An e-mail virus is computer code sent to you as an e-mail note attachment which, if activated, will cause some unexpected and usually harmful effect, such as destroying certain files on your hard disk and causing the attachment to be remailed to everyone in your address book. Although not the only kind of computer virus, e-mail viruses are the best known and undoubtedly cause the greatest loss of time and money overall.
Research firm Computer Economics estimates the total costs related to cleaning viruses from infected systems, lost productivity, and restoring damaged files reached $10.7 billion through August of this year. The firm also estimated that viruses cost businesses $17.1 billion in 2000 and $12.1 billion in 1999.
Michael Erbschloe, VP of research at Computer Economics, says that one more major outbreak such as last year's LoveBug virus, or this year's Code Red worm, could push virus-related costs for 2001 over last year's $17.1 billion. However, Erbschloe says most large companies hit by last year's outbreaks have reduced virus-related costs this year by taking precautions, such as installing anti-virus software.
Block new or emerging "zero hour" virus threats before those threats can be detected by traditional signature-based AV solutions.
NoSpam Mail Protection’s antivirus definitions are updated in near real-time. These frequent updates can protect an organization against fast-moving viruses that may not be caught with an internal antivirus solution. Additionally, NoSpam Mail Protection incorporates a zero-hour antivirus solution that can detect email threats at the time of an initial outbreak, before those threats can be detected by traditional signature-based antivirus engines.
Source(s):
SearchMidmarketSecurity.com Definitions
(http://searchmidmarketsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid198_gci214549,00.html)
InformationWeek "Virus Costs Estimated At $10.7 Billion " By George V. Hulme
(http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=6506829)
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