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“We need to stop the virus at the ISP gateway itself”


In light of the recent attacks by the Nimda and Code Red worm, anti-virus solutions have suddenly assumed significant importance. Leigh Costin, product manager, A-PAC, Symantec, a leading player in this space, speaks about  the direction in which this market is heading.

* What trends do you see in the anti-virus space?There is a new trend emerging in the market today. Earlier, a single solution was sufficient for controlling viruses, but today, single tier defence systems do not offer protection from such attacks as was made evident by the Nimda and Code Red virus. We are seeing blended threats in the form of a combination attack by Viruses, Trojans and Worms. As blended viruses are designed to get past single-tier defence systems, the need of the hour is a multi-layered defence system, which will be able to counter this threat.

* What solutions does Symantec offer to counter these threat?There are different types of protection available in the market today in the form of firewalls, desktop anti-virus, gateway/e-mail anti-virus and IDS. Multi-layered defence systems, if properly configured, can stop or mitigate blended threats. CarrierScan Server is a solution designed to stop viruses at the ISP gateway itself.

* How successful has CarrierScan been in controlling viruses?CarrierScan’s anti-virus scanning engine uses core Symantec technologies like LiveUpdate and BloodHound and works with a variety of applications and protocols such as e-mail, NAS etc. The solution is completely scalable with automatic load balancing and is designed to stop all known viruses and new ones which resemble an existing one or have the same components as the original. As a matter of fact, we have been successful in eliminating new versions of Nimda before they hit systems the world over. However, all said and done, the chances of stopping an unknown virus are low.

* Do you see more and more corporates outsourcing their security needs?Most corporates today are open to the idea of outsourcing. For example, Xerox has outsourced their security needs to us. We see more of a trend where parts would be outsourced to solution providers depending on their core competencies. Managed security solutions is an area, which will take off. One reason why this process has still not taken off is because there are very few qualified people who understand technology and security issues. It may take a decade before total outsourcing takes place.

* Do you have any tie-ups with ISPs for installing your solution at the entry level itself?Most viruses pass through an ISP gateway and through the same ISP after it has replicated and forwarded itself to other addresses. We need to stop the virus at the ISP gateway itself. Currently, we don’t have any tie-ups with ISPs but are in talks with some of them.

This interview first appeared in Express Computer.

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