McAfee is readying new security software, code-named Falcon, to rival upcoming products from Symantec and newcomer Microsoft. The product will integrate features found in McAfee’s current range of security products with a revamped user interface to manage it, McAfee said in a statement Tuesday. Falcon will protect PCs against spam, viruses, spyware and other threats such as phishing scams and rootkits, McAfee said. It will also offer tools to prevent data loss, help optimize PC performance and secure a wireless network, it said. The product is slated to debut this summer in a variety of packages.

In a radical departure from earlier statements, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said that requiring Internet service providers to save records of their customers’ online activities is necessary in the fight against terrorism. Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller privately met with representatives of AOL, Comcast, Google, Microsoft and Verizon last week and said that Internet providers–and perhaps search engines–must retain data for two years to aid in anti-terrorism prosecutions, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussion who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Absolute PDF Server, the newest software release from Investintech.com, offers both PDF extraction and creation functions on a server base for the first time ever. This means that PDF conversion capability, instead of being available only on individual desktops, is now available to all units in an enterprise. For IT administrators, it means there is centralized administrative control over how documents are created throughout the organization.

Microsoft plans to start selling Windows OneCare Live on Thursday, three years after it announced its intent to move into the antivirus arena. OneCare combines antivirus, anti-spyware and firewall software with backup features and several tune-up tools for Windows PCs. The product will be sold in the U.S. online and in stores starting Thursday, Microsoft said Tuesday. The company plans to expand to international markets in the coming 12 months.

At a ceremony held in Boston on May 23, eWEEK proudly announced the winners in its sixth annual Excellence Awards program. This year’s winners impressed the program judges with their ability to ease the complexities of today’s enterprise IT environment, especially given the challenges companies face in achieving and maintaining compliance with government, industry and other regulations. A June 19 special report issue will provide more detail on the finalists and winners.

Working feverishly through the holiday weekend, Symantec’s security response team has completed patches for a "high-risk" worm hole in two enterprise-facing product lines. The flaw, which could allow malicious hackers to take complete control of a system without any user action, was discovered and reported by eEye Digital Security. In an advisory posted May 27, Symantec described the issue as a stack overflow affecting the Symantec Client Security and Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition, two product suites targeted toward business and government customers.

Microsoft is making it much more difficult to access and steal a business’s vital data from one of its PCs. The software giant will deliver Bitlocker, a hard drive encryption tool, as part of its forthcoming Windows Vista operating system, which is now in its second beta and is due to large businesses in November. Bitlocker, which will come with Windows Vista Enterprise and Ultimate editions, can be used to encrypt an entire hard drive, making it more difficult for someone to access the computer’s data if it is lost or stolen. Microsoft believes that Bitlocker will help companies guard against accidental loss–where a PC, as well as a server in many cases, is lost or possibly disposed of without its drive being wiped–inappropriate access by company employees and even theft from individuals interested in a PC for its data.

Anfibia Software announced the release of Deskman SE, featuring One Button Security, Kiosk Mode, mouse and key restrictions, start menu replacement, and much more. Now also available in Spanish and Japanese, Deskman SE is an advanced, yet accessible, desktop security manager for Windows 2000/XP/2003. Deskman SE allows you to tightly secure desktops and lock computers, and is suited for both home users and administrators.

Blog Solution 2 is a blogging software tool developed by Scott Trimble from HalfAgain Ltd. Unlike other similar software on the market, Blog Solution has its own blogging engine. This will save publishers all the hassle of creating blog accounts on Wordpress and Blogger. The software not only creates blogs at lightning speed, but it also put these blogs on full auto pilot. Blog Solution is the "all-in-one" blogging management tool. It creates blogs, posts content and pings search engines. All the processes of Blog Solution can be randomized so that it simulates a human creating and updating the blogs. Each blog is fully optimized for market targeted keywords. With its plug and play system, the blogs are fully customizable and would suit both beginners and experts.

European Union lawmakers are investigating a proposed tax on emails and mobile phone text messages as a way to fund the 25-member bloc in the future. A European Parliament working group is reviewing the idea, tabled by Alain Lamassoure, a prominent French MEP and member of the center-right European People’s Party, the assembly’s largest group.