Anti-virus vendors at odds over '100 per cent' guarantee

A row has developed between two of the biggest sellers of anti-virus services in the UK after Trend Micro wrote to MessageLabs and accused it of dishonesty over its "100 per cent virus protection" guarantee.

MessageLabs has hit back by accusing Trend Micro of "desperation" in its tactics.

Jos White, marketing director for MessageLabs, said: "This smacks of sour grapes and desperation from Trend. It is losing business, and coming up against customers who are asking why it can't guarantee 100 per cent protection."

White added: "Obviously we thought long and hard before making this claim. We wouldn't have done it if we couldn't stand by it."

The row has developed after Trend Micro UK wrote to MessageLabs in August asking it to reconsider its "100 per cent virus protection" claim.

It also challenged the claim that MessageLabs was the first to offer an email scanning service delivered at internet level, claiming to have won that race with its InterScan VirusWall product.

While Trend today stressed there was no explicit legal threat in the letter, it has admitted the correspondence was drafted by its lawyers.

MessageLabs has not responded to the letter. White said: "We had our lawyers look at this and we didn't think it was worthy of a reply."

MessageLabs claims it can guarantee virus protection because it manages the software itself and provides it to customers as a service. It is harder for other anti-virus companies to make similar claims because customers look after and manage their own software - taking it out of the vendor's direct control.

MessageLabs claims to have never had a customer infected since launching the service three years ago.