By CNET News.com staff, 17 May 2004 08:55
NEWS AOL says it's blocked more than one billion virus-infected emails since launching a screening program in April 2003.
The internet service provider, a subsidiary of Time Warner, says it protected each of the company's subscribers from an average of 30 virus attacks.
Tatiana Gau, chief trust officer and senior vice president for integrity assurance at AOL, said in a statement: "As we move into a high-speed world, antivirus protection becomes even more critical, because a basic broadband connection can leave you defenseless against hackers and virus attacks on your home computer."
The Time Warner subsidiary screens both incoming and outgoing mail for free and offers additional fee-based services through a deal with Network Associates, which will soon be renamed McAfee, after its best-known product.
Virus and worm attacks are on rise, according to a survey released in March by TruSecure's ICSA Labs. The 300 companies surveyed said about 11 per cent of their computers were infected at any given time during 2003.
This year has also been a busy one for virus writers, who this month released Sasser and Wallon.
During the peak of the Sobig.F outbreak in August 2003, AOL hit its own peak - for viruses blocked in a single day: 24 million in just 24 hours. The virus led the list of the five most pervasive viruses over the last year, followed by MyDoom, Netsky.A, Netsky.D and Swen.
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1. anonymous
Along with blocking all of these viruses they are blocking valid emails from valid domains. This happened to my domain because I had an auto responder that was sent from to an AOL member who initiated the email. That person deemed it as spam and now AOL blocked my domain. When I contacted AOL and demanded to see the email that they considered spam... they sent me the email that was an out of office reply to an AOL member. I sent them back an email asking them if they read my email that they deemed as spam? They still have not replied! Bottom line with that is that they are isolating their customers from the rest of the net and from valid customers and businesses. They mine as well pull the plug on their POPs to isolate all of the “bad” things on the net. The key is good virus scan and kill ad ware software. Not out right blocking domains just because an end user deems it as spam…
AOL is a dying business. As users get smarter on the web there is no need for the added content and frills that AOL offers. So I guess they have to ride the spam boat now. I made my parents drop their AOL subscription. They are much happier and have better bandwidth because AOL's silly interface and content does not suck up the bandwidth now. Why pay 20 bucks for dialup when you can get broadband? Why pay 10-20 dollars more for AOL broadband when you can get regular broadband for cheaper without the useless content that AOL offers. They target uneducated users. As the younger generation is more in sync with technology and the older generation is learning.... AOL will not survive with their crude business practices...