HP to launch 'virus throttling' software

SAN FRANCISCO--Hewlett-Packard plans to give customers a new weapon against viruses: software that crimps their spread.

Early next year, the computer maker will begin selling software designed to slow the spread of viruses from infected servers and networking equipment, HP executives said Tuesday. The program will be sold for Proliant servers. HP plans to provide the technology for its personal computers later, executives added, but did not give details.

The software will give administrators time to respond to an attack, Tony Redmond, chief technology officer of HP Services, said at an HP security event here. The time lag between a vulnerability in software being discovered and a virus being written is getting ever shorter, and viruses are spreading at a breakneck rate, he said. "Ten years ago, all we worried about were floppy disk attacks. People would walk from PC to PC with an infected floppy. Five years ago, with "I Love You" and "Melissa" (viruses), we had a sudden acceleration of the threat," Redmond said. "Today, the type of viruses and worms we see are spreading at computational speed--a speed that a human can't deal with."

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