Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection, is
urging computer users not to treat Windows XP as a way of leaving
the current virus threat behind.
"The fact that there are no XP-specific viruses in the wild
seems to be leading people to the incorrect assumption that XP will
render them immune to virus attack, at least for a while," warns
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos Anti-Virus.
"Viruses don't just target specific operating systems - they infect
them all. Users shouldn't be lulled into a false sense of security
by treating Windows XP as some kind of implicit anti-virus
measure."
Cluley adds that although XP-specific viruses are inevitable,
this is not really Microsoft's fault. Viruses exist for a wide
range of platforms, including Macintosh, Unix, OS/2 and even IBM
mainframes. Vulnerability to viruses is a natural side-effect of an
operating system which is useable in the real world.
"Virus writers seem to have got off lightly in the past, with
Microsoft copping a lot of the blame on their behalf. This is like
blaming bricklayers for the graffiti which gets sprayed all over
the walls they build," continued Cluley.
The latest version of Sophos Anti-Virus works with Windows XP,
and is available for download from here.
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.