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 latest product 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:

Sophos is one of the world’s largest specialist developers of anti-virus software. The products are sold and supported through a global network of subsidiaries and partners in more than 150 countries. Sophos Anti-Virus is widely used by large corporations, banks and governments.