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In our digital age, a computer is not just a tool; it’s a gateway to a world of possibilities, entertainment, and creativity. The speed of everyday tasks from gaming, and streaming TV shows to editing images and videos can make us more productive but also make our computers more fun to use. When exploring our software choices, it’s vital to choose apps and services, such as online protection tools that have a minimal impact on your computer, allowing you to live your best life online, without the concerns of your PC slowing down.
McAfee has once again proven its excellence by securing the #1 spot in the AV-Comparatives PC Performance Test. With an impressive overall impact score of only 2.8, McAfee Total Protection outperformed all other security vendors, showcasing its lightweight design and exceptional performance. Download the full report from AV-Comparatives here.
AV-Comparatives, an Austria-based test-lab renowned for its comprehensive evaluations, conducted an extensive Performance Test to measure the impact of consumer security software on system performance. In this test, 16 security products, including McAfee Total Protection, were rigorously evaluated on a low-end PC with an Intel Core i3 CPU, 4GB of RAM, and SSD system drives. The tests were conducted on a clean Windows 10, 64-Bit system with the security software installed using default settings.
With an overall impact score of 2.8, McAfee Total Protection emerged as the lightest product in the test, surpassing the industry average of 12.3. This outstanding performance has earned McAfee Total Protection the highest possible ranking: ADVANCED+ 3 Stars. This achievement reaffirms McAfee’s commitment to delivering top-notch security solutions that prioritize both protection and performance. McAfee has consistently received the highest ADVANCED+ ratings for performance in all AV-Comparatives Performance Tests since October 2016. This track record of excellence demonstrates McAfee’s dedication to continuous improvement and delivering exceptional products.
To ensure the accuracy of the results, AV-Comparatives examined various activities such as file copying, application installation and launching, file downloading, and web browsing. All tests were conducted with an active internet connection, allowing for the evaluation of the real-world impact of cloud services and features. McAfee Total Protection excelled in all these areas, showcasing its ability to provide robust security without compromising system performance. Whether you’re a gamer, a movie buff, a budding photographer, or a video editor, the enhanced performance can significantly refine how you engage with your hobbies and passions. Learn how your computer can also be more fun!
For gamers, the benefits of a faster computer are immediately noticeable. Modern games require substantial system resources, including fast processors and powerful graphics cards, to run smoothly. Online protection with a minimal impact on your computer’s performance, lets you enjoy games as the developers intended, with minimal lag and stunning visuals.
Streaming TV shows and movies has become a staple of home entertainment. Platforms like Netflix and Disney Plus offer 4K streaming for many titles and an optimized computer can mean enjoying the best streaming content without buffering.
Photography enthusiasts and graphic designers know that image editing can be resource-intensive, especially with high-resolution images and complex effects. A more efficient computer speeds up the performance of software like Adobe Photoshop, allowing for quicker loading of images, smoother application of effects, and more responsive overall editing. This not only saves time but also makes the creative process more enjoyable.
Video editing is perhaps the most demanding task that regular consumers undertake on their computers. Editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro can leverage the additional power of a faster computer to render video faster, apply effects more smoothly, and improve the playback of high-resolution footage in real time. This means less time waiting and more time creating.
Investing in robust, tried, and tested online security solutions offers peace of mind, without compromises to your system performance. If you find your current computer lagging in your digital aspirations, it might be time to consider stepping up to more capable online protection. Stay protected with McAfee and experience the perfect balance of security and efficiency.
The post McAfee Dominates AV-Comparatives PC Performance Test appeared first on McAfee Blog.
This year marks the world’s biggest election year yet.
An estimated four billion voters will head to the polls across more than 60 national elections worldwide in 2024 — all at a time when artificial intelligence (AI) continues to make history of its own. Without question, the harmful use of AI will play a role in election interference worldwide.
In fact, it already has.
