BLUECAT NETWORKS’ MERIDIUS SECURITY GATEWAY™ APPLIANCE POUNCES ON SPAM IN REAL TIME WITH RECURRENT PATTERN DETECTION (RPD™) ENGINE POWERED BY COMMTOUCH
Customers Praise the Spam-Fighting Performance of the Security Appliance

 

Richmond Hill, Ont. and Mountain View, CA — April 12, 2004 — BlueCat Networks, Inc., a leading provider of simple and affordable security appliances, and Commtouch® (Nasdaq:CTCH), a global provider of proprietary anti-spam solutions, today announced the Meridius Security Gateway™ appliance is catching spam in real time with a fully integrated spam detection engine that leverages Commtouch’s Recurrent Pattern Detection (RPD™) technology. The Meridius Security Gateway appliance identifies and quarantines spam in real time regardless of its language, content or format of the message.

The latest release of the Meridius Security Gateway appliance also features enhancements to the Meridius Management Console’s functionality. The secure mail relay includes support for global white listing, the ability to import, export and sort white lists and aliases, enhanced SSL connectivity and access to quarantined messages, and the availability of multi-lingual quarantine alerts and Quarantine Mailbox graphical user interface.

“Spam has become sophisticated. Content tools that run Bayesian filtering and heuristics text analyses on messages are no longer as effective as they once were on their own,” noted Michael Hyatt, president of BlueCat Networks, Inc. “Organizations owe it to themselves and especially their users to examine the Meridius security appliance with unique RPD spam detection engine.”

The Recurrent Pattern Detection technology is one layer of BlueCat Networks’ multi-tier approach to spam detection. Email messages identified as spam are contained in each user’s Meridius Quarantine Mailbox which now supports an English, French or Spanish graphical user interface. Users can also receive their Meridius quarantine alert message in English, French or Spanish. The alert advises users that they have new quarantined messages awaiting them in their Meridius Quarantine Mailbox.

“BlueCat Networks' Meridius Security Gateway appliance rocks," said Roger Hall, network administrator, ILC Dover, Inc. "Since the real time RPD spam detection engine was turned on, I personally have received no spam. With this additional functionality, the Meridius Security Gateway has made my life a lot easier and has reduced the strain on ILC Dover's network resources and mail servers. With approximately 300 users previously receiving an estimated 7,000 unsolicited messages daily, a lot of time was wasted dealing with spam. Now, thanks to BlueCat Networks, ILC Dover is 99 percent spam free. In my estimations, the Meridius Security Gateway appliance has paid for itself already."

"Some users were getting 400 spam messages a day," reported Dean Ellerton, director of information and library services, Suffield Academy. "Mail filters are no longer a deterrent to spammers. They've discovered ways to circumvent them. However, with its integrated Recurrent Pattern Detection engine, our Meridius Security Gateway appliance is catching more than 97 percent of the spam with very few false positives. Better still, my users are much happier."

James Krochmal, IT manager for Polysius, remarked, "The Meridius Security Gateway appliance is very effective. Employee morale has improved, as well as the productivity of remote users who no longer waste time synchronizing spam. With Commtouch’s real-time RPD detection engine on the Meridius appliance, Polysius has witnessed firsthand the elimination of annoyances for all its email users. I estimate that Polysius is saving a minimum of $500 per day."

Availability
The Meridius Security Gateway appliance is an affordable alternative to software or outsourcing options to remedy spam and viruses and protect mail servers from hijack attempts. It is shipping today with both optional Recurrent Pattern Detection spam engine and anti-virus software.

The Meridius Security Gateway appliance is available from BlueCat Networks and its community of authorized resellers.