Spreading Malicious Code This Holiday Season
RISE IN HOLIDAY E-MAIL GREETINGS EXPECTED DUE TO MAIL SCARES; BUT WILL THEY DELIVER MORE THAN HOLIDAY CHEER?
UNSUSPECTING INTERNET USERS COULD BE SPREADING E-MAIL VIRUSES, WORMS, AND MALICIOUS CODE WITH THEIR SEASONS GREETINGS
E. Northport, NY (October 23, 2001)*Use of e-mail over the next several months is expected to increase substantially as the escalating anthrax investigation transforms traditional mail into an apprehensive form of communication. Coupled with the vast number of Internet users expected to send electronic cards this holiday season, well- wishers could be spreading more than holiday cheer.
According to a recent report by Forrester Research, more than half of all Americans use e-mail for an average of 30 minutes a day. The potential for a major increase in email usage during the holiday season is significant with the easy access, cost effectiveness, and safety factor of E-cards, which are available in multiple languages and can include a variety of different attachments. Employees, however, may be putting their organization at risk when they receive the next Internet virus within or attached to a seemingly innocent or well-meaning e-mail message. This “Holiday Season” a preemptive groupware security solution may be the best gift for corporate networks around the world.
Due to the desire to connect with so many people at one time, holiday gifts cards are and easy last minute way to send out a holiday cheer, joke, or screen saver. Coupled with the economically attractive alternative of eliminating the need to buy and mail holiday cards, and fears associated with the current threats in the US, sending an e-card is an extremely appealing alternative to sending friends and colleagues a holiday message. However, well meaning friends, family, and colleagues may be sending more than just a virtual holiday wish. Just one virus packaged within an e-card could quickly infect a company’s entire messaging infrastructure, wreaking havoc on network and servers, which ultimately affects an organization’s productivity.
“An unsuspecting mail user could receive an e-mail thought to be carrying a holiday card, or screensaver which is actually carrying the next worm virus if their corporate networks aren’t protected,” said Tom Buoniello, vice president of product management for Sybari Software. “With Antigen installed on groupware servers, you may find that even if we capture more than season’s greetings, your network will remain happy and healthy.”
While traditional antivirus products scan email for harmful viruses after the file has reached sensitive parts of networks, Sybari’s groupware antivirus and security experts strategically station its premier antivirus and security solution, Antigen, to stand guard and scan messages before they reach a company’s server or groupware, where they could propagate and inflict severe damage.
Sybari’s approach to achieving the highest levels of protection is to be preemptive and strategic. That’s why Antigen is placed on the messaging or groupware server to efficiently detect, contain, remove and eliminate virus threats–especially those smart enough to elude firewalls and other security measures placed at the network boundary through a previously unidentified vulnerability or back door. Antigen also scans both inbound and outbound email to eradicate the spread of viruses.
Sybari continues to lead the industry in delivering comprehensive anti-virus, content-management, and e-mail security solutions by offering its users a multi-option defense strategy. The company recently added new functionality to Antigen designed to eliminate suspect e-mail and Spam based on all or part of its subject line, as well as by sender and domain name. This new feature further strengthens Antigen’s robust content management capabilities, which currently includes Antigen File Filtering(tm) (AFF) and Antigen Worm Purge(tm). AFF enables administrators to proactively filter e-mail based on several filters including subject line, attachment filename, wildcards, and by file type. Antigen Worm Purge(tm) is a proactive safeguard tool against worms burrowing into e-mail networks, enabling network administrators to prevent the overload of virus-generated messages churned out when worm viruses are unleashed in an environment. Worm Purge deletes messages containing worm viruses in their entirety and prevents new worm threats from spreading before scanner engines can be updated. Other new content management tools that Antigen provides are the ability to filter or scan messages by subject line, sender, and domain name.
“In anticipation of these types of holiday greetings, we have suggested to our customers to put Antigen’s file and subject line-filtering features into play,” recommends, Buoniello. “By using Antigen to filter all .exe, .vbs, or non-typical files sent via email, company’s can not only take precautionary measures against possible infection, they can eliminate bandwidth intensive spam holiday messages that arrive, ultimately saving them a significant amount of time and money. We also recommend that you send a friendly e-mail reminder with your corporate e-mail and internet use policy’s warning users of these possible virus hits.”
Antigen also delivers multiple virus scan engine support with five of the leading scan engine technologies from Network Associates, Sophos, Norman Data Defense, and the Etrust antivirus engines from Computer Associates. The multiple scan engine manager is available for all Antigen scan jobs, and allows administrators to customize and configure a variety of settings and options at each level.
ABOUT SYBARI
Since 1995, Sybari has the led the market in providing innovative solutions to groupware-based virus and security threats. Today, over 5 million Microsoft Exchange/Outlook and Lotus Domino/Notes seats are virus-free as a direct result of Sybari’s Antigen technology. Sybari’s Antigen is unsurpassed in providing protection of corporate messaging environments. Antigen’s unique architecture institutes a preemptive line of defense from viruses and malicious code. Antigen for Microsoft Exchange and Antigen for Lotus Domino are distributed in more than 50 countries through Sybari’s worldwide locations and distribution network. Sybari is headquartered in East. Northport, New York with an EMEA headquarters in Madrid, Spain and an Asia Pacific Headquarters in Singapore. Sybari’s clients include IBM, Amazon.com, Cable & Wireless, Compaq, Con Edison, Dell, Deloitte & Touche, Eastman Chemical, Getronics, JD Power, Lufthansa, Mayo Foundation, Merrill Lynch, Nortel, Pirelli, Reckitt Benckiser, Sony, Target, Texaco, Tosco, Union Pacific, US Federal Government, and Visa. Sybari’s many strategic partners include Lotus Development (NYSE:IBM), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Computer Associates (NYSE:CA), Compaq (NYSE:CPQ), and Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW).
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Antigen and the Antigen logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sybari Software, Inc. All other company or product names mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.