Symantec Announces Integrated Antispam, Antivirus and Content Filtering Solution for SMTP Gateways

Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) today announced it is raising the bar for enterprise e-mail security protection by delivering the industry's first integrated best-of-breed antispam, antivirus and content filtering protection in a single software solution for SMTP gateways -- Symantec Mail Security for SMTP 5.0. The combination of technologies proactively protects against inbound and outbound e-mail threats at the earliest point of network entry -- the Internet e-mail (SMTP) gateway. Scheduled to be available in May, Symantec Mail Security for SMTP 5.0 is the final integration of Brightmail and Symantec technologies into a single, unified solution, and is a key component of Symantec Enterprise Messaging Management solution portfolio.

"Today's enterprises rely heavily on e-mail for both internal and external business communication," said Brian Burke, Research Manager, IDC's Security Products. "To protect against malicious code, phishing attacks, viruses, spam and other unwanted e-mail, organizations require a comprehensive solution that provides layers of protection to stop inbound and outbound e-mail threats from impacting organizations and compromising security."

E-mail has become a primary communications tool for companies and government agencies around the world, and with its growth comes the increased risk of threats. According to IDC, 80 percent of viruses enter through the e-mail gateway. In addition, the most recent Symantec Internet Security Threat Report (March 7, 2006) cites that phishing attempts made up one in every 119 e-mail messages processed, which constituted an average of 7.92 million phishing attempts detected per day in the second half of 2005 -- a 39 percent increase over the first half of 2005. The report also states that Symantec's antifraud filters -- a key technology included in Symantec Mail Security for SMTP 5.0 -- blocked more than 1.5 billion phishing attempts during this period.

Customers are also looking for consolidation of technologies into a single solution for e-mail gateways. "Today's enterprises prefer the convenience of a strong, integrated e-mail security solution from a single trusted vendor," said Rick Caccia, senior director of product management for Symantec Messaging and Web Security. "Symantec Mail Security for SMTP offers the industry's best technologies in threat protection, antispam, and content filtering to significantly reduce the risk of threats to the network posed by email-based threats, and to control the flow of unauthorized or inappropriate content in e-mail both internally and externally."

"As a private education institute, we must prevent e-mail threats from compromising the security of our student and staff information, while ensuring that the school is able to operate efficiently," said Nathan Pilgrim, IT Manager for Brisbane Girls Grammar School, a private institution based in Brisbane, Australia, with more than 1150 students and 175 staff. "Symantec Mail Security for SMTP helps us protect against malicious code, phishing attacks, viruses and spam with virtually no false positives, ensuring the online safety of our students and maximizing the efficiency of our network."

Building on the integration of Symantec Mail Security for SMTP, Symantec Brightmail AntiSpam, and key features from Symantec Mail Security 8200 Series, Symantec Mail Security for SMTP 5.0 provides one of the strongest barriers against malicious code, phishing attempts, and spyware and adware. New day-zero virus prevention draws on the breadth and reach of Symantec's Probe Network, identifying suspicious attachments that exhibit the qualities of viruses and mass-mailing worms and rerouting them to the new Suspect Virus Quarantine, where they are held until definitions are available. Administrators also have the option of deleting the message, stripping the attachment, generating a notification or performing other actions on a per-recipient basis. In addition, the solution mitigates emerging threats such as phishing and spyware with anti-phishing defenses using Sender Policy Framework and Sender ID, and the inclusion of spyware and adware in dispositions for virus policies combats the increasing threat of such programs using links in e-mail to facilitate installation.

Powerful new content filtering capabilities simplify the enforcement of corporate usage policies, as well as compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. Administrators can conduct regular expression and keyword scanning of more than 200 recognized attachment types, including ZIP files, executables, processing, spreadsheet and presentation file formats. Symantec Mail Security for SMTP 5.0 also automatically determines the true file type of an attachment through direct physical inspection rather than by extension or MIME type, which prevents malicious senders from attempting to bypass attachment filters with the renaming of a malicious attachment extension to a more commonly used extension (for example, changing the file from .exe to .doc).