Alex Shipp works as an anti-virus technologist for MessageLabs, where his job is to stop new viruses from getting through to customers. He was the architect and lead programmer for MessageLabs' carrier class email system, and is now the architect and lead programmer for Skeptic, MessageLabs' heuristic virus scanner.

Alex has presented at trade shows and technical conferences, has appeared on numerous television and radio broadcasts, and is often used as a resource by news agencies worldwide. Currently his main areas of research are heuristic detection of malware, and spread patterns of mass mailing viruses.

His software was directly responsible for automatically detecting and stopping all the major mass mailing viruses of recent times, including LoveBug, AnnaKournikova, Nimda, SirCam, Goner, Klez, Yaha, BadTrans and Frethem, as well as all the minor ones that nobody gets to hear about. No other anti-virus product can boast of a track record remotely close to this.When let out to play, he enjoys playing hockey, cricket, golf, croquet and tennis, at various levels of incompetence.