McAfee unveils threat center portal

In addition to virus information, the portal contains new information from the company's Avert Labs division on spam, phishing, and spyware as well as free tools and articles from McAfee security experts. A security blog is expected to be started within the next few weeks, McAfee said.

The new portal extends the scope of McAfee's Web resources, according to David Marcus, a security research and communications manger for McAfee Avert. "The focus of the site previously was really focused on viruses and malware," he said. "Now it's much more representative of all the areas we do in security research."

McAfee is redesigning its Web site in order to make it easier for consumers and businesses to find relevant security information, free of charge, the company said. The new design is expected to be eventually incorporated into McAfee's regional Web sites around the world.

Security researchers have no shortage of free information sources these days. The U.S. government maintains a comprehensive information portal on security vulnerabilities at www.us-cert.gov, and security research company The SANS Institute runs its own community-based security information portal at www.incidents.org.

Increasingly, companies are also using blogs as a way to share security information with their customers. Last month, for example, Oracle Corp. Chief Security Officer Mary Ann Davidson launched her own blog, which can be found here: http://blogs.oracle.com/maryanndavidson