ARMONK, N.Y. -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it has incorporated additional features for antivirus and anti-spyware into its Internet Security Systems™ Proventia® Desktop Endpoint Security product. The combined feature set will provide customers with a comprehensive desktop protection solution. As a result of an alliance with BitDefender, IBM Internet Security Systems will complement its spyware blocking technology and patented, behavioral-based Virus Prevention System (VPS) with BitDefender’s anti-spyware and antivirus solutions.

Internet Security Systems VPS technology is designed to be highly effective at preventing unknown zero-day attacks from entering a corporate network, blocking well over 90 percent of new viruses without a signature update on a typical network. The new layers of protection from BitDefender will provide customers with capabilities for scanning and removing known viruses and spyware from their systems.

“In today’s complicated threat landscape, no single layer of security can adequately protect an organization from attack,” said Greg Adams, vice president of product development for IBM Internet Security Systems. “However, the continual purchase of incompatible security products and endpoint agents can quickly become unbearable for enterprises to manage. As a solution to these opposing issues, we continue to add layers of protection to our existing integrated security platform to provide customers with a robust, centrally managed security solution that can help customers avoid the need to implement additional products to deal with each emerging threat.”

Proventia Desktop currently offers the combined functionality of personal firewall, intrusion prevention, buffer overflow exploit prevention, application and communications protection and virus prevention technologies. Through this alliance with BitDefender for additional antivirus and anti-spyware capabilities, IBM Internet Security Systems answers the market demand for comprehensive desktop protection in a single agent. The various layers of the product are designed to work together seamlessly and automatically combat the myriad of threats encountered on workstations and laptops.

“For each type of security technology (firewalls, antivirus, anti-spyware, etc.), there are attackers who are constantly working on ways to evade it to obtain unauthorized access to a network,” said Eric Eder, founder and CTO of Intelligent Connections, an IBM partner. “Attack vectors designed to exploit each type of technology require a multi-layered security model for protection. Proventia Desktop provides a multi-layered security approach with deployment of a single agent and unified management, which can lower administrative overhead and associated costs. If a threat is designed to bypass one type of security technology, it can be thwarted by a series of other blocking technologies as it attempts to infiltrate the target machine. We are excited to offer our customers such powerful desktop protection in a single agent.”

IBM Internet Security Systems