News

Shavlik Adding Anti-Spyware to Portfolio

• By Scott Bekker
• July 27, 2005

"We are building a higher level umbrella of security enterprise risk management. It will include patch, spyware and another product [for configuration assessment and regulatory compliance]," says Eric Schultze, chief security architect at Shavlik.

The company plans to launch a public beta early next month of its spyware offering, called Shavlik NetChk Spyware, with the full production release following by about a month, Schultze said.

Shavlik's anti-spyware software will run from the same centralized console interface the Minnesota-based company uses for patch scanning with HFNetChkPro. Shavlik has built its own agentless spyware scanning engine.

Shavlik will address the enterprise market currently occupied by such products as Sunbelt Software CounterSpy Enterprise, Computer Associates eTrust PestPatrol Anti-Spyware Corporate Edition and Webroot Software Spy Sweeper Enterprise. Microsoft has also talked about developing an enterprise-focused version of Windows AntiSpyware, its consumer product that is currently in widespread public beta.

Enterprise-focused features of Shavlik HFNetChk Spyware include centralized management and control, scan scheduling options, logging and reporting, user transparency and integrated e-mail notifications.

Pricing has not been determined for the Shavlik spyware product.

Shavlik plans to deliver the configuration assessment and regulatory compliance component of the portfolio around the end of the year, Schultze said. The company plans to offer each component separately or bundled.