DOD users to get free use of leading anti-virus packages
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The Defense Information Systems Agency last week awarded departmentwide contracts for products from the nation's two leading anti-virus vendors. DISA chose McAfee Associates Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., and Symantec Corp. of Cupertino, Calif., to supply anti-virus software to DOD personnel for home and work use. The GCN Lab has reviewed both companies' products; Symantec's Norton AntiVirus received the Reviewer's Choice designation [GCN, July 14, Page 33].
The Defense Information Systems Agency last week awarded departmentwide contracts for
products from the nation's two leading anti-virus vendors.
DISA chose McAfee Associates Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., and Symantec Corp. of
Cupertino, Calif., to supply anti-virus software to DOD personnel for home and work use.
The GCN Lab has reviewed both companies' products; Symantec's Norton AntiVirus received
the Reviewer's Choice designation [GCN, July 14, Page 33].
DISA awarded McAfee a one-year contract for $410,000. Symantec reseller Corporate
Software & Technology, a business unit of Stream International Holdings Inc. of
Norwood, Mass., won a one-year, $331,600 contract.
If DISA exercises the contracts' four one-year options, the contracts would reach a
total value of $3.7 million, said Mark Bogart, a DISA contracting officer.
DOD users will pay nothing to download the two vendors' anti-virus software from DISA's
World Wide Web site at http://199.211.123.12/ASSIST/avirus.html and to use DISA's software support.
Bogart said DOD personnel will receive anti-virus updates automatically via the
Internet.
The two contractors replace IBM Corp. and Norman Data Defense Systems Inc. of Oslo,
Norway. Other unsuccessful bidders reportedly were Computer Associates International
Inc.'s Cheyenne Software Division; Dr. Solomon's Software Inc. of Burlington, Mass.; and
Trend Micro Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.
The IBM and Norman Data contracts covered desktops and some network architectures, but
McAfee and Symantec also can protect e-mail gateways and other vulnerable applications,
Bogart said.
McAfee will supply its VirusScan, WebScan, NetShield, WebShield, GroupShield, GroupScan
and BootShield products, Bogart said, and Symantec will provide its Norton AntiVirus
Solution for PCs and servers.
Both vendors' products support multiple operating environments including Apple
Macintosh, MS-DOS, Novell NetWare and Microsoft Windows 3.x, Windows 95 and Windows NT.
Bogart said McAfee also supports IBM OS/2, Lotus Notes and Unix, and it claims one of its
products can keep out viruses that arrive in ActiveX and Java applets.
The IBM and Norton contracts expire Sept. 30. The McAfee and Symantec contracts begin
Oct. 1, but Bogart said both companies' officials have told him they want to post their
software for downloading before the start date.