Clearswift Partners with FaceTime to Bolster Content Governance Portfolio with Instant Messaging Security

Business Wire, June 19, 2007

Clearswift to Offer World-Class IM Hygiene & Compliance with MIMEsweeper Solutions

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Continuing its drive to simplify content security, Clearswift today announced the launch of MIMEsweeper[TM] IM Enterprise Edition, powered by industry leader FaceTime Communications. The new appliance and software solution complements Clearswift's existing web and email content security products to provide customers with a complete Enterprise Content Governance portfolio to cover all user interactions with the internet.

MIMEsweeper IM Enterprise Edition is a comprehensive instant messaging and real-time internet communications security solution which provides granular policy and control, full threat prevention and helps organisations achieve regulatory compliance.

Users are adopting IM and real-time applications, either officially or unofficially, into normal business practice. Organisations therefore need to apply the same in-depth content policy controls used for email and web traffic in order to meet security, legal, compliance and productivity imperatives.

"The increasingly collaborative nature of web usage, seen in the emergence of the Web 2.0 phenomenon, has been accompanied by an increase in the use of collaborative communications technologies, such as instant messaging in a business environment," said Jon Lee, CEO at Clearswift. "Companies benefit greatly from IM but they need reassurance that these technologies can be secured. MIMEsweeper IM Enterprise Edition allows administrators peace of mind that their sensitive company information remains secure."

According to research from FaceTime Communications, the leading provider of solutions for securing and managing IM, P2P and web-based greynets in the enterprise, eight out of ten users are using real-time applications at work, and four in ten have installed such applications without them being approved by their IT departments. Although the benefits of real-time applications to businesses are significant, according to research from FaceTime, so also are the dangers. Eight out of ten (81%) IT managers' businesses had suffered attacks related to such applications in the previous six months.

This announcement also marks the start of a new partnership agreement between Clearswift and FaceTime Communications. FaceTime will become Clearswift's preferred IM technology partner and Clearswift will recommend and sell the company's award-winning IM security software directly to its worldwide customers.

Clearswift's expertise in content security, together with FaceTime's in-depth understanding of real-time communications applications provide a powerful combination for organisations wanting to enable employee collaboration," said Frank Cabri, vice president of marketing and product management for FaceTime Communications. "These organisations can now realize the productivity benefits while ensuring they are securing their network against both incoming threats and controlling outbound information leakage."

MIMEsweeper IM Enterprise Edition provides the most powerful security, control and compliance solution for real-time internet communications available today.

* Secures all real-time traffic - supports public and enterprise IM applications, WebEx web conferencing, P2P networks such as Skype and professional community networks

* Defends against all IM threats - comprehensive protection against worms, viruses, SpIM and other inbound threats, plus content filtering to prevent policy breaches and Zero-Day protection.

* Bullet-proof credentials - backed by the industry's largest evasive internet application research team.

* Defence-in-depth architecture - a two-tier architecture combining MIMEsweeper for IM software and MIMEsweeper IM Appliance, powered by FaceTime. FaceTime's technology has been awarded a Best Buy in SC Magazine for the past three years and received the SC Magazine 2006 Reader Trust Award for Best IM Security.

* Intelligent granular content filtering backed by archiving and logging of all IM conversations and file transfers, ensuring a comprehensive audit trail for compliance requirements.

Supported applications:

* Enterprise Instant Messaging: Microsoft LCS, IBM Sametime, Antepo, Jabber, Parlano MindAlign

* Professional Community Networks: Reuters, Communicator Inc., PivotSolutions

* Web Conferencing: WebEx

* Public Instant Messaging: MSN, AIM, Yahoo, GoogleTalk, ICQ and more

About the research

In July 2006, FaceTime commissioned NewDiligence, an independent market research company, to conduct its 2nd annual survey on the growth and impact of greynets. As in the prior year, the research was conducted among a large sample of corporate IT managers and end users across all size organizations in North America, UK and Europe.

Key areas of measurement

- Impact of overall greynet usage, particularly with respect to viruses and adware or spyware

- Issues in preventing/remediating negative impacts of greynet usage

- Use and effectiveness of network and desktop security measures

- Business productivity and economic impacts of greynets