Louisiana Electric Utility Short-Circuits Millions of Pieces of Spam Using Espion's Interceptor.

Integrated Appliance Quickly Pays for Itself, Saving Company Cost of Two Full-Time Employees to Keep Spam, Viruses, Malware at Bay

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Cleco Corporation, an energy services company serving more than a quarter of a million customers throughout Louisiana, today reported it has virtually halted the inflow of spam, using the Interceptor[TM] e-mail security appliance from Espion International (Other OTC: EPLJ.PK).

The utility reported that from October 21-November 16, 2006, Espion's Interceptor averaged an accuracy rate of better than 99.9 percent in blocking spam messages during this period. The Interceptor appliance analyzed 4.36 million e-mails sent to Cleco addresses, an average of more than 167,600 every day, of which more than 96.7 percent were identified as spam. The Interceptor automatically quarantined those messages before they reached end-users' inboxes, thanks to the Espion Probabilistic Reasoning[TM] (EPR) engine, which delivers a smart, simple, and secure solution. The EPR engine, a breakthrough hybrid artificial intelligence solution, learns to recognize key patterns throughout an organization's e-mail flow, providing exceptional inbound threat protection, as well as outbound content policy management, without time- and cost-intensive human intervention or updating of policies.

"The Interceptor helps us keep up with spammers," said Michael Darby, Network Consultant at Cleco. "Its intelligent EPR rolls with the punches of the spammers, letting us detect their new tactics as quickly as they can implement them." Darby said that, prior to the installation of the Interceptor appliance, members of his team were spending at least four hours a day fighting spam, and despite their efforts, thousands of unwanted messages were getting through. "We were drowning in spam," he said. He noted that those messages could easily be far more than a mere nuisance; they could contain viruses or other malware, ready to be triggered when an unsuspecting end-user double-clicked on a message or attachment.

"We spend far less time worrying about spam," said Russell Reynolds, Cleco Network Analyst. "We also trained Interceptor's AI engine to differentiate agood' e-mail from abad' spam, without having to spend hours building separate whitelists and blacklists." Reynolds also praised Interceptor's rapid return on investment, noting that its advanced learning capabilities has made it possible to control the flow of spam into Cleco without having to hire at least two full-time personnel to perform the task manually.

Espion's family of Interceptor e-mail security appliances begin at less than $10,000. More information is available from the company's website, www.espionintl.com.

About Espion International

Espion International, Inc., based in Costa Mesa, Ca., delivers proven, intelligent management of digital information, leading a revolution in the practical, mainstream application of artificial intelligence, and significantly and positively impacting the way businesses regulate voice, video and data, manage IT growth. Targeting the needs of small- to mid-sized business worldwide, Espion develops solutions that help them comply with security mandates and improve their overall efficiency. A publicly held company, Espion maintains research and development facilities in Baton Rouge, La.