UK government wants you ... to buy its anti virus software

The government's defence evaluation and research agency (DERA) is gearing itself up for the vagaries of the commercial world by releasing its own anti-virus product.

DERA will become a plc in July, and is trying to raise its profile by making a tool called SyBard::Mail available to corporates. The software is designed to slow, or halt, the spread of viruses by asking the user to confirm each email they send.

Simon Wiseman, a DERA Fellow, said making the software available on the web is in part a bid to raise the Agency's profile as it attempts to make inroads into the corporate security market.

Wisman explained QinetiQ (as DERA will be known as of 1 July - pronounced kinetic) will be "levering off" the technologies of other security vendors. He described DERA's tools as "providing extra glue" to these technologies.

Wiseman said of security vendors: "They are telling us they don't need us, but just look at Homepage. It was the same as Kournikova but it ran riot, so how can they tell us they don't need us?"

Wiseman was responding to criticism from anti-virus vendors who have labelled the software as "intrusive", claiming that it actually defeats the object of protection by allowing viruses into the system in the first place.

While welcoming new tools, Network Associates said it would rather users were not left to make decisions about security.

Jack Clark, European product manager at the company, cited 'polite viruses', which ask the user if they would like to be infected. User naivety continues to see these types of virus regularly chart in the top 100 lists, according to Clark.

DERA's Wiseman claimed that by involving users and getting them to understand the issues DERA will tackle security problems effectively.

You can download the software at http://www.dera.gov.uk/sybard