Return to home page Flexible Broadband Services from Eclipse Internet - ISPA awarded: Best business broadband provider 2003

A registered company in England & Wales No 3532959 VAT No: 741 5151 58
Deploy Sophos antivirus & client firewall to protect your network...

"1 in every 22 emails sent across the internet is currently infected by the Sober-N worm - making this one of the biggest virus outbreaks of the year," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. See the latest threats here

We provide a composite solution for dealing with the threat from viruses

Clients with hosted domains deploying Terrapin Multinet and Sophos Antivirus benefit from a multi tier solution.

There are three effective scanning & interception processes, one completely external and two internal

1. Mail can be virus scanned before delivery to the local mail server with Vexira Mail Armor using heuristic technology to identify virus behaviour. Updates are applied automatically, and any threats removed from your incomming mail.

This facility is available via our own domain mailboxes which includes spam filtering.

2. Mail is distributed via Terrapin Multinet with the Sophos engine to scan the incomming and outgoing mail queue. E-mail with viruses is rejected before delivery with an alert, updates are applied automatically from Sophos and distribute them to client computers, maintaining the local antivirus signatures. Hostile attachments such as .exe, .vbs & .bat can be blocked.

3. Finally, Sophos is installed on each client PC with updates distributed from the server, should a virus be detected, the administrator receives a network alert .

Sophos users - should a virus be detected, these are useful links

Facts

  • Depending on the size of your business, a virus infection will cost anything from £2000 upwards in lost productivity, downtime and recovery
  • Your customers may also be affected if the virus outbreak spreads to them and their confidence in your organisation lost
  • This complete, effective solution using a 5 user Terrapin Multinet mail server and a 5 user Sophos license with updates for 12 months costs from around £500 + VAT to implement including domain hosting for 1 year and provides your network and computers with the ultimate protection. Your clients and customers will respect a professional effective solution with minimal maintenance
  • A Terrapin Multinet license comes with support for 12 months, during which you will also be entitled to any upgrades released
  • Once Terrapin Multinet is installed and configured it is easy to administer with our guide provided for each installation
  • Approximately 1 in 50 E-mails has a virus so if you get 20 e-mails a day you risk a virus infection about twice a week. During most virus outbreaks this ratio is a lot lower & hence risk is much higher.

We Advise

General
  • Signup for advance virus notification from Sophos, recieve advance alerts then update antivirus signatures
  • Use a good quality virus checker and update it at least daily - out of date anti virus software is useless - update Sophos here
  • Be aware that viruses may exploit open ports such as 444 by blaster and are transmitted by other means than e-mail
  • Do not install peer file sharing software ie Limewire / Kazaa, to do so allows uncontrolled access to your computer
  • Be extremly careful when signing up for subscription services, they may leave ports open for expolitation by hackers and trojans
  • Treat unfamiliar e-mail with suspicion, particually from an unknown sender with a message of a personal nature
  • Do not pass on warnings about viruses, most of them are false and may involve removing files, verify them here.
  • Use a firewall, software is OK for dialup but with ADSL a router with a firewall and NAT translation is essential
  • Visit the Microsoft web site and download the latest security fixes for Internet Explorer in particular, the latest patches for Blaster
  • Use a spam filter on your domain or a product like Mail Washer Pro to blow away spam and reduce the e-mail being processed before delivery
  • Consider using a secure web browser such as Opera or Firefox they are less vulnerable to exploits than Internet Explorer
Server side - but some also be relevant to standalone
  • Block attachments such as .com .bat .pif .scr & .txt many of which are used for virus delivery
  • Deny access to Kazaa and web sites offering similar peer file sharing services
  • If you have Terrapin Multinet with antivirus option installed test your solution with a benign (harmless) virus
  • Use a hardware firewall (ie sonicwall), mandatory if you have a fixed IP address or run a VPN
  • If you run a network consider deploying a multi tiered solution
  • Scan outgoing as well as incomming mail to prevent an internal outbreak spreading to customers or clients
  • Educate end users, if they do get a virus dont make a fuss or make them feel embarrassed, it may be your fault anyway
  • Allow users to use their corporate e-mail account for personal use, this is more secure than Hotmail blowing a hole in your defences
  • Finally visit the Microsoft web site and download the latest security fixes for Internet Explorer in particular, the latest patches for Blaster