Email limits can slow virus spread

Restricting the number of emails a PC can send can slow down the speed of virus infections, researchers have found.

Matthew Williamson, a researcher at the Hewlett Packard laboratories in Bristol, found that imposing an email limit on PCs slowed down virus outbreaks long enough for technicians to eliminate them.

According to the BBC programme Go Digital, instead of trying to discover a way to kill a virus, Dr Williamson looked at how to prevent it from infecting other computers and delay its spread.

With a limit in place on the number of emails a PC can send, some viruses, which could be trying to send 100 or 200 infected messages, could be significantly slowed down, the programme reported.

Dr Williamson said that the only way virus writers would be able to find a way around the system was to develop slower-spreading viruses, but that in turn would give technicians more time to deal with them.