Symantec, Network Associates Tackle Spam

Symantec this week plans to release Symantec AntiVirus for SMTP Gateways 3.1. The product uses multiple technologies, including a heuristic antispam engine, third-party blacklists and a custom white list to detect spam and reduce false positives, executives said.

"Obviously there's a huge need for that," said Chris Ellerman, vice president of professional services at Meridian IT Solutions, Schaumburg, Ill.

The solution was among upcoming products highlighted by Gail Hamilton, Symantec's executive vice president of product delivery and response, at the vendor's annual Analyst Meeting in San Jose, Calif., late last month. Combining antivirus and antispam protection in one product reduces acquisition costs and streamlines management, she said.

Meanwhile, Network Associates, Santa Clara, Calif., discussed its antispam strategy at its annual Analyst Day this month in New York. The company earlier this year acquired antispam provider Deersoft.

"We bought this [product] because it's the best technology for detecting spam with the lowest [number of] false positives on the market," said Art Matin, president of McAfee, a division of Network Associates. "We have an aggressive road map we'll roll out during the rest of the year. We'll stop spam at all levels."

Network Associates next month plans to release the first product under that strategy, a desktop solution dubbed SpamKiller for Exchange. Between July and December, the company plans to release additional antispam solutions for the enterprise that integrate with its McAfee GroupShield and WebShield products to provide protection at e-mail servers and Internet gateways.

Steven Palange, president and CEO of TLIC Worldwide, a Boston-based solution provider, said Network Associates is on track with its strategy. Spam filtering may be the evolution of antivirus technology, Palange said. "Maybe spam is the next virus plague," he added.

For Network Associates, antispam solutions are among 25 new or enhanced products the vendor plans to roll out in 2003, which executives said will be the largest product launch year in the company's history.

"Our vision is to stop everything that gets past the firewall," said Sandra England, executive vice president of corporate development and strategic research at Network Associates.

The vendor plans to offer an integrated enterprise solution that provides intrusion protection, she said. The strategy includes new products and increased integration across its McAfee, Sniffer Technologies and Magic Solutions units.

Plans include integrating intrusion-detection technology from partner Internet Security Systems into a new high-speed version of the Sniffer network analyzer. The product, dubbed Impermia, is based on the Sniffer Distributed S6000 platform and is slated to ship in the second quarter.

By the end of this year, Network Associates plans to have a solution to block attacks, England said. There is existing technology in the market that Network Associates could buy and integrate with McAfee or Sniffer technology to provide that solution, she said.

Matin said McAfee's plans include a new version of ePolicy Orchestrator that features fast global updating. The product's installation wizard will make it attractive to small businesses, he said.

Symantec's plans include boosting the capabilities of its Client Security product, which combines antivirus, firewall, intrusion-detection and content-filtering functions, and adding a new product that extends that integrated security to servers, Hamilton said.

New capabilities in Client Security, released last year, include an enhanced firewall, location awareness to determine whether a user is remote and the ability to check if users have all of the latest security updates before they log on to the network, she said.

Symantec also is boosting its integrated Gateway Security appliance by making it easier to use, increasing its reliability and replacing its intrusion-detection engine, Hamilton said.