Mirapoint Announces Smart Anti-Spam; New ``Search and Destroy'' Approach Eliminates Unwanted E-mail at the Network Edge.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 20, 2002

Mirapoint, a leading vendor of Internet messaging solutions, today announced that its line of purpose-built, high-performance messaging systems now provides the industry's most comprehensive and powerful protection against spam. Unlike competitive messaging products that treat anti-spam as an add-on functionality and only address one part of the overall spam problem, Mirapoint's integrated approach provides a multi-faceted set of "smart" tools for eliminating junk mail through a combination of state-of-the-art techniques that can be managed from a single platform. Available as part of Mirapoint's Message Server and Message Director products, the new anti-spam features can be deployed by service provider, enterprise and education customers that standardize on Mirapoint's message store, as well as customers that want to secure an existing e-mail infrastructure.

Most anti-spam products available today employ brute-force comparison techniques or narrowly focused filters that are easily out-maneuvered by spammers. These products have a high risk of false positives, lost e-mails and compromised privacy. In addition to requiring additional hardware investments and being complicated to deploy and configure, many of the existing anti-spam products lack the performance and reliability needed to keep junk e-mails from bringing a network to its knees.

By comparison, Mirapoint's solution is an integrated part of Mirapoint's messaging systems and can be deployed quickly and easily into any customer environment to dispose of unwelcome messages before they enter the network. By employing a combination of heuristic rules-based scanning, white and black lists, content filtering, and other key security features like SMTP-based authentication, the Mirapoint anti-spam solution yields a higher level of effectiveness in stopping spam. In addition, the Mirapoint solution keeps pace with the resourcefulness of spammers by providing configurable network-based updates to the heuristic rules engine as new filters become available.

Mirapoint's integrated messaging systems enhance e-mail security and reliability while being very easy to install and manage. The new anti-spam features can be rapidly deployed on Mirapoint systems simply by downloading the new Mirapoint Messaging Operating System 3.3 software and applying a license key. The anti-spam features can be easily configured via web-based administration interfaces or command-line tools, as well as enabled on a per user or domain basis using Mirapoint's class-of-service controls. For service providers, class-of-service controls are the linchpin of deploying tailored, billable service offerings to their end-user business or consumer customers. An e-mail administrator can also define how suspected junk mail is handled -- for example whether it is automatically deleted or filtered into a specified junk mail folder.

"Spam has become more than just a nuisance," said Mark Levitt, research director of collaborative computing for IDC. "It's becoming a significant hindrance to the effectiveness of e-mail for communication and collaboration. Mirapoint is helping its customers to stop spam at the network edge using multiple techniques with a single managed platform that can be upgraded and changed to address constant efforts of spammers to defeat blocking technology."

The new anti-spam features join an increasingly broad set of Mirapoint messaging services -- including basic e-mail, SMS, MMS, calendar, address book and to-do-list services -- all delivered from Mirapoint's single, integrated platform. "Spam has emerged as a scourge on every company's network. It threatens privacy, reduces productivity and indiscriminately exposes users to offensive material," said Satish Ramachandran, chief executive officer of Mirapoint. "For all types of customers, Mirapoint's intelligent anti-spam solutions work at the network level to stop spam without additional expense, system complexity or administration. We're finding that even corporations with Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes are excited to deploy Mirapoint's comprehensive, easy-to-manage solution as a front-end gateway to greatly reduce the flood of junk e-mail and viruses to better secure their networks."

Pricing and Availability

Mirapoint's new anti-spam solution is available immediately for the Mirapoint Message Server and Message Director products. Pricing is based on the number of users with discounts available for volume purchases. To take advantage of the new functionality, new and existing customers need to install the latest Mirapoint Messaging Operating System 3.3 software and apply the anti-spam license key provided upon purchase.

About Mirapoint

Founded in 1997, Mirapoint designs and manufactures specialized, dedicated Internet messaging solutions optimized for fast deployment in service provider and enterprise environments worldwide. Mirapoint's cost-effective and modular solutions provide customers with high performance, high reliability, built-in security and easy integration with legacy messaging infrastructure. One of Computerworld magazine's "Top 100 Emerging Companies" for 2002 and named to Upside magazine's "Hot 100 Private Companies" in 2001, Mirapoint is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., with offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information on Mirapoint, call 800-937-8118 or visit its Web site at http://www.mirapoint.com/.

Mirapoint is a registered trademark of Mirapoint, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.