MessageLabs Validated as 'Leading Email Security' Vendor By Yankee Group.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 15, 2004

Solution Met, Exceeded Expectation in Filtering Effectiveness, Flexibility, Best-of-Breed Virus Scanning and Email Server Security

MessageLabs, the leading provider of email security and management services to businesses worldwide, has been recognized by the Yankee Group as the leading provider of email security services. The Yankee Group is a global leader in communications and networking research and consulting.

In a February 2004 Yankee Group report titled 'Email Security Solutions Providers Seek to Stop Spam and Viruses at the Perimeter,' MessageLabs was listed as one of three "leading vendors of email security products and services" based on a winning combination of "strong product portfolios" and "largest market shares." MessageLabs has won a dominating 11% market share within just a few years in a rapidly growing market.

The report includes an anti-spam competitive positioning chart based on Quality of Offering and Ability to Execute. MessageLabs is listed within this in a dominant marketplace position. "Originally selling a highly successful virus-scanning service that was offered by Star Internet (now its sister company), MessageLabs is self-funded and has a steady revenue stream," states the Yankee Group.

Another Yankee Research Note, titled 'Enterprises Reap the Benefits of Antispam Solutions' published December 22, 2003, also found that MessageLabs' solution met or exceeded expectation in the four criteria of enterprise email security solutions--filtering effectiveness, flexibility, best-of-breed virus scanning and email server security.

Yankee analyst Phebe Waterfield, who authored both reports, found that, "Enterprises with leading anti-spam solutions can successfully reduce the security, productivity and legal risks associated with spam by filtering out between 90 percent of unwanted e-mail. Stopping viruses before they reach the e-mail server and desktop reduces load on the e-mail infrastructure and improves overall network security."

"By recognizing us as a market leader, Yankee has validated the phenomenal success we have achieved as a global email security services company," said Jos White, President of MessageLabs Americas. "Our ability to gain 11% market share in just a few years demonstrates the need for and acceptance of managed services that have financial and technical advantages over software and gateway appliances."

Using a redundant global infrastructure and multi-patented propriety technology, MessageLabs scans email at the Internet layer to stop threats before they ever reach corporate networks.

This model allows MessageLabs to offer and actually deliver against a 100% guaranteed protection against all known and unknown viruses. MessageLabs is the only anti-virus company in the world to make this guarantee and since offering it four years ago, not a single customer has ever been infected with a virus.

The company's managed anti-spam service is also dynamically updated to keep spam detection rates high in the face of ever-changing dynamic threats.

Beyond industry-leading anti-spam and anti-virus services, MessageLabs offers a content control service that scans inbound and outgoing emails containing pornographic images and a fraud protection service for banks and other online retailers.

Built into all services is protection for disaster recovery, intrusion detection, distributed denial of service attacks and dictionary attacks.

According to Waterfield, "There is new awareness that e-mail harvesting attacks tax corporate e-mail systems to the limit. These issues have created a market for products and services that can provide confidentiality, integrity and availability of these communications mediums."

InfoWorld and CRN Magazine have also recently recognized MessageLabs' unique competitive strengths and technology expertise.

In January, CRN gave MessageLabs 5 out of 5 stars for Technology and found that, "A managed service that requires no hardware or software yet promises to keep a company 100% virus free--and even offers a refund if a virus enters--may sound too good to be true, but it does exist. MessageLabs, a New-York based provider of antivirus, antispam, Internet content filtering and managed services does just that, offering up the right remedy to companies looking for managed email security services." (Jan. 2004 Product Review: "MessageLabs Solution Offers 100 Percent Guaranteed Security.)

InfoWorld rated MessageLabs' Anti-Spam Service as "Very Good" with great pricing and very low false positives. "MessageLabs' service offers superior ease of use, simple installation and reduced network traffic. The service offloads anti-spam and anti-virus processing from your network, reducing the amount of traffic going over your Internet connection. It is easy to set up and provides a simple way for end-users to check quarantined email and release any messages they want." (Feb. 2004 Product Review: CipherTrust, Corvigo and MessageLabs Lighten the Spam Load)

Following the Mydoom outbreak in January, more than two-dozen customers spontaneously validated the bulletproof protection of MessageLabs Anti-Virus Service.

Greg Folsom, Vice President of IT for Arnold Worldwide, was one of those customers. "I'm sitting here with my feet up reading about the unfortunate people that have not yet discovered MessageLabs. Looking at the web portal, I can see you guys are stopping boatloads of contaminated messages for us. Guess I owe you another thank you. First no spam, now no viruses."

About MessageLabs

MessageLabs is the leading provider of managed email security services to businesses worldwide. The company currently protects more than 8,000 businesses worldwide from email threats such as viruses, spam and other unwanted content before they reach their networks and without requiring additional hardware or software. Powered by a global network of control towers that currently spans the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Hong Kong, MessageLabs scans tens of millions of emails a day on behalf of customers such as The British Government, The Bank of New York, EMI Music, HealthPartners, StorageTek, Air Products and Chemicals, SC Johnson, Conde Nast Publications, Fujitsu and Diageo. For more information on MessageLabs and its industry-leading email security and management services, please visit http://www.messagelabs.com.