Network Associates has unveiled its latest antivirus offering, McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.0i, which incorporates host-based intrusion prevention and a system firewall.

Designed for both PCs and servers, McAfee VirusScan Enterprise combines antivirus, desktop firewall and host intrusion prevention features within a single deployable security agent.

Its host-based intrusion prevention includes buffer overflow prevention technology, which protects against buffer overflow exploits targeting Microsoft application vulnerabilities.

The product also incorporates integrated firewall capabilities to prevent both incoming attacks and the spread of outbound malware.

According to McAfee, the time between the detection of vulnerability and the occurrence of an attack has reduced greatly, narrowing the 'window of vulnerability' for organisations to react, install and test patches and install protective security measures.

The company claimed that to keep up with malicious threats, IT managers are deploying multiple point solutions which introduce new agents that can overlap and cause stability concerns.

McAfee said its VirusScan Enterprise is designed to close the window of vulnerability with proactive security protection that allows IT administrators to control infrastructures from a single point.

Richard Stiennon, vice president of research at Gartner, commented in a statement: "The threats to enterprise security are evolving, with rapidly spreading malicious-code attacks at the network, data and application layers.

"IT administrators need to focus on the threat presented by devices that are used by remote workers and make significant changes to their approaches to firewall deployment, intrusion prevention and virus management."