In January, thousands of U.S. voters in New Hampshire received an AI robocall that impersonated President Joe Biden, urging them not to vote in the primary. In the UK, more than 100 deepfake social media ads impersonated Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on the Meta platform last December[ii]. Similarly, the 2023 parliamentary elections in Slovakia spawned deepfake audio clips that featured false proposals for rigging votes and raising the price of beer[iii].
We can’t put it more plainly. The harmful use of AI has the potential to influence an election.
In just over a year, AI tools have rapidly evolved, offering a wealth of benefits. It analyzes health data on massive scales, which promotes better healthcare outcomes. It helps supermarkets bring the freshest produce to the aisles by streamlining the supply chain. And it does plenty of helpful everyday things too, like recommending movies and shows in our streaming queues based on what we like.
Yet as with practically any technology, whether AI helps or harms is up to the person using it. And plenty of bad actors have chosen to use it for harm. Scammers have used it to dupe people with convincing “deepfakes” that impersonate everyone from Taylor Swift to members of their own family with phony audio, video, and photos created by AI. Further, AI has also helped scammers spin up phishing emails and texts that look achingly legit, all on a massive scale thanks to AI’s ease of use.
Now, consider how those same deepfakes and scams might influence an election year. We have no doubt, the examples cited above are only the start.
Within this climate, we’ve pledged to help prevent deceptive AI content from interfering with this year’s global elections as part of the “Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in 2024 Elections.” We join leading tech companies such as Adobe, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, and TikTok to play our part in protecting elections and the electoral process.
Collectively, we’ll bring our respective powers to combat deepfakes and other harmful uses of AI. That includes digital content such as AI-generated audio, video, and images that deceptively fake or alter the appearance, voice, or actions of political candidates, election officials, and other figures in democratic elections. Likewise, it further covers content that provides false info about when, where, and how people can cast their vote.
A set of seven principles guide the way for this accord, with each signatory of the pledge lending their strengths to the cause:
In all, we see the tech accord as one important step that tech and media companies can take to keep people safe from harmful AI-generated content. Now in this election year. And moving forward as AI continues to shape and reshape what we see and hear online.
Yet beyond this accord and the companies that have signed on remains an important point: the accord represents just one step in preserving the integrity of elections in the age of AI. As tech companies, we can, and will, do our part to prevent harmful AI from influencing elections. However, fair elections remain a product of nations and their people. With that, the rule of law comes unmistakably into play.
Legislation and regulations that curb the harmful use of AI and that levy penalties on its creators will provide another vital step in the broader solution. One example: we’ve seen how the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) recently made AI robocalls illegal. With its ruling, the FCC gives State Attorney Generals across the country new tools to go after the bad actors behind nefarious robocalls[iv]. And that’s very much a step in the right direction.
Protecting people from the ill use of AI calls for commitment from all corners. Globally, we face a challenge tremendously imposing in nature. Yet not insurmountable. Collectively, we can keep people safer. Text from the accord we co-signed puts it well, “The protection of electoral integrity and public trust is a shared responsibility and a common good that transcends partisan interests and national borders.”
We’re proud to say that we’ll contribute to that goal with everything we can bring to bear.
[i] https://apnews.com/article/new-hampshire-primary-biden-ai-deepfake-robocall-f3469ceb6dd613079092287994663db5
[ii] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/jan/12/deepfake-video-adverts-sunak-facebook-alarm-ai-risk-election
[iii] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-29/trolls-in-slovakian-election-tap-ai-deepfakes-to-spread-disinfo
[iv] https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-400393A1.pdf
The post McAfee Joins Tech Accord to Combat Use of AI in 2024 Elections appeared first on McAfee Blog.
The tables have turned. Now you can use AI to spot and block scam texts before they do you harm.
You might have heard how scammers have tapped into the power of AI. It provides them with powerful tools to create convincing-looking scams on a massive scale, which can flood your phone with annoying and malicious texts.
The good news is that we use AI too. And we have for some time to keep you safe. Now, we’ve put AI to use in another powerful way—to put an end to scam texts on your phone.
