Symantec takes bite off virus-ID spam

Symantec has shown the way for other antivirus firms to finally end the proliferation of false virus notifications, which wrongly identify the source of an e-mail-borne virus and add to the general deluge swamping users' inboxes. Users who remain uninfected by computer viruses still often see a huge increase in e-mail traffic as they are inundated with notifications resulting from spoofed e-mail addresses in the 'from:' field. These wrongly tell them they've sent a virus when, generally, it is in fact somebody whose address book in which they appear that has been infected.

Some users have been getting so frustrated at the high numbers of such e-mails that they have been dubbed "as annoying as spam", according to Greg Day, solutions architect at rival antivirus firm McAfee.

Symantec said concerns about system resources and storage as well as employee productivity played a major part in the planning of the product.

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