Users reject antivirus outsourcing

Businesses don't want to outsource the management of their antivirus (AV) software, even though vendors claim this is the best way to cope with major virus outbreaks.

Speaking at the Virus Bulletin conference in Orlando last week, John Bloodworth, a security systems engineer at Network Associates, said that AV software vendors should automatically deliver software updates to customers as an additional service.

"In my eyes, [the] movement [should be] to remove as much burden, stress and responsibility of protection from the customer as possible, and place it in the hands of those who are best trained and qualified to deal with it," he said.

However, Bloodworth's comments were interrupted by conference attendees who cited two main reasons for not moving to an application service provider (ASP) model for virus protection - trust and cost.

"When my company looked into this model, the cost came to more than the software and my salary added together," said one delegate. Another, when asked by Bloodworth: "Don't you trust us?" replied "No".

But Bloodworth remained adamant. "In the business world, it is becoming increasingly commonplace to outsource IT issues to organisations with expertise in a given field. It makes sense that we should offer the ability to outsource such an important area as AV to companies, so that they no longer have to rely on themselves for protection," he said.

He predicted that there would be one more Love Bug style virus attack in the next 18 months.

"We have not seen the last of virus disasters yet. Following recent trends, and the increase in the frequency of these events, I suspect we will see one in the very near future," he said. "I also think that it will be a very damaging outbreak on a scale with Love Bug, if not exceeding it."

He explained that this sort of outbreak would force companies to consider outsourcing AV management. "They are going to look to the solutions I have mentioned, so that they no longer have to think about their virus protection and can stop worrying about which email attachments they can and cannot open," he said.

"If more and more organisations take on the ASP virus solution, then it means that we are going to gain stronger control over the spread of viruses, and there will be a much reduced chance of any more outbreaks occurring," he added.