Tumbleweed Beefs Up Mailgate

With the launch of its new e-mail security appliance and software, Tumbleweed Communications Corp. is aiming to make it easier for IT administrators to manage and secure e-mail traffic.

The company last week released Version 3.0 of its MailGate Appliance, with the addition of two new modules: MailGate Edge, for blocking so-called dark traffic, such as directory harvest attacks and e-mail DoS (denial of service) attacks, from entering the network; and MailGate Policy Manager, for content filtering and policy management of inbound and outbound e-mail traffic. Policy templates for such regulations as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are also provided.

MailGate Appliance 3.0 also includes an anti-virus module, with engines from McAfee Inc. and Kaspersky Lab, and an anti-spam module.

A new dashboard in Version 3.0 allows administrators to monitor multiple facets of the e-mail environment from one central place.

The new 1U (1.75 inches) and 2U (3.5 inches) appliances are now based on Advanced Micro Devices Inc.s 64-bit Opteron CPU, which has improved message processing, according to Tumbleweed officials, in Redwood City, Calif.

Scott Rose, senior infrastructure architect at Finisar Corp., is beta testing MailGate Appliance 3.0.

"One of the really cool things theyre doing with Version 3.0 is incorporating the Edge relay functionality into it as well as adding the ability to cluster," said Rose, in Sunnyvale, Calif.

"From the administrator standpoint, its great to be able to combine all that stuff into one box," said Rose.

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Rose said that he has found that only about 14 percent of traffic is valid e-mail.

"We get tons of directory harvest attacks and occasional denial-of-service attacks," said Rose.

Tumbleweed also released the latest version of its MailGate Email Firewall software. Version 6.2 adds OpenPGP encryption support and multiple concurrent LDAP sources.

MailGate Appliance 3.0 and MailGate Email Firewall 6.2 are available now. Pricing for both starts at $5,500 for 250 users.

The move follows a trend among e-mail security vendors to integrate their messaging tools for stopping inbound and outbound threats and to provide a central management tool and flexible deployment options for IT administrators.

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