McAfee, one of the world's leading providers of security solutions and antivirus products, announced today the debut of its new Email and Web Security Appliance 5.5, specifically designed to meet the security requirements of SMB customers. The solution, which integrates both email and Web security solutions in a single unit, has been designed to protect users against the latest email and Web-borne threats, as well as manage Web and email traffic and usage. Integrating several noteworthy features, the McAfee Email and Web Security Appliance 5.5 helps customers reduce system-administration requirements.

“In addition to their market leading security effectiveness, these appliances also provide customers with email and Web usage policy enforcement capabilities, compliance tools, informative dashboards and comprehensive reporting,” Dave Macey, general manager of the Network Security business unit, McAfee, said. “McAfee’s combined intelligence capabilities add an essential layer of protection to guard against today’s most advanced threats and work by accumulating data from millions of sensors, creating a real-time profile of all suspicious activity and content, and then watching for deviations based upon expected behavior.”

Among some of the main features that have been integrated into the company's latest solution, McAfee has highlighted the following: Artemis and TrustedSource Technology integration, integrated URL filtering, appliance clustering with load balancing, and more. The unit has been designed to provide a simple installation process, by auto-detecting network settings and providing a user-friendly configuration wizard. According to the company, its Email and Web Security Appliance deliver a better than 99 percent spam-detection accuracy, making it a valid choice for SMB users.

“The Email and Web Security Appliance is our primary line of defense and has provided solid protection from viruses on inbound email,” Roger Norfolk, GroupWise administrator and antivirus technology instructor, Mercy Hospital, said. “Last month it stopped over 3.3 million pieces of spam, 76 infected emails and 32 Potentially Unwanted Programs with a legitimate email count of 175,935. In a year it has blocked over 17 million messages, with very few false positives.”

Although no pricing details have yet been released, the company announced that the Email and Web Security Appliance will be available globally later this quarter. In addition, users will be able to take advantage of the company's 30-day “Buyer's Assurance Program,” available in the US, Canada and Latin America.