HP has announced the availability of new software designed to quickly control the spread of viruses across corporate networks and reduce the damage they cause during an attack.

HP also announced that HP Labs, the company’s central research facility, has begun collaborating with two prominent partners to test new damage-containment security software aimed at preventing certain viruses from corrupting entire systems simply and effectively.

The increasingly malicious nature of today’s worms and viruses, and the rapid rate at which they spread across networks, makes it difficult for IT administrators to react quickly enough to limit the damage that an attack could cause to corporate systems. HP Virus Throttle software addresses this problem by helping businesses detect, contain and slow the rate at which an attack spreads inside the core of the IT infrastructure.

Originally developed in HP Labs, the software is now available for HP ProLiant servers in a special pack and for ProCurve Networking by HP 5300 switches.

In addition, the HP Security Containment suite, which helps applications compromised by an attack deter unauthorised access to other applications or files, is now available for the HP-UX 11i v2 operating system.