Our new McAfee Scam Protection automatically identifies and alerts you if it detects a dangerous URL in your texts. No more wondering if a package delivery message or bank notification is real or not. Our patented AI technology instantaneously detects malicious links to stop you before you click by sending an alert. And as a second line of defense, it can block risky sites if you accidentally follow a scam link in a text, email, social media, and more.
The time couldn’t be more right for this kind of protection. Last year, Americans lost $330 million to text scams alone, more than double the previous year, with an average reported loss of $1,000, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The deluge of these new sophisticated AI-generated scams is making it harder than ever to tell what’s real from what’s fake.
Which is where our use of AI comes in. With it, you can turn the table on scammers and their AI tools.
Here’s a closer look at how McAfee Scam Protection works:
McAfee Scam Protection is free for most existing customers, and free to try for new customers.
Most McAfee customers now have McAfee Scam Protection available. Simply update your app. There’s no need to purchase or download anything separately. Set up McAfee Scam Protection in your mobile app, then enable Safe Browsing for extra protection or download our web protection extension for your PC or Mac from the McAfee Protection Center. Some exclusions apply¹.
For new customers, McAfee Scam Protection is available as part of a free seven-day trial of McAfee Mobile Security. After the trial period, McAfee Mobile Security is $2.99 a month or $29.99 annually for a one-year subscription.
As part of our new Scam Protection, you can benefit from McAfee’s risky link identification on any platform you use. It can block dangerous links should you accidentally click on one, whether that’s through texts, emails, social media, or a browser. It’s powered by AI as well, and you’ll get it by setting up Safe Browsing on your iOS² or Android device—and by using the WebAdvisor extension on PCs, Macs and iOS.
Scan the QR code to download McAfee Scam Protection from the Google App store
AI works in your favor. Just as it has for some time now if you’ve used McAfee for your online protection. McAfee Scam Protection takes it to a new level. As scammers use AI to create increasingly sophisticated attacks, McAfee Scam Protection can help you tell what’s real and what’s fake.
included in their subscription.The post Get Yourself AI-powered Scam Protection That Spots and Block Scams in Real Time appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Your privacy means everything. And your identity too. The launch of McAfee Privacy & Identity Guard will protect them both.
We’re proud to announce the launch of McAfee Privacy & Identity Guard in partnership with Staples. Through this partnership, McAfee’s Privacy & Identity Guard will be available at select Staples locations across the U.S. and help customers protect their identity and privacy online.
McAfee’s Privacy & Identity Guard will be sold in the travel section of Staples along with other travel benefits such as passport services, TSA PreCheck sign up, and fingerprinting services. McAfee’s Privacy & Identity Guard offers a natural fit for Staples customers who are on the go, particularly as they rely on their laptops and smartphones to get things done while traveling.
And people certainly have concerns about their privacy and identity when they hit the road. McAfee’s recent Safer Summer Report revealed 1 in 3 people have been scammed when booking or taking trips, with a third (34%) of those losing $1,000 or more. This same study found 61% of all adults worry more about digital safety than physical safety when on vacation.
“As Staples exclusive tech services security partner for the last seven years, we’re excited to partner with Staples on the initial launch of McAfee Privacy & Identity Guard in the U.S.,” said Gagan Singh, McAfee’s Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer. “This online protection product was designed to address consumers’ key concerns about safeguarding personal information online, something that becomes even more at risk when traveling.”
Identity Monitoring – Monitor personal information with timely alerts.
Identity Restoration – Exclusive to Staples customers, these features offer further peace of mind in the event of identity theft or loss.
Privacy Features – Find personal data tied to old, unused online accounts & requests removal of any personal information found on data broker sites.
Is your email on the dark web?
One sign that your privacy and identity is at risk if your email appears on the dark web. Hackers and scammers post email addresses and other personal and financial information on dark web sites—sometimes offered freely, sometimes offered to other hackers and scammers for sale. You can find out if your email is posted on the dark web by visiting https://www.mcafee.com/idscan-staples.
