Earthlink Adds Symantec Anti-Virus

The major ISP adds another value-added service to protect subscribers in an increasingly hazardous Internet world.

by ISP-Planet Staff [November 17, 2003]

On Wednesday of last week, Earthlink announced that it has teamed up with Symantec to scan e-mail at the gateway. The new service is available at no additional charge to subscribers who sign up for it.

"Our objective is to educate customers," explains Matt Cobb, vice president of product development. "We want to give customers the tools to do what they want on the Internet."

Earthlink will make sure that subscribers are aware of the product as it goes about its business. "If we can clean it, we deliver the message and notify the customer that we've cleaned it," says Cobb. "If we cannot clean it, we quarantine it and notify the customer."

The customer may elect to read only the e-mail header, and then, if they still want the message, e-mail the sender and ask for a virus-free copy. The customer can also choose to open the message. Earthlink does not want to prohibit the customer from opening the message.

"We don't force our customers to do anything," enthuses Cobb. "They can choose to turn off popup blocking. Our anti-spyware service is also about informing the customer about what's installed on the system."

The company evaluated anti-virus solutions from both Symantec and McAfee. "We could have had a successful product with either solution."

Symantec competes fiercely with McAfee in several security industry markets. When, in 2002, Symantec acquired Recourse Technologies, it was viewed as a move to compete with McAfee in a new area.

Pressed for the specific reasons why the company chose Symantec, Cobb would only say, "we want what's best for our customers."

Symantec has been interested in the ISP market for some time. The company has been working with Earthlink since 2000, when it allowed the ISP to offer, for free, its Security Check service.

Today, Symantec allows ISPs to offer both gateway and client-side Symantec software to end users. Earthlink is planning to offer Symantec's client-side anti-virus software to customers as a premium service during the first quarter of 2004.

We had suspected that Symantec's popular SystemWorks software package, which includes Norton Utilities, would also be popular with ISPs, but the company confirmed that so far, none have contracted to offer it to their customers.

As computers, computer systems, and the problems they are afflicted with grow in complexity, holistic solutions like SystemWorks will become ever more popular. If ISP help desks continue to bear the brunt of problems, ISPs will look to repair software to ease the support burden.

Earthlink is moving in this direction. It already offers users anti-spyware, anti-spam, anti-virus, and popup blocking. Executives said that they are always looking at improving the customer experience, and are concerned with new threats to customers, such as ID theft.

For now, Earthlink is offering emergency anti-virus protection to all its customers. During the next outbreak (a matter of when, not if), Earthlink will turn on an "emergency mode" feature that will scan all mail for visues. Cobbs says that the policy is explained in the company's website and documentation. "We can flip on emergency mode and target just that virus," he says.

Earthlink's prepared. Are you?

— End