McAfee Hires Antivirus Geeks In India

The antivirus center, to be staffed by local researchers, will work with McAfee virus-monitoring teams in 11 other cities, mostly in Europe, said Christopher Bolin, chief technology officer.

"We get here the kind of people we are looking for. And we are not able to find them anywhere else," Bolin told reporters.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based McAfee employs 100 researchers worldwide to identify virus attacks, develop software to prevent their spread and monitor networks for possible threats.

Their job is like a commando operation and often gives them less than an hour to stop a virus from destroying computers, Bolin said.

He said the new center will improve McAfee's ability to monitor the Internet and other networks round-the-clock, since Bangalore is located in the long time zone between the company's existing centers in Western Europe and Singapore.

Until now, McAfee did not have a virus-monitoring center in this time zone.

McAfee's antivirus researchers are different from virus programmers, who develop software patches for known and identified threats. McAfee employs 600 of them worldwide, with 300 working at a two-year-old engineering center in the southern city of Bangalore.

Bolin would not say how many researchers will work in the new antivirus center.

Scores of American companies have relocated their software development and routine office work to India and other low-cost countries to save money. Some farmed out such work to Indian firms. A handful of companies have also moved their sophisticated technology research work to India.

India earns US$12.5 billion annually from outsourcing.

Copyright © 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.