Southampton scanner provides high level of protection from computer viruses and cyberterrorism

Computer experts at the University of Southampton have just released a new version of their hugely popular free-to-use email security system MailScanner, offering a high level of protection to companies and institutions wanting to safeguard their computer networks from viruses and the potential threat of cyberterrorism.

Developed by Julian Field of the University of Southampton’s world-renowned Department of Electronics and Computer Science, MailScanner processes over 500 million email messages every day around the world, removing 2 million viruses and identifying 75 million spam messages.

It is already in use at 20,000 sites around the world protecting top government departments, commercial corporations and educational institutions, including the University of Southampton itself, and is becoming a standard feature of many Internet Service Providers.

’In the current global climate, the possibility of cyberterrorism is an ever-growing threat and protection against viruses and other email-based attacks is now more important than ever before,’ explains Julian Field.

’The US Department of Homeland Security recognizes that the Internet is a core part of the economy and the US intelligence community has warned of the growing threat of
cyberterrorism. By making MailScanner available to companies we hope to help reduce the spread of such attacks.’

MailScanner scans all e-mail for viruses, spam and attacks against security vulnerabilities. It is not tied to any particular virus scanner, but can be used with any combination of 14 different virus scanners, allowing sites to choose the “best of breed” virus scanners. Being open source, site administrators can audit and verify the integrity of the system.