New Weapons Forged to Fight Spam

New hosted services and appliances are becoming available to give enterprises more options in their continuing battle against spam.

Managed e-mail service provider The Electric Mail Company Inc. announced in June a new version of its PerimeterProtect messaging protection service, while Proofpoint Inc. announced a new series of its Messaging Security Gateway appliances designed for small and midsize businesses.

/zimages/3/28571.gifClick hereto read more about spam tools that are taking on anti-fraud chores.

In addition, e-mail appliance vendor OmniTI Computer Consulting Inc. announced it will include Cloudmark Inc.s anti-spam and anti-phishing software in its Ecelerity products.

The Electric Mail PerimeterProtect update includes new functionality that lets users view virus quarantines to check for false positives; improved reporting, policy and service control; and deeper integration with Microsoft Corp.s Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2000, said Electric Mail officials in Burnaby, British Columbia. Rainmaker Limited Partnership, a video post-production services company in Vancouver, British Columbia, uses PerimeterProtect to keep spam and viruses out of its approximately 150 in-boxes.

Ronald Knol, IT supervisor at Rainmaker, said he values the new Exchange 2003 support in PerimeterProtect. “Electric Mail has a little program that will monitor new user accounts in Active Directory,” said Knol. “When we add a new user, it will update Electric Mail as well and add that user account automatically.”

Proofpoint is targeting enterprises with 500 or fewer mailboxes with its new Messaging Security Gateway X-Series appliance. The product stops e-mail threats such as spam and viruses at the gateway, using the same technology Proofpoint uses for its large-enterprise customers.

The Cloudmark-OmniTI partnership brings Cloudmarks Authority anti-spam and anti-phishing software to OmniTIs Ecelerity e-mail application server as well as to OmniTIs Ecelerity Edge 75, Edge 750 and Edge 755 appliance lines as prepackaged offerings.

/zimages/3/28571.gifCheck out eWEEK.coms for the latest security news, reviews and analysis. And for insights on security coverage around the Web, take a look at eWEEK.com Security Center Editor Larry Seltzers Weblog.