Internet Security Systems Enhances Protection Platform with E-mail Security Appliance

September 12, 2006; 04:22 AM
Internet Security Systems, Inc., a leader in preemptive, enterprise security,  introduced the Proventia Network Mail Security System, the company's first security appliance dedicated solely to protecting an organization's messaging infrastructure. Unlike existing e-mail security solutions that tend to focus only on anti-spam technology, the new ISS solution offers comprehensive, preemptive protection against messaging threats through industry-leading intrusion prevention system (IPS) technology and the patented ISS Virus Prevention System (VPS).

Proventia Network Mail is an extension of the ISS protection platform, which provides end-to-end protection against threats to enterprise endpoints, servers, networks and gateways. Designed for enterprises and managed service providers, the Proventia Network Mail appliance scales to support the demands of large organizations. It can be configured to protect as few as 2,500 users or up to hundreds of thousands of users with minimal appliance deployments.

In the era of distributed workforces, virtual teams, road warriors and corporate globalization, e-mail is the most indispensable enterprise application, yet it continues to be plagued not only by spam but also by phishing, denial of service attacks, directory harvest attacks, viruses, worms and other types of malicious code.

According to Brian Burke of IDC, "Organizations are increasingly buying messaging security solutions that address multiple threats and deliver integrated antivirus, anti-spam and content filtering in a single solution. Security appliances are quickly becoming the platform of choice for integrating multiple messaging security technologies."(1)

"With organizations expecting greater functionality from their e-mail security solutions, ISS is well positioned to offer a dedicated e-mail security appliance to the market," said Greg Adams, vice president of product development at Internet Security Systems. "Through the ISS protection platform, ISS leverages its core technologies to provide customers with the simplest, most effective means of protecting critical IT infrastructure from networks to desktops and servers. Since e-mail servers have now become a main entry point into a network for attackers, we are extending our industry-leading IPS technology and unique Virus Prevention System to protect companies' messaging architecture."

Through a powerful combination of IPS, virus blocking, anti-spam and embedded URL filtering technologies, Proventia Network Mail protects against spam and the full realm of malicious code affecting e-mail systems through the SMTP protocol, including phishing attacks, viruses, worms and other malcode. The appliance inspects the content of each e-mail that enters an organization at multiple levels, ensuring 98 percent effectiveness in spam blocking. It is the only solution on the market that includes the unique Virus Prevention System technology from ISS, which assesses the behavior of network traffic, including e-mail attachments and files, to identify and block viruses and other zero-day threats before they are even discovered, preventing malicious content from ever reaching the download stage.

"The addition of e-mail content security to the ISS portfolio will further increase the value of the company's protection platform," said Eugenie Toecker, Messaging Administrator at German research center, FZK. "While it is widely estimated that 80 to 90 percent of the world's incoming e-mail traffic is spam, companies are recognizing that anti-spam technology alone is not enough to prevent their messaging infrastructures from being shut down by attackers, used to infiltrate other parts of the network or even harvested for users' personal information. We are confident that ISS' proven IPS and VPS technologies will significantly help companies like ours to regain control of our messaging infrastructure."

"Our company has always been met with great success in bringing the ISS protection platform and its various products to market," said Brandy Peterson, CTO at FishNet Security. "We are pleased that we can now offer customers a dedicated solution for email security based on the high-caliber ISS technologies they rely on to protect their other network assets."

ISS technology is backed by the world-renowned ISS X-Force(R) research and development team. Consistently rivaling independent researchers and other security vendors with cutting-edge findings, the X-Force discovered 51 percent of the high-risk vulnerabilities found by commercial security research groups from 1998 to 2005.

Additionally, ISS intrusion prevention solutions are bolstered by the company's unique Virtual Patch(R) technology. By shielding the underlying vulnerability instead of focusing on each new exploit, Virtual Patch provides protection even before a vendor-supplied patch is available. Enterprises can then make their own decisions about when to schedule patching, while the messaging infrastructure remains secure from costly security breaches.

Through the Proventia Management SiteProtector(TM), Proventia Network Mail becomes an integrated part of the ISS protection platform, along with other ISS products and valuable security intelligence and services from ISS. Through this layered approach with central management capabilities, organizations can protect their assets more efficiently and dramatically reduce security costs.

Proventia Network Mail will be available this month both directly from ISS and through channel partners. Optional signature-based antivirus capabilities are also available for this appliance.

Further information on the Proventia Network Mail Security System can be found at: http://www.iss.net/products/Proventia_Mail_Appliance/ product_main_page.html (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

About Internet Security Systems, Inc.

Internet Security Systems, Inc. (ISS) is the trusted security advisor to thousands of the world's leading businesses and governments, providing preemptive protection for networks, desktops and servers. An established leader in security since 1994, the ISS Proventia(R) integrated security platform automatically protects against both known and unknown threats, keeping networks up and running and shielding customers from online attacks before they impact business assets. ISS products and services are based on the proactive security intelligence of its X-Force(R) research and development team - the unequivocal world authority in vulnerability and threat research. The ISS product line is also complemented by comprehensive Managed Security Services and Professional Security Services. For more information, visit the Internet Security Systems Web site at www.iss.net or call 800-776-2362.