Symantec Corp. has been entrusted by Internet powerhouse Yahoo Inc. to protect its Yahoo Mail users from e-mail attachments that could harbor malicious code attacks.
As part of Tuesday's agreement between the two companies, Symantec's carrier-class Anti-Virus (AV) technology will automatically scan all Yahoo Mail users' outgoing e-mails to make sure they do not contain or distribute file attachments bearing viruses or worms. Yahoo Mail users also have the option of having their incoming e-mail files scanned as well.
When known viruses are discovered and identified, Symantec's AV technology will immediately clean the attachment and alert the sender that he or she has delivered a virus-infected e-mail, according to Will David, director of Business Development at Symantec.
David said Symantec will feed up-to-date virus definitions to Yahoo in real time.
Symantec's carrier-class AV technology already has been integrated directly into Yahoo's network servers, where it will conduct the e-mail attachment scanning free for Yahoo Mail users.