The post McAfee’s New Privacy & Identity Guard Launches at Staples Stores appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Each year the independent labs at AV-TEST announce their best products in IT security, and McAfee has come out on top with AV-TEST’s award for “Best Protection.”
McAfee received the award across a field of 20 different products assessed by AV-TEST, which included evaluation across three key categories:
Maik Morgenstern, CEO of AV-TEST, said: “The test category of protection is an elite discipline in the lab of AV-TEST. That is why we are particularly pleased that we were able to confer such an important and coveted award on McAfee. The consumer user product Total Protection demonstrated with perfect detection in all lab tests that it earned the AV-TEST Best Protection 2022 Award for Consumer Users.”
Their labs utilize thousands of rigorous real-world tests that determine how well online protection performs against known, new, and emerging threats—such as previously unknown zero-day malware, drive-by attacks, malicious downloads from websites, attacks via infected emails, ransomware, and many more.
“Recognition from AV-TEST is an honor,” says Chief Technology Officer, Steve Grobman. “Their reputation for analysis and quality assurance stands tall and further reinforces our leadership in online protection. Grobman also continued to say, “With the internet now an integral part of our daily lives, cybercriminals have stepped in to take advantage of that reliance. As ever, we’re committed to staying one step ahead of them so that people can confidently enjoy their lives online.”
Get a free 30-day trial of McAfee Total Protection, which includes McAfee’s award-winning anti-malware technology plus identity monitoring, Secure VPN, and safe browsing for all-in-one online protection.
The post McAfee Awarded Best Protection by the Labs at AV-TEST appeared first on McAfee Blog.
We created McAfee+ so people can be safe and feel safe online, particularly in a time where there’s so much concern about identity theft and invasions of online privacy—and reviewers have given it top marks as a result.
With data breaches, spam texts and calls, companies collecting and selling personal info, and suspicious charges cropping up on billing statements becoming so commonplace nowadays, it can seem like there’s little you can do to prevent it. Yet that’s far from the case. McAfee+ offers protection that puts you in control of your identity and privacy, all while protecting your devices from viruses and threats.
Journalists who have reviewed McAfee+ recognize the need for this kind of protection today, and here’s what three leading consumer PC publications had to say about McAfee+ and how strongly its protection stacks up.
Tech Advisor’s review opened with the big picture, stating ‘McAfee+ is Total Protection on steroids’ and McAfee+ is ‘a complete cybersecurity package that goes beyond simply blocking nasties to offer holistic protection for everything you do online.’ Tech Advisor said, “This feels like the beginning of a new era of cybersecurity where the customer is no longer helpless to unwanted intrusion, and McAfee+ makes sure they have the tools to use that new-found power.”
Top features they called out include Lost Wallet support, which will help you cancel your cards and order replacements from a single screen. Moreover, they applauded our Identity Theft and Restoration Coverage which is “the sort of identity protection that you’d normally see from an insurance company.”
Our industry-first Protection Score also racked up points with Tech Advisor, which really latched onto the idea of improving their score. “We actually found chasing points quite compulsive – and most importantly, it means that you don’t need to worry about how any of the features we’re about to look at work, what they do, or even what they’re called – McAfee+ does all that for you, making it great, not just for tech-heads, but seniors, kids, and the less-tech-savvy alike.”
In their summary of McAfee+, Tech Advisor expressed our approach to online protection well by saying, “the future of safety online is holistic, and McAfee has come up with a package that reflects the realities of modern-day living.”
The PC Mag review gave McAfee+ a thorough walkthrough with a particular focus on its privacy and identity features, saying, “McAfee+ is now the most complete product in the McAfee line, and its combination of unlimited device protection with identity theft remediation is quite appealing.”
It highlighted our Personal Data Cleanup feature that scans some of the riskiest data broker sites and shows you which ones are selling your personal info and provides guidance for removing it—and further touched on our Identity Theft and Restoration Coverage that, “offers full identity monitoring and identity theft remediation rivaling that of many competing products, and you can now extend protection to your family.”
