Comdex, Sweden. January 22, 2004 - Leading Norwegian IT security company Norman Data Defense Systems, today announced that Norman’s SandBox technology detects new and unknown malware threats, including Trojans and worms.

Today, an email worm can infect tens of thousands of workstations in a matter of seconds - Sobig.F has shown the potential disruption and inconvenience these threats can produce. The anti-virus vendors are expected to find the cure, update the virus definition files, and distribute this to their customers immediately. The need for speed is paramount.

Norman’s SandBox technology makes it possible to catch viruses and other malicious software before virus signatures have been released. The Norman SandBox technology represents a milestone in non-signature based detection of new, unknown viruses’ utilizing far superior techniques to those adopted by pure heuristics. This unique technology stops and quarantines the malware attacking the machine based on behavior even before any virus signature file is created for this specific threat.

New versions of this improved technology show that Norman SandBox detects a majority of viruses before anyone has ever seen them, protecting customers before threats are even seen - after all, prevention is better than cure. Norman SandBox has traditionally included simulation of networks and network related services to offer improved detection of advanced Win32 worms. Today’s version of this technique utilises even more sophisticated functions to assist in stopping destructive code activating.

The simulated virtual machine (Norman Sandbox) now incorporates services found in most networks, like SMTP, News, IRC, DNS, etc. This deludes the malware into believing it is in a live network allowing the SandBox to evaluate its behaviour and potential threats to the network environment.

“We see the development of Norman SandBox as a huge step forward in assisting our customers against the growing threat of destructive malware. By implementing this software customers will, in the majority of new virus outbreak situations, avoid infections and costly overheads usually associated with virus outbreaks", says Steinar Wigtil Director of R&D.

Norman Sandbox v2 technique is implemented in most Norman Virus Control products, including the recent release of the innovative NVCNet technology.

For further information, please contact

Steinar Wigtil, Director of R&D, Norman Data Defense Systems, + 47 67 10 97 29
Audun Lødemel VP marketing, Norman Data Defense Systems, +47 934 465 31