Trend Micro Gives Multiple Options To Stop Spyware

The toughest thing about fighting spyware is uncertainty: Malicious programs can hide inside a hard drive for days before striking. Trend Micro Inc. on Monday unveiled software that gives customers multiple options for uncovering and disposing of evasive spyware.

Trend Micro OfficeScan version 7.0 for viruses and spyware works at both the client and server levels. Customers can choose a desktop version of OfficeScan; a gateway version that protects multiple systems over the network, including systems that run a different brand of antivirus software; or both versions. The software lets security administrators set policies for individual and group access to data, and also available are cleanup services that can automatically remove any traces of an attack and restore clients and servers to preinfection state.

A five-seat client version of the software is priced at $35. A server edition, for Windows, Linux, and Novell, is priced at $26.40 per seat starting at a five-seat LAN. A combined version, for the server and desktop, is priced at $40 per seat for the five-seat license. Cleanup services are available for $50.80 per seat for the five-seat license.

David Friedlander, an analyst at Forrester Research, says many antivirus vendors haven't expanded their offerings to include anti-spyware capabilities. While the desktop version requires more work, a server version alone isn't as effective at stopping spyware, he says. "It's difficult to stop spyware at the gateway because it's so elusive," he says. "Malicious sites are always changing, and you'd have to know the sites that users shouldn't access."