Clearswift MIMEsweeper for SMTP Addresses Outbound E-mail Threats; Report by Leading Industry Analyst Firm Highlights Emergence of Outbound Content Compliance Market.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Whether intentional or accidental, the loss of a corporation's "best kept secrets" through outbound e-mail is a problem that has plagued organizations for many years. While spam and viruses have garnered much of the media attention recently, one of the biggest threats to corporate information is employees as roughly "84 percent of high-cost security incidents occur when insiders send confidential data outside the company."(1)

While many e-mail solution providers address viruses and spam, Clearswift MIMEsweeper(TM) for SMTP addresses all e-mail content security threats, from spam and viruses to employee productivity, content distribution and breaches in confidentiality, distribution of intellectual property, company data and employee private information.

According to a recent report by IDC titled, "Worldwide Secure Content Management 2005-2009 Forecast: The Emergence of Outbound Content Compliance":

"Today, many enterprise customers are increasingly looking for SCM solutions that not only address external threats but also address emerging internal threats regarding outbound content. This demand has created a new segment inside the SCM market, which IDC has defined as outbound content compliance (OCC). OCC includes solutions that monitor, secure, filter, and block outbound content contained in e-mail, instant messaging, peer to peer, file transfers, Web postings, and other types of messaging traffic. OCC solutions play a key role in enforcing corporate governance, which is defined by IDC as a combination of complying with both external regulatory requirements and internal corporate policies and best practices."

Within the past few years, several events have drawn attention to the problem associated with outbound e-mail, from corporate espionage to leaking classified documents to foreign nations. Recently, a court reporter in the Kobe Bryant rape case accidentally sent confidential court transcripts to the wrong distribution list. While many outbound e-mail problems have been accidental, many are intentional or done without consideration of their potential harm. Companies like Apple, AOL, Microsoft, Cisco, and Ernst & Young have all been victims of employee security breaches where proprietary or confidential information has been leaked.

"The truth is that many companies have been so busy watching their networks' 'backdoors' for spam and virus threats that they have virtually ignored all of the information, often critical and confidential, that is exiting out the front door through employee e-mail," said Ian Bowles, senior vice president global operations of Clearswift. "Whether corporate information is being distributed on purpose or accidentally, organizations are recognizing that unprotected outbound e-mail traffic can be extremely costly in dollars and intellectual property. MIMEsweeper provides a complete solution that can help protect corporate assets and intellectual property by monitoring every e-mail that comes across and exits the network, not only for viruses and spam, but for confidential and proprietary information."

"Outbound content compliance solutions are addressing internal threats," said Brian Burke, research manager, IDC. "OCC solutions are playing a key role in helping organizations comply with both external regulatory requirements and internal corporate policies and best practices. We will be publishing a comprehensive report on the outbound content compliance market in addition to the report that we published about the emerging market. The new report will address why this issue is important to organizations."

MIMEsweeper for SMTP 5.1 offers a powerful content analysis engine and granular policy support that allows organizations to filter according to a variety of attributes, including file size, type, attachment, sender, specific content or virtually any other characteristic that is unique to an organization. Each e-mail and attachment that comes into or leaves a company's internal network is scanned and compared against the personalized policy to ensure that any and all information is appropriate. If a questionable e-mail is captured by the filter, MIMEsweeper uses its powerful Roles and Responsibilities functions to route the mail to an administrator or compliance officer for secure Pre-Review. All filtering and functions can be configured and managed from a central console, while Clearswift provides automatic updates and patches through its industry-recognized ThreatLab service.

"Organizations need to be proactive when it comes to dealing with outbound e-mail," added Bowles. "Many companies only react when problems occur, but the safest bet is to proactively secure confidential data and integrate a solution such as MIMEsweeper that can perform policy-driven e-mail monitoring to help protect product designs, source code, business strategies, trade secrets and other confidential information from getting into the wrong hands."

About Outbound Content Compliance

Clearswift's MIMEsweeper(TM) solutions provide outbound content compliance by performing policy-driven e-mail and Web-based content security to help protect against loss of intellectual property and safeguard the privacy of organizations and individuals as electronic content is transferred outside organizations. MIMEsweeper also helps organizations adhere to regulatory requirements and internal corporate policies by analyzing the unstructured data of e-mail, Web-based e-mail, and attachments such as Excel spreadsheets, Word documents and PowerPoint presentations while providing the means to set policy at the user, group or domain level as required by governmental regulations. The MIMEsweeper engine applies policy to e-mail that requires encryption, passing it on to third-party tools to secure data in transit. Clearswift's core expertise lies in the detailed content analysis and policy enforcement of e-mail and Web content traveling into, across and out of organizations.

About Clearswift

Clearswift, The MIMEsweeper(TM) Company, is the world's leading provider of content security software for e-mail and Web. Clearswift secures content and protects against digital attacks by enforcing security policies that increase productivity, reduce IT costs and create a safer business environment.

The Internet is the greatest business tool ever invented, but with it comes a harrowing collection of threats. Protecting against the circulation of inappropriate images and text, spam, breaches of confidentiality, and viruses is now mission critical.

Clearswift enables organizations to protect themselves against digital attacks, meet legal and regulatory requirements, implement productivity-saving policies and manage intellectual property passing through their network.

Clearswift's portfolio includes MIMEsweeper, the world's most advanced content security solutions, as well as a range of specialized security solutions for the most security-conscious environments.

Clearswift has 15,000 customers and more than 20 million end users worldwide. It has offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Japan and Australia. www.clearswift.com

(1) Ansanelli, Joseph, "Employees the biggest threat to network security," Network World, Feb. 21, 2005, www.networkworld.com/columnists/2005/022105faceoff-insiders.html

Clearswift, MAILsweeper, MIMEsweeper, spamActive and ENTERPRISEsuite are trademarks or registered trademarks, in the United States, United Kingdom and certain other countries, of Clearswift Ltd. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies and are respectfully acknowledged.