Changes to the Sophos Alert System Mailing List

The number of new malware samples seen on a daily basis by SophosLabs continues to grow exponentially. Following a review of the use of this Sophos Alert System mailing list and the updating mechanisms used by our customers, Sophos will be making several changes to the mailing lists and downloads available to customers over the next few months. As a result of these changes Sophos will be able to increase the number of virus updates released every day substantially, thereby providing even faster and better protection against malware.

The changes are as follows:

• Individual IDE files will not be available for download from www.sophos.com website from March 2008. Customers are encouraged to use one of the automated update mechanisms available from Sophos to receive their updates. Alternatively users can download the ides.zip file from www.sophos.com. This zip archive contains all the ide updates released since the last monthly engine update. Other zip archives are available for customers using older engines although users are encouraged to stay up to date and should not use an engine more than 3 months old.
• Starting in January 2008, the format of emails from the existing alert service, Sophos Alert System, will change in line with the new alert service, Sophos Update Alert.
• The existing alert service, Sophos Alert System, will then cease to send update alerts from March 2008. Subscribers are encouraged to sign up to one of the three new mailing lists below should they wish to continue to receive this information. An email announcing their live status will be sent in December. On subscribing to one or more of the above mailing lists, you will automatically be removed from the current update alert service.
• Three new subscription lists have been created to provide more targeted satisfaction of customer needs:
  • Sophos Update Alerts
    This email is designed for use by existing automated systems that rely on a trigger email from Sophos. However this is not a recommended process. This service will continue to provide an alert following the release of a new virus update. As the number of virus updates increases, so will the number of update alerts received increase. This new alert email will not contain information about the update itself, only announcing that an update has taken place. Customers who require more information every time a new identity is released should subscribe to the Latest Virus Alert RSS/Atom feeds from www.sophos.com/feeds.
    To subscribe to this service please send an email to updatealert-subscribe@lists.sophos.com
  • Sophos Daily Update Digest
    This email is for those customers wanting basic information about recent identity updates. Initially this subscription will simply provide a link to the information available on the Sophos website. From March, this email will provide subscribers with a daily digest about the updates released in the previous 24 hours.  This information can also be viewed by subscribing to our RSS feeds or by visiting www.sophos.com/security/last-24-hours.html.
    To subscribe to this service please send an email to updatedigest-subscribe@lists.sophos.com.
  • Sophos Protection News
    This newsletter will be a regular review of the updates released over the previous month, providing some statistics and analysis of these releases.  This information will also be found on the SophosLabs blog which provides an easy way of keeping abreast of the very latest information about malware seen by our global network of analysts. This mailing list will also be used by SophosLabs to send out any urgent notifications about malware outbreaks where significant action should be taken.
    To subscribe to this service please send an email to protection-subscribe@lists.sophos.com.