Tumbleweed Steps up Fight Against Botnets, Data Leaks

The upgrade of Tumbleweed Communication's security appliance targets botnets and adds outbound content filtering.

Tumbleweed Communications is taking a multilayered approach to combating data leaks and eliminating botnet-driven threats at the perimeter with the latest version of its MailGate appliance. The emphasis on detecting and thwarting botnets continues to gain steam throughout the security space. IT industry research firm Gartner, of Stamford, Conn., predicts that "by the end of 2007, 75 percent of enterprises will be infected with undetected, financially motivated, targeted malware that evaded their traditional perimeter and host defenses."
To address botnets, MailGate 3.5 utilizes a real-time IP reputation filtering technology at the network perimeter. The reputation filter checks a database of more than 100 million IP addresses to determine if the sender is legitimate. The appliance has the ability to block directory harvest attacks, e-mail denial-of-service attacks and invalid recipients—often eliminating 90 percent or more of raw e-mail traffic before it overwhelms the network, company officials said. "We have kind of a hybrid approach of multitechnology," said Willy Leichter, director of product marketing for e-mail security at Tumbleweed. Tumbleweed is targeting data leaks as well as botnets. MailGate 3.5 can help enforce policy on messages with sensitive data based on user context, corporate rules and delivery methods such as encryption. The new appliance can automatically filter information deemed confidential, such as specific credit card and Social Security numbers. In addition, MailGate provides policy-based TLS (transport layer security) encryption, and its content filters can scan all inbound and outbound messages and more than 300 types of attachments. The MailGate user interface has been redesigned and features checkboxes where users can set content filtering. Click here to read how botnet herders are changing tactics to try to stay ahead of the latest detection measures. Mike Fishell, director of Information Technology at Hay House, has used the appliance as part of Tumbleweeds beta program and said it provides him an extra edge when it comes to remotely protecting the publishing companys international offices. "It gives you better control," he said. The newest MailGate appliance will be available from Tumbleweed and select channel partners in late July 2007 with prices starting at $5,000. Check out eWEEK.coms Security Center for the latest security news, reviews and analysis. And for insights on security coverage around the Web, take a look at eWEEKs Security Watch blog.