America Online Blocks Half a Billion Virus-Infected Emails from Reaching Its Members This Year.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 6, 2003

Each AOL Member Protected from Average of One Attack Every Two Weeks Since Automatic E-mail Anti-Virus Screening Launched This Spring

AOL's Automatic E-mail Screening and Premium Anti-Virus Service Offered Through Alliance with Network Associates

America Online, the world's leading interactive services company, today announced that it has blocked more than half a billion viruses from reaching its members since it launched automatic e-mail attachment screening this spring. The virus screening, which debuted in mid-April 2003, is offered through an alliance with Network Associates and uses the McAfee VirusScan service. Since the service was launched, AOL has protected each of its members from an average of 15 different virus attacks, or an attack every two weeks.

"With hundreds of new viruses released each month, anti-virus protection is not a luxury, but a necessity," said AOL Chief Trust Officer and Senior Vice President for Integrity Assurance Tatiana Gau. "And the risk from an unprotected broadband connection can be even greater -- potentially giving a hacker access to your family's most personal information, including bank accounts, family photos, confidential files, and private records. That's why AOL is proud that we've been able to quietly protect our members from more than half a billion virus attacks over the past seven months, and in doing so, helped keep their computers and families safe from cyber-assailants."

In addition to the half-billion total viruses blocked, AOL also announced:

-- The Company is now blocking roughly one million viruses each

day from reaching its members via e-mail;

-- The record number blocked on a single day was during the peak

of the Sobig.f outbreak on August 20th when AOL blocked

roughly 24 million worms in just 24 hours;

-- The most pervasive virus since April also has been the Sobig.f

worm, which infected roughly 350 million of the 500 million

total e-mail attachments that were blocked; and

-- The five most pervasive viruses since April (from #1 to #5)

have been: Sobig.f, Swen, Sobig.e, Fizzer, and Bugbear.b.

This spring, at no additional charge to AOL members, America Online began automatically scanning all incoming and outgoing attachments to members' e-mail each day for known viruses through the use of the McAfee anti-virus service. If a virus is detected, the attachment is automatically cleaned of the virus, or, if the virus cannot be fixed or quarantined, the e-mail is returned to the original sender with a notice that their attachment was infected.

The virus definitions are regularly updated and provided by the Network Associates' Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team (AVERT), whose virus definition database protects against roughly 83,000 known viruses and identifies an additional 300 new viruses each week.

In coordination with Network Associates, AOL also launched a premium McAfee anti-virus service this spring that not only scans e-mail but also offers comprehensive, PC-based protection for a member's entire machine, guarding against existing viruses on the PC, CD or floppy disk-based infections, hostile web page scripts, and other potential online and offline threats. Automatically updated when a member logs onto the AOL service, that premium service is available to members for an additional $2.95 per month.

Highlighting the dangers of an unprotected broadband connection, a study released in June by the National Cyber Security Alliance showed that the vast majority of broadband households do not have the protections they need against the dangers of an always-on connection. Nearly two-thirds of the broadband households analyzed in the study (62%) did not have recently updated anti-virus protection.

About America Online, Inc.

America Online, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. Based in Dulles, Virginia, America Online is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies and e-commerce services.