Sophos Joins Forces With Internet Watch Foundation To Fight Illegal Net Content

Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses against viruses, Trojans, spyware and spam, has today announced its membership of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the authorised UK organisation that combats illegal internet content.

As the number of computer users continues to rise, so does the variance and quantity of online content available to them. The experts at Sophos work closely with the IWF to combat the increasing threats present on the net, in particular images of child abuse and obscene and racist content.

SophosLabs, Sophos’s global network of threat analysis centres, detects a vast quantity of spam containing illicit material, and shares details of this with IWF. In addition, IWF will now provide Sophos with lists of known illegal websites, many of which send out obscene spam, enabling the company to report back to IWF, while better protecting its customers.

“We see it as our social duty to do all we can to prevent unsuspecting users from opening the disturbing material that spammers are wilfully churning out,” said Mark Harris, global director of SophosLabs. “We already advise the IWF of data on criminal spam and websites we encounter, so joining the organisation seemed the next logical step in our committed fight against the presence of offensive online content.”

“We are delighted that Sophos has chosen to join the IWF,” said Peter Robbins, CEO, IWF. “If we are to eradicate illegal content online, we need to attack these criminals from all angles, and preventing spam from filtering through to users’ computers plays a vital role in this clampdown.”