Security news
Security news8 December 2003
Dear Deidre gets virus advice from Sophos
Sophos secures PCs for The Sun's problem page team
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| Deidre Sanders protects her business with Sophos Anti-Virus |
Sophos, a world leader in anti-virus and anti-spam protection for business, today announced that Dear Deidre, the UK's best-known problem page, has selected its anti-virus software to provide automatic protection against viruses, worms and Trojan horses.
Published in The Sun since 1980, Deidre's column has established more than eleven million loyal readers a day, with trained counsellors responding to every single letter received. The agony column receives approximately 1,500 letters from readers each week, with two-thirds currently arriving by email. This growing reliance on email has meant that the Dear Deidre team has increasingly become exposed to the risk of virus infection.
Deidre's team was dissatisfied with its previous anti-virus protection as it caused application conflicts and even allowed infection from the Sircam virus. It chose to switch to the award-winning Sophos Anti-Virus along with the Sophos Enterprise Manager automatic update tool, as it was easy to install and keep up-to-date, even for those with little technical knowledge or time to devote to maintenance. The quality and availability of Sophos's customer support was also a major factor in the final decision.
"Over the past few years, we have seen more and more people choose to email us rather than use snail mail, so any disruption to our email service has an immediate negative impact on our readers," said Deidre Sanders, the problem page editor. "When our previous anti-virus solution let the Sircam virus through we were out of commission for four days. This was disastrous as we pride ourselves on timeliness, and when a reader's problem is urgent, we often need to reply within minutes."
"Small businesses want a product which is easy to use, and value for money from a company with a good reputation," said Oliver Carter, UK sales manager at Sophos. "Ideally they would like something that can be installed and forgotten about, something that will be updated automatically, and has an inclusive technical support service which will guide them through if there is a virus outbreak."
With as many as 800 new viruses emerging each month, it is vital to keep anti-virus protection constantly updated against the latest threats. Enterprise Manager allows businesses to automate anti-virus software updates and even specify the time and frequency of these downloads. This provides them with full control of their anti-virus protection. The application downloads both the most recently issued virus identities and Sophos software updates from a dedicated corporate website, ensuring that even during periods of heavy web traffic, updates via Enterprise Manager continue to arrive at the scheduled time.
About Dear Deidre
Dear Deidre, which appears daily in The Sun newspaper, is the UK's foremost agony column, with up to 11 million readers. Deidre Sanders, editor, is based in Bedfordshire and has a team of five trained counselors to respond to every reader enquiry received.
Read more about how Dear Deidre protects itself with Sophos Anti-Virus.
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About Sophos
Sophos enables enterprises all over the world to secure and control their IT infrastructure. Sophos's network access control, endpoint, web and email solutions simplify security to provide integrated defenses against malware, spyware, intrusions, unwanted applications, spam, policy abuse, data leakage and compliance drift. With over 20 years of experience, Sophos protects over 100 million users in nearly 150 countries with its reliably engineered security solutions and services. Recognized for its high level of customer satisfaction and powerful yet easy-to-use solutions, Sophos has received many industry awards, as well as positive reviews and certifications.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com
