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14 Oct 1998

Insurance companies withdraw cover for computer viruses

Sophos reveals insurance companies increasingly excluding computer viruses.

Users are being left without financial protection against virus attack as insurance companies exclude computer viruses from their policies.

The recent proliferation of viruses and increasing press attention have influenced this move. Even the few companies which do still make provision for viruses, do not protect against hardware damage, which could have serious implications for those hit by the BIOS attacking virus, CIH.

In a poll carried out by Sophos, representatives of many leading commercial insurance companies lacked knowledge on the issue. Some even assumed viruses fell into the same category as the 'Millennium Bug'.

"These findings emphasise more than ever that IT security is of paramount importance for every company," said Paul Ducklin, head of research at Sophos.

"This is something which organisations should protect against by making sure all the measures are in place to prevent virus attack," continued Ducklin. "Prevention is always better than a cure, but in this case it is essential because financial remedy is not covered by insurers."

About Sophos

More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.

Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.