03 Apr 2002
Sophos reduces virus threat with new gateway protection
Threat reduction technology protects against new and unknown
viruses
Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection, today
announced new threat reduction features in its gateway product
MailMonitor for SMTP which can help
prevent companies from being infected from previously unseen
viruses and email-aware worms. As well as protecting customers from
more than 73,000 known viruses at the email gateway, MailMonitor
for SMTP v1.1 also enables corporate customers to automatically
activate additional safe computing precautions.
For example, many of the most widespread new viruses generate
email attachments with double extensions to disguise themselves as
legitimate files, MailMonitor for SMTP v1.1 can block such
attachments - stopping these files from ever reaching users'
desktops.
Other emails and attachments that MailMonitor for SMTP v1.1 is
able to block include:
- Executable Windows/DOS files
- Attachments with specified filenames/extensions
- Attachments with specific subject lines
- Files that have been sent to an excessive number of
recipients
"Our threat reduction features will not only block known
viruses, but will also help prevent new ones from reaching the
desktop," said David Mitchell, MailMonitor product manager at
Sophos. "This provides an extra layer of protection from viruses
and enables safer computing. For example, blocking executable files
would have stopped recent outbreaks such as Sircam, Magistr and
Badtrans. By deploying this technology companies can dramatically
reduce their chances of being hit by the next big email-aware
worm."
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 complete security solutions that are simple to deploy, manage, and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, mobile and network security solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.