POSTINI PROTECTS AGAINST SIRCAM.

A dramatic increase in the volume of SIRCAM virus has been identified by Postini, Redwood, Calif., a leader of real-time virus and spam protection.

Postini processes millions of email messages each day for their customers and typically identifies 1 virus in approximately 1000 email messages. The SIRCAM virus has recently been detected and quarantined by Postini at a rate of 1 in approximately 113 messages.

This is a high-risk virus that can cause serious damage to data and computer hard drives. Email users should not open attachments, even from known senders unless they are expecting them. Even then, users should verify with the sender that the attachment is legitimate.

SIRCAM is a particularly difficult virus to detect for email administrators who do not have up-to-the-minute virus protection. SIRCAM propagates itself by emailing copies to all entries in an infected users inbox, the same tactic that the ILOVEYOU virus exploited.

But unlike ILOVEYOU, the SIRCAM virus is not easily identified. It creates a randomly generated subject line. This means Email administrators cannot simply yell "Don't open an email with 'SIRCAM' as the subject line," since the subject line will change randomly.

Making it even more nefarious, SIRCAM hides itself in the infected user's Recycle Bin, where most virus scanners don't check.

SIRCAM is a dangerous virus, in that it can destroy data. Once it has infected the system, SIRCAM generates a random number, and based on this number and other factors, it can do the following:

-- Fill up the hard disk by adding text to a system file

-- Delete all files on the hard disk

-- Append a randomly selected document on the system, and email it to all entries in the email address book

Stopping SIRCAM at the email gateway is the most effective protection. The administrative approach to keeping client software up to date does not scale with these outbreaks. Postini's patent-pending inline SMTP infrastructure, with antivirus technology supplied by Trend Micro, gives email administrators a powerful first line of defense for their complete email system.

For more information, visit http://www.postini.com or call 650/482-3114.