A cage for the viruses that get in

Although the recent NetWorld+Interop show in Atlanta was unusually quiet, one company that made a splash was SentryBay, a newcomer offering software designed to prevent the spread of e-mail viruses.

The start-up says the world needs its product because, even though most organizations use antivirus software, we all know that some viruses and worms always manage to get in. When they do, SentryBay's ViraLock is designed to prevent them from getting back out, saving you the embarrassment of infecting customers, partners and colleagues.

ViraLock achieves this by encrypting e-mail addresses kept in Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express (running on Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP). SentryBay plans to add versions for Netscape, Eudora, Pegasus Mail and Juno.

Most viruses that use e-mail to propagate arrive with their own SMTP engine, harvest your addresses and start to blast away. Because ViraLock encrypts mail addresses, an infected desktop will start generating nondeliverable messages when a virus tries to send mail, alerting users to the fact that something nefarious is going on.

Users can decrypt addresses by entering a password, but otherwise ViraLock simply unscrambles them in background mode as the client mail program sends messages. Viruses that try to use the client program to propagate will run into another roadblock: ViraLock blocks distribution of all messages with potentially problematic attachments. Attachments that are known to be harmless, such as GIFs and JPEGs, are allowed through. But attachments with extensions such as .EXE, .DLL and .VBE require the user to enter a password before they can be forwarded.

Attachments that fall in the middle ground - neither trusted nor known to be dangerous - require user confirmation before they are sent.

While clever and potentially valuable, one wonders if companies will be inclined to use software that mucks with their core mail systems. I imagine that would be a deal breaker for many.

And the other big question is whether companies will be willing to let users encrypt addresses using personally managed keys. That could lead to some interesting help-desk calls.

But if the thought of passing viruses on to key business partners gives you the willies, ViraLock might be worth a look. The downloadable desktop product will be available Oct. 15 for $20 (volume discounts available), and SentryBay says the server version will be out later this year and priced in the mid-$20 range.

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