Testing by The Tolly Group Finds Cloudmark Spam Filtering 21% More Accurate Than Symantec Brightmail

Recent testing by The Tolly Group of messaging security solutions for service providers determined that Cloudmark Authority(TM) blocks spam with 21% higher accuracy than its leading competitor, Symantec Brightmail. Cloudmark blocked abusive messages with 97% accuracy without causing any "false positives," or erroneous blocking of legitimate messages versus Symantec's 80% accuracy. An in-depth Cost of Ownership analysis developed by Cloudmark determined a 20% accuracy improvement would save service providers worldwide more than $20B this year alone, with a mid-sized ISP saving approximately $10M per year in subscriber churn and infrastructure costs.

Renowned for its industry insight and objectivity, The Tolly Group tested two leading solutions for Internet Service Provider (ISP) network infrastructures, Cloudmark Authority(TM) and Symantec's Brightmail Anti-spam Version 6.0. During July and August of this year, each solution processed more than 45,000 messages. In line with industry standard measurements, Tolly Group engineers benchmarked accuracy in terms of both effectiveness in stopping "bad" mail -- those containing spam --- and percentage of false positives, or blocking of legitimate messages. Both companies were given the opportunity to provide input on the test, install their software and review and react to results prior to drafting of the final report.

The Rising Costs of Inaccuracy

With the ratio of spam to legitimate messages rising steadily, The Tolly Group report concludes, "such a spam blockage rate as exhibited by Brightmail Anti-spam is unacceptable for service provider and enterprise-class scenarios where accuracy is a high priority." Cloudmark researchers can forecast the value of accuracy improvements for individual service providers with the greatest savings generally achieved by reducing costs associated with customer churn, complaint calls, infrastructure, bandwidth and storage. (For details on Cloudmark's extensive ROI calculator, visit http://www.cloudmark.com/serviceproviders/economic/ .) In turn, reallocation of resources improves the TCO models for related investments.

"Inaccurate spam filtering can directly impact service providers financially while potentially compromising their reputations and those of their subscribers," Tolly Group president/CEO and founder Kevin Tolly says. "Integrated, effective messaging security solutions blocking spam on a single platform can be a significant, if transparent differentiator for service providers worldwide. The accuracy advantage of 21% that we found in conducting these tests has substantial implications for subscriber retention and overall profitability."

Key Elements of Accuracy

Cloudmark attributes its superior accuracy to three key factors:

--  Intelligent Message Fingerprinting: Cloudmark's methodology leverages
    advanced fingerprinting algorithms designed to target sophisticated
    spamming and virus proliferation techniques. Since only relevant threat
    attributes in messages are fingerprinted, Cloudmark is able to rapidly
    recognize spam, phishing and viruses that have undergone polymorphic
    mutations, such as changes in text, URL, image, sender or other attributes.

--  Global Threat Detection Network: Cloudmark's global network of
    protected service provider networks and mailboxes provides real-time
    feedback on message fingerprints. Collecting data from more than 120
    million users and 50 service providers in 163 countries, Cloudmark provides
    accurate, language-agnostic threat analysis;

--  Cloudmark Trust Evaluation System:  Feedback is corroborated and
    analyzed in real time by Cloudmark's Trust Evaluation System (TES) which
    tracks the reputations of each reporting source. By preserving the
    integrity of reports, TES  ensures industry-leading accuracy and allows any
    inaccurate classifications to be corrected instantaneously.

"The Tolly Group's efforts validate what we've been seeing in service provider deployments and trials for some time now," says Bassam Khan, VP Marketing at Cloudmark. "Cloudmark Authority was architected from the ground up for demanding service provider environments and The Tolly Group excels among independent test labs at simulating high-volume network traffic. It's extremely rewarding to have such a widely respected organization verify our accuracy advantage."

Read the full report: http://www.cloudmark.com/releases/docs/tolly_report-cloudmark_authority.pdf

About the Tolly Group ( http://www.tolly.com )

The Tolly Group, an independent testing and strategic consulting organization based in Boca Raton, FL, offers a full range of services designed to furnish both the vendor and end-user communities with authoritative and unbiased information. Additionally, The Tolly Group is recognized worldwide for its expertise in assessing leading-edge technologies.

About Cloudmark ( www.cloudmark.com )

Cloudmark, Inc. delivers the industry's fastest and most accurate anti-spam, anti-phishing, and anti-virus solutions. Founded in 2001 by pioneers in messaging anti-abuse, Cloudmark architected an innovative approach combining intelligent message fingerprinting with the world's largest real-time threat detection network. Cloudmark solutions protect more than 120 million mailboxes and 50 ISP networks worldwide with customers and partners including NTT Communications, Time Warner, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Vodafone, SUN and Openwave. A privately-held, San Francisco-based company, Cloudmark's comprehensive portfolio addresses the unique needs of Service Provider, enterprise and desktop users. For more information about Cloudmark, visit http://www.cloudmark.com .