Virus protection sucks £1m from the Whitehall coffers

The UK government has bought anti-virus protection from MessageLabs in a deal worth more than £1m per year.

The Government Secure Intranet (GSI), the central body which runs most of the government's IT functions, has bought MessageLabs' SkyScan managed anti-virus service to protect hundreds of thousands of desktops and laptops from malicious code.

The deal covers most departments throughout Whitehall, such as the Treasury, the Prime Minister's Office, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Defence.

Government PCs were previously protected from viruses with desktop and gateway scanners but the deal with MessageLabs provides an extra layer of security.

SkyScan blocks any suspect virus even before it reaches the user's desktop, according to Jos White, one of the founders of Messagelabs.

"The government is already using a traditional protection method, but this type of software could not protect them against the new breed of mass-mailing viruses, such as Love Bug and Sircam," he said.

MessageLabs is based in the UK and has offices in Hong Kong and the US. It employs 350 people worldwide.