A computer virus cure

Recent news coverage of computer viruses and hackers shows that e-mail messages and attachments can be deadly to government and corporate networks.

But now, McAfee — a business unit of Network Associates Inc. — offers the first solution we've seen that combines hardware and software to stop the viruses at the gate. The WebShield e50 appliance (online at www.mcafeeb2b.com) is a firewall-independent antivirus scanner that plugs into virtually any existing network of up to 2,000 users. Administrators also will relish the remote manageability via the Internet-based WebShield SMTP client. WebShield e50 uses Outbreak Mana-ger, an antivirus technology, to monitor network e-mail messages by looking for activities that are representative of new virus outbreaks. It scans both inbound and outbound SMTP traffic, seeking infected attachments and messages. Once found, the infected messages are cleaned, rejected or quarantined. Outbreak Manager also informs the e-mail recipient and network administrator of the problem, and guards against malicious Java, ActiveX or JavaScript code.

Starting at $3,560, the device features a built-in status monitor for up-to-the-minute statistical information about McAfee WebShield e50 and the e-mail traffic — such as the number of e-mail messages scanned, the number of infected e-mails and the number of messages filtered for content. It also provides details about the average e-mail throughput and peak time utilization of users' systems.

Because virus security products are only as good as the most recent version, WebShield enlists AutoUpdate to ensure that you're always up to date with the latest Virus Definition Drivers.