Intego — the folks behind VirusBarrier (an antivirus program), ContentBarrier (Internet filtering software), NetBarrier (a personal firewall), and Internet Security Barrier (an Internet security suite) have added three new products to their lineup.
The products — DiskGuard, FileGuard, and Personal Backup (now dubbed, not surprisingly, Intego DiskGuard, Intego FileGuard, and Intego Personal Backup) — were bought from Highware Inc.. Over a million units of these applications have been sold around the world.
FileGuard lets you control and manage access to your Mac by protecting volumes, documents, folders, and/or applications against unauthorized access and the risk of accidental deletion. With DiskGuard, you can protect any hard disk connected to your Mac and prohibit unauthorized access. Personal Backup will backup or synchronize your data automatically.
“Intego is the only publisher to offer such a complete range of Internet security and privacy software,” said Laurent Marteau, Intego CEO, in announcing the acquisition. “Our Barrier product line protects users from Internet and network attacks, and the Guard product line protects their privacy from physical attempts to access data. Now, Mac users have a full security solution to protect their data everywhere and all the time. We’re very pleased to offer these essential products to our customers.”
Updates to Intego DiskGuard, Intego FileGuard and Intego Personal Backup will be released within a month, making all three programs compatible with Mac OS 9.1. These updates will be free for registered users only.
The acquisition of the three products may be a blessing to their users. Highware, a developer of Mac security software since 1987, had previously announced that they were quitting development of the apps.
“As you are aware, the I.T. market as it is today cannot be compared with the market in the eighties and the early nineties,” Highware said in an online message to its customers. “The arrival of Internet has influenced dramatically the distribution sector, the market in general and more particularly the way products are conceived: shareware, freeware and open source products are being used by more users than ever before. We have also seen a lot of competition that came and went, the Mac OS has been altered continuously and its latest versions contain more and more security features. The new Mac OS X is a dramatic change compared to Mac OS 9 and contains security features that will be competing directly with products such as FileGuard and DiskGuard. Therefore, we have decided not to continue the development of FileGuard, DiskGuard and Personal Backup under Mac OS X.”
Intego promises “major upgrades” to all the apps in the upcoming months — Intego DiskGuard 2, Intego FileGuard 4, and Intego Personal Backup 2. What’s more, Intego is cutting the prices on all three. DiskGuard will be sold for US$49.95 (formerly $89), FileGuard will be sold for $59.95 (formerly $159), and Personal Backup will cost $39.95 (formerly $49). Site licenses are also available for all three products.