M86 Security Has Been Awarded the ‘Gold’ in the Virus Bulletin Anti-Spam Comparative Test

November 18, 2009

MailMarshal SMTP Achieves the Highest Spam Detection Rate Among the 14 Products Tested

Orange, Calif. - November 18, 2009 - M86 Security, a global provider of Web and messaging security products, today announced that MailMarshal SMTP was found to have the highest level of spam detection in a study done by Virus Bulletin, the leading independent testing organization for anti-virus and anti-spam products.

In the side-by-side test performed by Virus Bulletin, a total of 14 products were tested. MailMarshal SMTP achieved a 99.62 percent Spam Detection rate, the highest of all the products tested, and was awarded the "Gold" level of certification. The anti-spam certification recently announced was for the November 2009 test.

Virus Bulletin's Anti-spam Test Director Martijn Grooten said, "With another increase in the number of products tested this month, the benchmarks used for this test were again stricter than in previous tests. At least one product reported better numbers, but won a lower-level award than in the last test. With developers of all products constantly improving their solutions, the competition is hotter than ever."

"We are very pleased that our MailMarshal SMTP product continues to be recognized for its industry-leading performance in spam detection," said Werner Thalmeier, M86 Security's Vice President of Product Management. "Our 'defense-in-depth' spam engine is well known for excellent protection with few false positives. Given that we achieved the highest spam detection of the test group before the introduction of our new features, such as the Blended Threat Module™ and IP Reputation which will further boost MailMarshal's spam and malware detection capabilities, is all the more impressive."

The accolades for MailMarshal come just in time to provide some assurance to customers in advance of Cyber Monday. A contender as one of the busiest online traffic days of the year, Cyber Monday is also subsequently one of the biggest spam days of the year.

"With people carrying heavier workloads and at their desks for longer hours, IT administrators have come to terms with the idea that employees will use corporate resources to conduct personal activities, putting corporate resources under greater threat," says Bradley Anstis, Vice President of Technical Strategy and Head of the M86 Security Labs. "That said, with Cyber Monday looming, now is the time to remind employees to be vigilant when online. Deal-seeking employees should be mindful of email and online ads touting hard-to-believe deals and while conventional wisdom also advises to steer clear of unknown or unfamiliar merchants, people need to remember that even mainstream Web sites could fall victim to enterprising hackers who have injected malicious code into areas of the merchant's Web site."

The results of the November 2009 anti-spam comparative review can be viewed at:
http://www.virusbtn.com/news/2009/11_04.xml.