BigPond boosts desktop anti-virus protection

According to BigPond managing director Justin Milne, customers can download the anti-virus program onto the personal computers from the BigPond Web site for a monthly fee -- starting at AU$4.95 per month -- tacked onto their regular subscription bill.

The move is the latest in a raft of measures designed to boost the capacity of the customer base of the Internet provider to reduce the proliferation of spam and viruses entering their inboxes. BigPond recently implemented network-based spam and virus filtering protection.

"The reality is that if you use the Internet, you must have measures in place to combat security threats," said Milne in a statement.

According to Milne, the new BigPond Desktop Antivirus product is designed to provide protection from viruses introduced through external disks, file sharing, Web sites, downloads, instant messaging, unprotected wireless connections, embedded scripts, non-BigPond mail accounts and zipped, compressed or password-protected files.

Bigpond is also offering a personal firewall product for AU$4.95 per month.

"These BigPond Security Services are now integrated with McAfee SecurityCenter which includes real-time security alerts and a Security Index to assess, inform, and warn you about your PC's vulnerability," Milne said.