November 16, 2005

BorderWare MXtreme 6.0 Combines Next-Generation Threat Prevention With Privacy and Compliance

BorderWare Technologies announced on Monday their MXtreme Mail Firewall version 6.0. This new version of MXtreme combines next-generation threat prevention with a privacy and compliance solution enhancing its ability to prevent threats, control information and manage email. 6.0 includes a number of enhancements around email security, encryption, anti-spam, sender authentication and policy controls. In addition, the company reports that with this release, BorderWare will integrate directly with F5 BIG-IP and Cisco edge devices to stop traffic at the edge, enabling organizations to reduce unwanted email traffic by more than 70 percent, and increase quality-of-service (QoS).

With MXtreme 6.0, BorderWare is taking a new approach to security. BorderWare believes that companies need a security platform that can address threats from multiple attack vectors (Web, email, SIP) offering customers a centralized way to secure IP communications across the enterprise. BorderWare says they are the only vendor taking this holistic approach to security.

"What BorderWare sees as the future of email, and our MXtreme 6.0 is our first release towards, is an IP communications platform. While we are still waiting for applications to truly converge, network security already has. When I see what is coming from my computer out to the Internet, I have email, IM, VoIP, video, it is all there. They have already converged from a network security standpoint. BorderWare is working towards a platform that will secure users entire IP communications including HTML, email, voice traffic, IM traffic, monitoring the content, and making sure there are no viruses, or spyware," says Andrew Graydon, CTO, BorderWare

The company believes their new MXtreme Intercept Engine takes an innovative approach to blocking more than 90 percent of unwanted inbound email, including spam, viruses, denial-of-service, directory harvesting, phishing and flooding attacks at the email boundary, before they enter the network. By making real-time decisions based not only on sender reputation but also on message content and email client behavior, BorderWare says the MXtreme Intercept Engine provides a new level of precision and performance for threat detection.

"We realized a long time ago that we can not base deliverability on a sender's IP address alone, We have to look at what is within the message as well, look at the content of the email, and if the people want it or not. We need to look beyond the IP address to see if it looks like spam or legitimate email," says Graydon.

Content Management and Compliance

In order to comply with current regulations including HIPAA, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and Sarbanes-Oxley, organizations must take steps to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and privacy of confidential information - including email communications. BorderWare states their new MXtreme Privacy and Compliance Engine combines granular content filtering, detection of regulated content and pre-defined, customizable compliance dictionaries to identify content that must be secured. Messages are then processed based on pre-defined policies typically using encryption. In addition to default TLS/SSL connections, MXtreme 6.0 uses industry standard S/MIME and PGP integrated with third party encryption engines from PostX and PGP. Once delivered, Graydon says, MXtreme provides accurate and timely audit and reporting of outbound information including several regulatory-specific reports to ease the burden of demonstrating compliance.

MXtreme is sold as a hardened appliance with four models and various solution bundles. The product will be generally available by the end of the month.

Barracuda Networks Launches Barracuda Spam Firewall 900 For Large Enterprises

Earlier this month Barracuda Networks announced the Barracuda Spam Firewall 900 designed for large organizations. The company says the Barracuda Spam Firewall 900 includes 300GB storage capacity for quarantined messages and four CPUs for higher volume email processing. Similar to its predecessor, the Barracuda Spam Firewall 800, the new Barracuda Spam Firewall 900 features advanced capabilities including redundant hot swap power supplies, and dual gigabit Ethernet ports. Another key feature included with the Barracuda Spam Firewall 900 is multiple RAID disk arrays for greater performance.

"Following the success of the Barracuda Spam Firewall 800 we are taking email protection for large enterprises one step further with the Barracuda Spam Firewall 900," said Dean Drako, president and CEO of Barracuda Networks. "We recognize that email is the de facto communication channel for business operations at large enterprises. The Barracuda Spam Firewall 900 is the fastest and most secure solution for sending and receiving email available today."

The Barracuda Spam Firewall 900 also offers outbound filtering techniques, such as outbound email attachment scanning, Barracuda Networks Rate Control System for protection against open relays and zombie PCs as well as support for inbound and outbound STARTTLS encryption. Multiple Barracuda Spam Firewall 900 units can be clustered for greater email redundancy and higher capacity.

The Barracuda Spam Firewall 900 is to be available this month.

Email Habits Survey Released Today

A new survey by Harris Interactive for Fortiva reveals that employees in the U.S. are unclear as to the risks their email habits can pose to them - and the companies they work for.

The survey found that almost 70 percent of employees have sent or received email that could pose a risk to business. It also seems that many employees (92 percent) do not believe they have ever sent a risky email, uncovering a discrepancy between perceived and actual risks.

Here are some highlights:

• A majority of employees who use email at work (61 percent) admit they have used email at work for personal use.
• Nearly half (48 percent) say they have sent or received joke emails, funny pictures/movies, funny stories of a questionable tone (e.g., racy/sexual content, politically incorrect).
• One in five (22 percent) say they have sent or received a password or log-in information via email.
• While a majority of employees (73 percent) who use email at work are aware of corporate email policies, less than half (46 percent) say they "always" adhere to the policy.
• Nine percent of U.S. adult employees who use email at work have used company email to submit their resume to another company.
• One-fifth of employees (22 percent) have sent personal details to HR including Social Security numbers, salary details, or medical information via email

We welcome your ideas and your news for Messaging Newswire's News & Trends in Email Security. Let us know what you think by sending your comments to editorial@messagingnews.com. Written or compiled by Stephanie Jordan

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