effective solutions. For more information about solutions tailored to this market, visit http://verizon.com/businesspower.

About Verizon Business
Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), is a global leader in communications and IT solutions. We combine professional expertise with one of the world’s most connected IP networks to deliver award-winning communications, IT, information security and network solutions. We securely connect today’s extended enterprises of widespread and mobile customers, partners, suppliers and employees - enabling them to increase productivity and efficiency and help preserve the environment. Many of the world’s largest businesses and governments - including 96 percent of the Fortune 1000 and thousands of government agencies and educational institutions - rely on our professional and managed services and network technologies to accelerate their business. Find out more at www.verizonbusiness.com.

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¹ The Security Paradox, by MSI International and McAfee, October 2009