LATEST VIRUS TROUBLES COMPOUNDED BY SHOCKING NEW DISCOVERY

ONE ANGRY END USER ASKS -- "WHO'S WRITING ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE -- BEAVIS &
BUTTHEAD?"

ABINGDON, England---International virus watchdog publication, Virus
Bulletin, is reporting the discovery of several new viruses in the wild,
one of which, "Satanbug" is reported to be spreading rapidly in the United
States.

The issue isn't a small one for U.S. companies. Rockwell International
recently revealed that it spent more than $44,000 to recover from an
infection in April. The company said the incident was one of more than
1,000 virus attacks it has dealt with since 1988.

And now tests conducted by Virus Bulletin at its offices in England show
companies such as Rockwell and even individuals are not as well armed
against virus attacks as first thought.

In what the publication called a "shock", it discovered in a test of six
leading antivirus software products, that all but one of the manufacturers
are not updating the memory-resident portion (TSRs) of their products.
According to the publication: Despite the products' claims of being able
to "catch all known viruses," many of the products' TSRs are allowing a
large number of viruses to go undetected.

Anti-virus software usually consists of multiple components: A scanner and
a TSR. The scanner typically runs each time a computer is turned on and
scans memory, DOS and program files on a hard drive looking for viruses
that have already infected a system. The TSR works to keep viruses from
entering a system in the first place, by staying in the computer's memory
watching for viruses trying to gain entrance.

Vims Bulletin editor Richard Ford speculated as to why companies would make
claims for complete detection when the TSR portions of their packages did
not have the capability, "This difference may have been lost along the way
between the technical people and the marketing people at the companies in
question," he said. "People might think twice if they knew," he noted.

According to Virus Bulletin tests, the TSR portion of McAfee Associates'
Viruscan, which claims the industry's highest level of virus detection,
was able to detect only 78.8% of the viruses tested against it, a
significant drop from its scanner's effectiveness. A similar drop in
protection was found in Central Point's Anti-Virus and Frisk Software's
F-PROT. Microsoft's anti-virus component of its new MS-DOS 6 brought up
the rear by catching just 58.4% of the viruses tested.

The two programs showing good marks from these tests were RG Software's
Vi-Spy, with a perfect score (its scanner and TSR detected the same
viruses), and Dr. Solomon's Toolkit and Guard, which missed just a few.

The disparity between the products' claims and actual performance is
causing anger among users.

"We transmit and receive electronic data to and from our clients every
day," said David Merrill, vice president of a Manhattan executive search
firm. "If I can't rely on my TSR to keep viruses out, 1 run the risk of
infecting a dozen or so clients before my scanner tells me I have a
problem the next day. I'm supposed to feel good about that type of
protection? Who's writing anti-virus software - Beavis & Butthead?"

"I'm disappointed in some of the software vendors," said Charlie Atterbury,
coordinator of micro computer security at a FORTUNE 50 company with 35,000
PCs. "They're taking the easy way out so they can use the marketing hype
that 'my TSR takes less memory than other guys.' And the real reason is
they aren't doing the job. I have to wonder what they are thinking," Mr.
Atterbury said.

Phil Talsky, spokesman for McAfee Associates, apparently does not share the
same concerns as the users. The tsr/scanner disparity is "not a problem"
as long as users always run their scanner, according to the software
executive. He felt the review's revelations are a "nonevent."

Concerning the review, Ray Glath, president of RG Software, Scottsdale, AZ,
(developer of Vi-Spy) said "Others have left holes in their TSRs because
they can't pack as much virus detection code in their TSR as they have in
their scanner without bumping up against DOS' 640K memory barrier." He
said that forces some developers to make arbitrary decisions regarding
which viruses to leave their customers unprotected against.

"You hear of many situations," Mr. Glath said, "where companies keep
getting reinfected after they think they've cleaned up from a virus
attack. But if the TSR doesn't know about the virus that the scanner keeps
on picking up -- well -- it'll just keep coming back like a bad penny."

Other software vendors whose products were reviewed by Virus Bulletin were
not available for comment on the test results.

Virus Bulletin has been recognized as the foremost international
publication on computer virus prevention, detection, and removal since
1989. The monthly newsletter is published out of Abingdon, England and
distributed around the world. Advisory Board members include
representatives from IBM Corporation, Digital Equipment Corporation,
Purdue University, Defence Research Agency-UK and Ziff Davis.

Virus Bulletin
7373 East Doubletree Ranch Rd, Suite 200
Scottsdale, AZ 85258
602-860-5108,  fax 602-860-5099

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