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Story URL: http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39120606,00.htm

Leader: Stopping unnecessary emails...
The message is sinking in...

By silicon.com

Published: Tuesday 11 May 2004

Far be it from silicon.com to get all 'it was us what won it' - but it wasn't that long ago we were complaining about the problem of false virus alert notifications created by antivirus software ...and now one vendor has removed the function.

More likely it was the weight of user complaints about the wrongly directed messages, often relating to a spoofed email address appearing in the 'from:' field, which caused the change of heart.

The alerts had become one of the most annoying features of any virus outbreak - and ironically it was often worse for those who weren't infected.

It's nothing new to see the prevention of viruses resulting in nasty side-effects - ask anybody who's ever taken Larium for malaria - but the online community was starting to lose patience with the disruption caused by the 'cure'.

It sounds like Symantec is the first of many established antivirus vendors to drop this outdated and problematic function and that can only be good news.

After all it is hard enough worrying about sifting the spam from the legitimate email without worrying about the software you use to block emails from your inbox creating even more problematic email.

Many consumers were unduly worried about an alert telling them they had a virus and many businesses were worried about the cumulative effect of hundreds, or thousands, of emails taking up storage space and bandwidth unnecessarily.

But hopefully once this thorn is removed from the sides of systems administrators they can get on with the business of cleaning up the more serious threats to their networks.