UniSRV and Trend offer virus killers

Taiwan's most well-known computer virus exterminator and Web-office provider, UniSVR (優網通資 公司), teamed up to offer eDoctor over the Internet yesterday. The site will provide companies with an anti-virus technician equipped to disinfect the motherboards and wired guts of every computer within a company.

Trend Micro (趨勢科技) has put this service alongside UniWeb Office -- an Internet service UniSRV already provides to small and medium-sized companies to juice them up with Internet services.

To protect those services and any workstations within a member company, eDoctor not only can prevent invasions from known computer viruses, it can also defend against the very latest Net varmints, malicious codes, and Web page `poison applets,' according to Trend Micro vice president of sales Marvin Chiu (丘立全).

Poison applets strike computers once they access an infected Web page. As soon as a Net surfer opens the page, this string of software coding attacks.

Applets were originally developed to offer services from Web pages. Trend's antivirus.com, for example, offers free online virus scans from an applet called HouseCall on its own Web site.

Poison applets and malicious codes designed to cause harm can crash Web sites and steal credit card account numbers or other `secure' information. eDoctor protects against these kinds of attacks.

"The service [eDoctor] was designed for company Web sites," explained Chiu. "It prevents hacker attacks, stops viruses, and destroys worms on Web sites and company networks."

The service is rented at a monthly fee based on usage, and is "another way for us [Trend] to get our products out to customers," said Chiu.

Instead of setting up shop on their own, Trend has jumped onboard with Net veteran UniSRV, a company that opened a full service Web-office system in May. According to UniSRV sales director Michael Huang (黃保川), a growing number of companies in Taiwan are outsourcing technical services to the Internet.

"We opened the site on May 19 of this year," said Huang, "and we've already had over 20 companies sign up [for services]."

Since the Internet has become a mainstay in the business world, many companies fear being left behind due to lack of technical know-how. According to Huang, renting eDoctor and UniWeb office space is, "the most viable way for a company to add Internet capability."

UniWeb Office -- an application service provider (ASP) -- includes an Internet Web site for the company complete with company e-mail, bulletin boards, storage and software programs such as account keeping and inventory control. Users log on to UniWeb the same way they access online e-mail such as hotmail or yahoo e-mail, and the system works 24 hours a day seven days a week regardless of whether the site is accessed by a cell phone, Web pad or desktop computer.

Companies worried about the cost and skill required for setting up online resources can feel more confident because Trend and UniSVR will handle all trouble shooting and other problems -- and the service can actually save "at least NT$30,000 (US$1,000) per month in equipment, maintenance and personnel costs," according to Institute for Information Industry (III, 資策會) ASP specialist Chou Shu-lin (周樹林).