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Ministry of Defence agency reveals unique anti-virus software


The Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), a Ministry of Defence science and technology organisation, has unveiled new software that it says will prevent e-mail viruses from spreading by monitoring what leaves e-mail boxes instead of the more traditional means of monitoring what comes into them.

The “Anna Kournikova” and “I love you” e-mail viruses crippled computer networks throughout the world within hours of their initial release. However, DERA believes that the rapid and uncontrolled distribution of such e-mail based viruses will soon be consigned to history, thanks to its "::Mail" application.

E-mail viruses like "Anna Kournikova" are propagated by simple Visual Basic (VB) scripts embedded in harmless looking e-mail file attachments. Once opened by unsuspecting users, these scripts automatically forward the rogue e-mail message to every address in the user’s e-mail contact list, resulting in infection of vast numbers of computer systems within an incredibly short period of time. DERA’s ::Mail software prevents such widespread infection by effectively blocking the propagation of e-mail based viruses.

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