The review also put McAfee’s Credit Monitoring, Credit Lock, and Security Freeze features through the paces as well, which help you keep an eye on changes to your credit score, report, and accounts with timely notifications and guidance so you can take action to tackle identity theft.
PC Mag also called out the unlimited device coverage that protects all devices in your household, McAfee’s excellent third-party test scores for antivirus protection, and unlimited VPN—all adding up to a four-star review and an “Excellent” rating.
Like Tech Advisor, Trusted Reviews focused on the broader nature of online protection today and that it calls for much more than antivirus. Identity and privacy protection are equally important, and “McAfee+ Advanced is very much a do-it-all service.”
Notably, along the same lines, the review mentioned that the “new McAfee Plus tiers are among very few mainstream internet security suites to offer data broker removal services in the UK and Europe.” As mentioned above, our Personal Data Cleanup can help you spot and remove personal information from data broker sites, which bad actors of all stripes use to commit scams and identity theft. A couple of examples—scammers use data brokers to create lists of people that they can send spammy texts and calls, and thieves can also use data broker sites to harvest info that can help them commit identity theft.
Trusted Reviews also called out the unlimited number of devices and how it’s helpful for households with a lot of hardware to protect. The core antivirus was highlighted as well, in that “the performance for McAfee Plus Advanced in recent lab tests has been excellent. It detected all malware with no false positives in AV-TEST’s latest Windows consumer antivirus test.”
The journalist concludes their review by stating that “the company’s push into identity protection and recovery in the UK is almost beyond the score of my anti-malware focus on these reviews, but it’s a useful toolkit to have on hand, and its data broker listing removal service is very welcome indeed.”
Drop by our product page for more about McAfee+, including our new Family plans that include personalized protection for each member of the family. With several tiers and degrees of protection available across all our plans, you can get the level of privacy, identity, and device protection that’s right for you and everyone in your household.
The post The Reviews are In—McAfee+ Earns Top Marks from Review Sites appeared first on McAfee Blog.
McAfee announces a partnership that will grant new and existing Telstra customers easy access to McAfee’s leading security solutions to deliver holistic security and privacy protection through its integrated suite of services including Antivirus, Parental Controls, Identity Protection, Secure VPN and more, to protect and secure multiple devices including mobiles, PCs and laptops. The partnership brings added protection to Telstra’s millions of customers and their devices via McAfee’s intuitive and integrated consumer security platform
“A recent McAfee study found 27% of Australians surveyed reported attempted account theft and 23% had experienced financial account information leaks,” said Pedro Gutierrez, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Operations at McAfee. “As the proliferation of life online accelerates, we are thrilled to be partnering with Telstra who are showing through this collaboration, a commitment to innovation and to their customers by investing in new infrastructure and technologies that safeguard their mobile and broadband subscribers.
McAfee’s integrated consumer security platform offers a wide array of mobile security solutions to protect customers’ privacy and identity while blocking viruses, malware, spyware, and ransomware attacks. This partnership allows Telstra’s customers to take advantage of these capabilities and protect themselves from additional threats including potential hacks, identity theft and broader gaps in online and mobile security so they can live life confidently online.
“In today’s increasingly connected world the risk of cyber threats continues to grow. To counter the risk, Telstra is committed to providing our customers with the safety and security features needed to protect them online,” said Matthew O’Brien, Cyber Security Executive and Group Owner at Telstra. “This partnership with McAfee helps drive our mission to build a safe and secure connected future where everyone can thrive, and further complements Telstra’s T25 ambition to extend our network leadership position by delivering greater value to our customers.”
To activate Device Security, Telstra customers can simply go in-store, online or to their MyTelstra app. The full suite of McAfee features supported include Antivirus/System Scan, Safe Browsing, Protection Center, Identity Protection, Password Manager, Parental Controls, Protection Score and Secure VPN. All eligible Telstra customers can try Device Security for three months on Telstra, then auto-roll onto $10/month after.
The post McAfee and Telstra Partner to Bring Privacy, Identity and Security to Australian Customers appeared first on McAfee Blog.
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