Sophos Anti-Virus prepared to combat rampant computer-virus
situation in China
Singapore - Sophos, a world leader in anti-virus and anti-spam
protection for businesses, announced today the launch of its first
Chinese language anti-virus product, Sophos Anti-Virus, for the
mainland Chinese market. This move allows Sophos to protect
enterprises in China against the growing computer virus problem,
which have already attacked an estimated 85% of computers in China
this year.
According to the report published by the Chinese Ministry of
Public Security, as many as a third of China's computers may have
been hit by the Sobig-F worm (W32/Sobig-F), first seen in August
2003.
"Internet usage within the Chinese workplace is becoming more
pervasive. Enterprises that lack sufficient network security are at
risk of seeing their networks crippled and productivity hampered
unknowingly by employees accidentally opening virus-infected
files," remarked Nathan Midler, IDC Asia/Pacific Internet Research
Manager.
The official figures reflect the huge popularity of the internet
in China, where more than 68 million access the net. The down-side
is that more viruses than ever are exploiting email and the
internet to spread, and despite most viral emails being in English,
many recipients in China are still double-clicking on the
attachments.
"Computer viruses are oblivious to national boundaries," said Dr
Jan Hruska, co-founder and CEO of Sophos Plc. "Wherever you are in
the world, you should ensure your computer is running the latest
anti-virus protection. By localizing Sophos Anti-Virus into
simplified Chinese, we hope that many businesses in China will find
it easier to make use of the solution to defend themselves against
any computer virus, worm or Trojan."
Sophos Anti-Virus products are being distributed by Sophos's
partner in China, Data World Computer & Communications Ltd.
Certification of Sophos's anti-virus solutions was issued by the
Ministry of Public Security early this year.
Sophos Anti-Virus is a unique solution to the virus problem,
providing true cross-platform protection in a single, fully
integrated product. The network-centric design provides for single
point of installation, updating, and policy control across a
complete enterprise, including across multiple locations, and
across combinations of servers, workstations and laptop computers.
The company has built its reputation from a strong and loyal global
customer base. More than 60% of the company's worldwide turnover
comes from outside the UK.
Sophos has made available a free, constantly updated information feed for intranets and
websites which means users can always find out about the latest
viruses and hoaxes.
For more information about safe computing, including anti-hoax
policies, please visit: www.sophos.com/safecomputing/.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.