Sophos, one of the world's leading anti-virus developers, today
criticised Computer Associates (CA) for adding to the hysteria
regarding Y2K-related viruses.
On the morning of December 31st 1999 Computer Associates issued
approximately half a dozen press releases about new computer
viruses - some of which were not in the wild, and some of which
have no connection whatsoever with the Year 2000 date change.
Simon Perry, business manager of security at Computer
Associates, was quoted as saying: "We are warning our clients of
every new verified virus that comes out during this sensitive Y2K
period."
This suggests that we might see a press release for every new
virus seen by CA's analysts over the year-end, even for viruses
which are not in-the-wild and are never likely to be.
"During 1999, the virus count in Sophos Anti-Virus rose by 29831
-- an average of 82 a day.", said Graham Cluley, senior technology
consultant for Sophos Anti-Virus, "So if CA really mean what they
say, we should expect up to 410 press releases about new computer
viruses between December 31st 1999 and January 4th 2000. Clearly
this is absurd."
Sophos believes that CA's policy is extremely unhelpful to
system administrators and only helps to further damage the
credibility of the entire anti-virus industry.
There is simply no evidence that companies are more likely to be
infected by a computer virus over the Y2K period than any other day
of the year.
Sophos recommends that users do not worry unnecessarily about
viruses which do not pose a true threat, and be just as security
conscious over the Y2K period as you would at any other time of the
year. Press releases and media stories hyping up viruses which are
not in the wild should be ignored.
Sophos continues to offer a free email alert service for
customers which notifies users of new viruses that are discovered
in the wild, 365 days of the year. This is one of the best ways in
which users can keep themselves informed of the true virus
threat.
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.