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18 Sep 2006

Australia's Volunteer Coast Guards protected by Sophos

Sophos Anti-Virus solution deployed at 63 command centers around Australian coast

The Australian Volunteer Coast Guard Association
Sophos Anti-Virus protects the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard Association

Sophos, a world leader in computer security, has again renewed the Sophos Anti-Virus solution licences that it first donated to The Australian Volunteer Coast Guard Association back in 2000.

The Association was founded in 1961 and is staffed entirely by some 3,000 unpaid volunteers who provide a range of services to open water users, not least being offshore search and rescue operations around Australia's 19,650 kilometres (12,210 miles) of coastline. The Association's assets include more than 100 rescue vessels and 147 radio bases.

Acknowledging Sophos's continued support, the Association's Captain Kris Eriksen - himself a volunteer and a senior IT manager in the commercial world when not wearing his Coast Guard uniform - said the Sophos Anti-Virus solution is deployed at the Association's 63 Flotillas (land-based command centers) around Australia.

"For our people out at the Flotillas where there may or may not be any computer skills, the Sophos presence is virtually transparent," explained Eriksen. "All they need to know is that, with Sophos AutoUpdate, new updates will download and install automatically. There's nothing to it."

Kris said he had negotiated the Sophos sponsorship when the company first opened its Australian office and that the anti-virus security had performed flawlessly ever since.

"The Australian Volunteer Coast Guard Association is all about safety and security on the unforgiving seas. Sophos is in the same business in the equally, and increasingly, dangerous world of the internet and we are most grateful to the company for its continued generosity," continued Kris Eriksen.

Sophos provides 24x7 support to the Association, protecting against malware attacks around the clock.

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.