Trend Micro offers firewall service on heels of `Code Red'

Trend Micro Inc (趨勢科技), the world's leading anti-virus software provider, began a new service yesterday designed to block computer viruses and hackers from attacking users via the Web.

"Thanks to Code Red, the public has been reminded that they need a strong and advanced firewall to keep out danger," said Steve Chang (張明正), CEO of Trend Micro Corp.

Code Red is a "worm" developed to wreak havoc on computer systems that use the Internet. It invaded 250,000 computer servers worldwide within nine hours on July 19, and crashed the White House Web site.

One software industry analyst said the demand for anti-virus protection is growing hand-in-hand with the popularity of the Internet.

"Without Internet connections, disks are the only virus transmission medium," said Yu, Chin-yen (虞金燕), an analyst from the Institute for Information Industry (資策會).

Yu added that with Internet connection usage shifting to the convenience of broadband "always on" service, the demand for firewall security will only continue to rise.

According to Warren Tsai (蔡建華), product manager at Trend Micro, the new anti-virus service -- GateLock -- is not only software but a physical box between the computer and ADSL modem.

"Once you turn on the computer and log onto the Web, all information is examined at the firewall," Tsai said. GateLock will automatically update virus information online when new viruses appear, Tsai said.

The system automatically routes all Web connections via Trend Micro. Trend Micro has choosen to align with the top local ADSL service provider -- Chunghwa Telecom Corp (中華電信) -- and plans to sell GateLock exclusively to Chunghwa users.