(PRWEB) April 9, 2003

SANTA CLARA, California – April, 2003 – Kerio Technologies, a software developer specializing in security solutions for small to mid-sized businesses, has launched the new version of its multi-platform corporate messaging solution, Kerio MailServer 5.6 with significantly augmented anti-spam protection. Existing anti-spam tools have been enriched by award-winning spam detection technology called SpamAssassin. SpamAssassin analyzes each email message against multiple criteria and gives it a numerical rating. If the message rating exceeds the threshold set by the user, the message is marked as spam and filtered according to the user’s wishes.

According to a recent Ferris Research study, the average corporate user receives three spam messages per day and the prediction is that the number will only increase.

SpamAssassin is an open source project aimed at developing technology for recognizing spam messages. It uses different tactics such as header analysis, content analysis, blacklist checking, and collaborative spam-tracking database checking. In a recent PC Magazine test, SpamAssassin filtered out 88.9% of spam with a false positive rate of only 4.3 percent, earning it the Editor’s Choice award.

“SpamAssassin is a powerful addition to our existing anti-spam measures,” says Dusan Vitek, director of marketing for Kerio Technologies. “We feel that this level of protection should be a part of any viable corporate messaging solution, which is why we are adding SpamAssassin, together with protection against directory harvest attacks, at no additional cost to Kerio MailServer customers.”

Directory harvest attacks abuse the design of the SMTP protocol. When one mail server attempts to deliver a message to another mail server, it first inquires whether the recipient address exists on the target mail server. If it exists, the target mail server sends a confirmation; if not, the server responds with negative answer. Spammers take advantage of this communication by submitting multiple requests with different combinations of first and last names. By harvesting valid responses, spammers get very precise list of valid email addresses suitable for future spamming.

To fight directory harvest attacks, Kerio MailServer monitors any unusual change in SMTP activity and once this attack is recognized, it applies several defensive techniques such as slowing down responses, cutting off connections and faking responses.

Kerio MailServer runs on different versions of Microsoft Windows, Linux Red Hat and Apple Mac OS X. Kerio MailServer 5.6 extends its directory service support to include Apple OpenDirectory, allowing users to be managed transparently from Apple’s Mac OS X Server. Kerio MailServer continues its full support for Microsoft Active Directory and is still the only mail server besides Microsoft Exchange with this functionality.

Pricing and Availability

Kerio MailServer 5.6 is available through Kerio Authorized Resellers and the Kerio Store at http://www.kerio.com. Kerio MailServer 5.6 is US$ 395 for the product with antivirus plug-ins (Grisoft AVG, Eset NOD32, F-Secure, CA eTrust Antivirus or Sophos SAVI) and US$ 679 for the version with integrated McAfee antivirus. For more detailed information about new features, please visit: http://www.kerio.com/kms.

About Kerio Technologies Inc.

Founded in 2001, Kerio Technologies Inc. (http://www.kerio.com) is a major provider of Internet security software for small to medium sized networks, specializing in network and desktop firewalls and secure workgroup messaging systems. Kerio’s corporate headquarters are located in Santa Clara, California, with offices in Great Britain and the Czech Republic. Kerio’s technology partners include Network Associates and Cobion.

NOTE

SpamAssassin is a trademark of Deersoft, Inc. The SpamAssassin open source project resides at http://www.spamassasin.org.