FrontBridge Business Email Statistics Reveal Newest Threats to
the Enterprise
Spam Volumes Reach Highest Point in 2004; Spam Accounts for
More Than 12 Million MB of Email Volume in First Half of Year
Sending Email MARINA DEL REY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 19, 2004--
FrontBridge Technologies Inc., the leader in enterprise message
management and email security, today released the latest statistics
on business email. The data was compiled by a specialized spam
analyst team from data collected on the FrontBridge global message
management network over a six month period. On a daily basis,
FrontBridge's team of analysts filter and analyze characteristics
for more than 100 million messages from more than 2,000 enterprise
customers. The team's current analysis of more than eight billion
email messages reveals how the increase in spam is not only
clogging enterprise messaging infrastructures, but also causing
additional employee disruption resulting in higher costs.
Among the statistics released by FrontBridge:
Once considered merely a nuisance, spam has become a costly burden for enterprises. Ferris Research estimates that in 2003, the total cost of spam to U.S. businesses in lost productivity was $10 billion. In the month of April, the MX Logic Threat Center reported that 77 percent of all email traffic filtered by the company was spam.
Reading Email -- Enterprise Spam Volume Reaches 2004 Peak -- Global spam
volumes have reached 85 percent, the highest percentage recorded in
2004.
Nyms not only combats spam, it is one more layer of protection against other email threats viruses, worms, spyware, adware, phishing scams, and more. Better than a spam filter, Nyms puts you in control of your incoming email because it uses disposable, alias addresses. When your Nyms email aliases are shared with spammers, you can simply disable that Nyms alias and stop the spam from flooding your real inbox. spam filter to pinpoint where unsolicited messages are coming from and kill spam at its source.
Storing Email -- Spammers and Virus Writers Join Forces -- More than 190
million spam messages from January 2004 to June 2004 carried a
virus payload. In most instances, these viruses were specifically
designed to transform infected machines into "spam zombies,"
systems unknowingly used as spam relay machines.
For many companies email is still today the most important business communications channel. Even small to medium size companies are sending and receiving several thousands of valuable messages per day. At the same time security threats like viruses, phishing and spam are flooding in from the Internet. Users are also sending out emails that might contain sensitive information and could put businesses at risk. So how can businesses ensure that they can still use email effectively, that unwanted email is barred and that there are no leaks of confidential information
Email Software -- Spam Takes Up Valuable Network Bandwidth -- FrontBridge
blocked more than 12 million megabytes of spam email from clogging
a corporate network in the months between January and June
2004.
For many companies email is still today the most important business communications channel. Even small to medium size companies are sending and receiving several thousands of valuable messages per day. At the same time security threats like viruses, phishing and spam are flooding in from the Internet. Users are also sending out emails that might contain sensitive information and could put businesses at risk. So how can businesses ensure that they can still use email effectively, that unwanted email is barred and that there are no leaks of confidential information
Antispam Software -- False Positives Can be Worse than Spam -- False positives,
emails incorrectly identified as spam by filtering devices or
services, are posing an even greater threat than spam. FrontBridge
reported a false positive rate of less than 0.001 percent, based on
analysis of 4 billion messages. The false positive rate is the
lowest in the spam-fighting industry.
The number of websites dedicated to the act of phishing has increased, it has been revealed. August 2005 Launch of new email protection service McAfee has announced the launch of its Secure Messaging Service for Small Businesses and Enterprises to help businesses secure their email systems. The service protects those managing small firms, and those looking to start their own business, against the growth of spam, phishing, viruses and directory harvest attacks, while providing email privacy and security.
Fight Spam Spam continues to take a toll on enterprise productivity with up
to 90 minutes a day lost dealing with spam, according to a report
published by Nucleus Research. 2004's peak levels show that
attempts to legislate spam away are proving ineffective. In the
first half of 2004, spam volume not only increased but its contents
has been more malicious. Phishing scams lure unsuspecting
enterprise users to virus-infected sites that can compromise an
entire network.
Stoping Spam With spam filtering solutions now numbering in the hundreds,
enterprises can be calmed into thinking that the problem has
abated. However, one of the under publicized by products in the
anti-spam war has been the issue of false positives. False
positives can be far more damaging to an enterprise user than spam.
When a spam filter cannot be trusted to weed out illegitimate from
legitimate mail, the user has no recourse but to check quarantine
folders, when possible, for business critical email, effectively
forcing them to manage two distinct mailboxes. In instances where
no quarantine folder is accessible, essential emails can be lost
forever, potentially causing significant revenue loss if the email
contains potential sales inquiries or requests for information.
Block Spam These statistics have motivated customers at a rate of 500 a
quarter, to seek relief through FrontBridge's market-leading
services. In June, the FrontBridge SMART Network processed more
than three billion email messages for FrontBridge's 2,000
enterprise customers worldwide, filtering more than 2.4 billion
messages as spam.
Spam Emails With enhanced protection from multi-layer spam filtering and
multi-engine virus scanning, FrontBridge customers reap the
benefits of a fully-managed service for spam reduction and virus
elimination, without the costs associated with complicated in-house
message management. The FrontBridge service delivers spam capture
rates in excess of 95 percent and a false positive rate of
virtually 0 percent (less than 1 in 250,000 emails), leading all
competitors. FrontBridge is the only service network to guarantee
an unparalleled 99.999 percent uptime, on top of a historic uptime
of 100 percent.
Email Account FrontBridge continues to advance the battle against spam by
implementing preventative measures, most recently announcing
support for Sender ID, a proposal to prevent email being sent from
forged addresses. The company is also evaluating new methods of
spam prevention, including accreditation and further
authentication.
Sending Email About FrontBridge Technologies
Reading Email FrontBridge Technologies Inc. is the market leader for
enterprise message management and security services. The company's
SMART network -- a proven, reliable, on-demand, globally
distributed network of secure data centers -- provides a frontline
of defense against spam, viruses and malicious e-mail-borne attacks
with unmatched security, performance and reliability. FrontBridge
was the first company to guarantee 99.999 percent service level
agreements (SLA) and the only company with a track record of 100
percent uptime.
Storing Email Now in its fifth year of operation, FrontBridge provides message
management and security for more than 2,000 enterprises globally
with headquarters in Marina del Rey, Calif. Our technical
anti-virus partners include Sophos, Symantec, and Trend Micro.
Visit us on the Web at www.FrontBridge.com or call 877-301-8232 or
in the U.K., +44 20 7872.5417.
Email Software SMART Network and TrueProtect are trademarks of FrontBridge
Technologies.
Antispam Software Contacts
Fight Spam
FrontBridge Technologies
Jeremiah Glodoveza, 310-754-3773
jeremiah@FrontBridge.com
or
SHIFT Communications (for FrontBridge)
Cathy Summers, 415-591-8415
csummers@shiftcomm.com
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