The option of outsourcing your AS/AV systems is getting stronger as the complexity and severity of spam problems grow. Here are some of the benefits.

The options available to mitigate the problems of e-mail spam in the enterprise are varied. Just as varied is the variety of definitions of spam today. These factors often lead to some confusion about what a particular anti-spam (or anti-fraud or anti-virus) solution may or may not do. This

Spam Butcher is an advanced anti-spam filter. Its spam blocker can stop 98% of spam. Every few minutes it checks for new messages in your inbox. If it finds any spam, it's moved to a holding area for your later examination. Spam Butchers anti-spam software uses a fuzzy logic expert system to determine which messages are spam, and which are not. Version 2.0a includes unspecified updates.

Web and Email are now the primary attack vector for intrusions, viruses and stealthy, malicious, targeted malware. Spam makes up about 90% of the volume of email on an average. Add stealthy E-discovery to the equation costing around $1700 per GB of email. The rapid growth of spyware such as Trojan horses and adware shows how the malware threat has shifted its focus from the email inbox to the Web browser. Hackers are exploiting the vulnerabilities of an open and dynamic Web to quietly distribute their malware. Web malware infection from reputable Web sites is now a reality.

Anti-virus - Quickly scans all messages for dangerous viruses, and eliminates them before reaching your inbox.

Perhaps one of the most widely used defenses for spam, virus, phishing and spyware attacks, the Barracuda Spam Firewall is an integrated hardware and software solution that leverages 12 defense layers to protect e-mail servers in both large enterprise and small business environments. It offers comprehensive protection against spam, virus, spoofing, phishing, spyware, and DoS attacks. It's also compatible with all email servers, and can fit into nearly any business environment from 10 to 200,000 employees. And a single Barracuda Spam Firewall can handle up to 30,000 active e-mail users, with multiple units that can be clustered together for increased capacity.

But not all spam is by email. One such infector is the Trojan.Mespam. This trojan drops rsvp32_2.dll amongst other files, then sends malicious URLs via Instant Messaging software and message boards. Mespam is surely one of many newer spambot variants folks should be aware of. Increased email activity reported to you by your ISP is one sure sign of this type infection. Mespam injects the rsvp32_2.dll into the system's Winsock layer, basically the interface between Windows and the Internet.

Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) today announced that Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 10.0 and Symantec Brightmail AntiSpam have been selected as finalists for the 2006 SC Magazine Awards. This year, SC Magazine received more than 1,300 product and service nominations from more than 330 competing global companies, a record number for the magazine. Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 10.0 was named a Reader Trust Technology Award finalist for "Best Anti-Virus," and Symantec Brightmail AntiSpam was named a finalist for "Best Anti-Spam."

Sunbelt Software's Ninja Blade is a Dell-based appliance that is deployed at the corporate gateway and provides E-mail security for organizations. The appliance is initially available in four scaled flavors, supporting organizations of from 500 to 5,000 users. The Ninja Blade combines the technology of several 3rd party vendors to provide anti-spam, anti-virus, attachment filtering, and more for the organization.

Stirling integrates Microsoft's anti-virus, anti-spam and content filtering software, Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server, Forefront Client Security and network access control tools while working with the Microsoft Network Access Protection (NAP) policy, Microsoft said today.