PGP software gains antivirus defense

PGP is adding a virus-defense tool to its line of secure-messaging products.

The company on Wednesday said it will bundle Symantec's AntiVirus Scan Engine with its PGP Universal products to minimize the risk of unwanted payloads in e-mail messages. The package will check outgoing messages for viruses before they are encrypted and incoming ones immediately after decryption.

The combination is intended to provide a simplified method for addressing the complexity of security threats facing businesses, the companies said.

"Many have thought these two enterprise functions could not be integrated without sacrificing security or performance," Greg Gotta, Symantec's vice president for product delivery, said in a statement.

The beta version of the package is available on the PGP Web site and is expected to ship with PGP Universal 1.2, which is due out later this quarter. Pricing is not yet available, but annual subscription licenses for the Symantec antivirus capability will be part of the bundle, the companies said.

This is the second partnering deal Symantec has announced in two days. On Tuesday, the company said it was teaming up with Internet service provider EarthLink to offer an antivirus and firewall subscription to EarthLink's subscribers.