New Mass Mailing `Goldfinger' Virus Discovered - Miami Firm 0Spam.Net Offers Free Protection to ISPs, Companies, Governmental and Non-Profit Organizations, Individuals and Families.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 17, 2004

0Spam.Net(TM) (Zero Spam Dot Net) is offering free protection against email delivery of the "Goldfinger" virus discovered today. Identifying characteristics of the virus are:

-- Subject: ID (random characters) thanks

-- Attachment: ends in ".exe"

When it runs, it starts a process called "au.exe" - Au is the symbol for gold and hence the name "goldfinger."

0Spam.Net offers free protection to the virus and any variants that might appear over the next 30 days. The offer is open to ISPs, companies, governmental or non-profit organizations, and extends to individuals and families as well. 0Spam.Net(TM) offers protection against viruses by removing them from email before they reach any computer or network device of the intended target. How does it work? In short, 0Spam.Net(TM) reroutes email to put itself between the sender of the virus and the intended recipient.

All that interested parties need to do is to sign up for a trial account at 0Spam.Net(TM)'s website: http://0spam.net/trial.php3 . After they sign up for the trial, companies, governmental and non-profit organizations will receive instructions on how to change their Internet Mail Exchanger Records (MX) so that email is sent through 0Spam.Net(TM)'s servers. Once those records are changed, the threat of delivery of the virus or any future variants via email is eliminated. Individual and family members are generally able to keep their current email address, and simply change where they pick up their email. ISPs should contact the company directly to arrange for service.

An extra bonus to the anti-virus protection is that 0Spam.Net(TM) also filters out unsolicited pornography, phishing (identity theft fraud scams) and other types of SPAM with an error rate of less than 1 in 2,000,000. 99.997% of all SPAM is detected and quarantined.

"Even for organizations that already have anti-virus protection on their gateways, servers and PCs, adding this layer of protection at no cost makes a lot of sense," says Jim Clarke, V.P. of Operations at 0Spam.Net(TM). "From a security architecture point of view, this will only add to the concept of 'Defense in Depth' - providing multiple layers of protection before reaching a security target." He adds, "We are still recommending that individuals also have anti-virus and personal firewall software on any PCs connected to the Internet, if they can afford it - that gives them 'Defense in Depth' as well."

Most Internet users can be covered by the free protection: "There are a few providers with whom our service is incompatible, but the majority of Internet users are eligible. For users with incompatible providers, we offer options for email hosting if you are a company, governmental or non-profit organization," said Bill Franklin, President of 0Spam.Net(TM) "If you're an individual or family and your ISP's service is incompatible, you can still use our service as a safe method of sending and receiving email, it's just that we can't automatically download and clean email from your existing account; you'll have to do the forwarding yourself or just use the 0Spam.Net(TM) email address supplied with your account." As to why the company is making this offer, Franklin adds, "We're hoping that those taking advantage of the offer will appreciate its value, in particular the way the service effortlessly removes unsolicited pornography, phishing, and other types of SPAM. We believe most will stay on as paying members of our service down the road."

About 0Spam.Net(TM):

0Spam.Net(TM) is the most accurate Anti-Spam solution in the world for eliminating Spam, Pornography, Phishing (Identity Theft Fraud) and Viruses from email. Solutions are offered for companies, governmental and non-profit organizations, as well as for individuals and families. 30-day trials are available for each type of account.