Skype gives McAfee a seal of approval

Skype said Thursday that it has certified McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006, McAfee VirusScan 2006 and McAfee Personal Firewall 2006. As part of the deal, McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006 packages will get a Skype certification seal. The announcement is the first step in a longer agreement to do joint marketing, both companies said. "In the past, Skype has worked with certain phones to be certified. (McAfee) is the first security company to be working with them and certified," said Siobhan MacDermott, McAfee's vice president of worldwide corporate communications.

The two software products do not directly link up, a Skype representative said. However, Skype conducted tests to the effectiveness of McAfee's protection of the desktop while its voice over Internet Protocol software was is use. For example, a McAfee product can scan files before they are transferred during a call.