McAfee has expanded its endpoint protection products for the Apple Macintosh platform. The company said that with the release of Endpoint Protection for Mac, it delivers a comprehensive endpoint protection that goes beyond traditional anti-virus.

McAfee claims that the Endpoint Protection for Mac lowers operational management costs by using same console for both Mac and Windows endpoints offering single integrated management.

The anti-virus always-on protection and on-access scanning provide immediate protection from viruses, worms, trojans and other malware plus provides selective scanning functions to improve system performance, the company said. In addition, the database of known spyware and unwanted programs enables the neutralisation of spyware before it self-installs and spreads.

According to McAfee, the new release provides the ability to deny and control applications that can run on a Mac and prevents malicious programs from modifying existing applications. The inbound firewall stops network-based attacks from getting to the Mac, and the outbound firewall prevents spyware and other data-stealing programs from sending personal data to cyber criminals.

This release supports Appleā€™s latest Snow Leopard release of Mac OS X, in addition to Leopard and Tiger.