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26 Jul 1999

Avoid Virus Confusion With Up-To-Date Virus News And Alerts

Sophos, Inc.'s new electronic newsletter provides network administrators with more than just company and industry information

Woburn, Mass. Sophos, Inc., a leading developer of network-based anti-virus solutions, today announced its latest weapon in the on-going battle against viruses, hoaxes and mis-information.

Following the problems caused by the Melissa and ExploreZip viruses, Sophos designed enews, a free electronic news service designed to get timely, accurate, information directly to the people who need it. Although the service is designed for network administrators, anyone can subscribe.

Once registered, users receive regular updates on all the latest viruses, as well as information about hoaxes and other scares that may be in the news.

"Virus protection isn't just about software," explained Richard Jacobs, President of Sophos, Inc. "It's about information. Users often can't tell whether a virus report represents an immediate threat, a low level background risk, or is a hoax. enews is designed to provide this information, saving companies money and increasing security, by ensuring that they can match their response to the threat."

Recent virus incidents have directed public attention to viruses and the need for timely, accurate information. While Melissa and ExploreZip were the most serious virus outbreaks ever seen, Remote Explorer was only reported at one site. The media coverage of these three incidents, however, was very similar, making it difficult for users to know which needed immediate action and which could wait until morning. With enews, network administrators can now avoid wasted time and confusion by becoming educated on which viruses are most threatening and which are not.

Additionally, users of Sophos Anti-Virus can register at the same site to receive automatic notification of the availability of additional virus identity files. Administrators can then download these files, install them on their file-servers and have them automatically deployed to every PC, within minutes. Two levels of alert are available: users can choose whether to be informed every time a new identity is made available, or only for those that Sophos consider to represent serious threats.

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.