The Seattle, Washington-based company is driving hard into the UTM market, and Richard Reid, WatchGuards managing director for EMEA, claimed that latest market analysis suggests the vendor is making good headway. During November it will be adding new anti-spam features provided by email security vendor Commtouch Software Inc. We looked at what the market had to offer and found that Commtouch produced the lowest rate of false-positives, but also uses an off-box database which relieves the firewall of processing the anti-spam routines. As email comes in it is instantly offloaded so that the performance of the WatchGuard box is unaffected, Reid said.

Commtouch has developed a system of recurrent pattern detection, and rather than evaluating possible spam by checking the message content, its technology analyzes large volumes of mail traffic in real time to identify outbreaks as soon as they emerge by comparing it with its database. Checking for patterns rather than content means the system is language-independent and so is well placed to be able to handle multi-national emails.

"WatchGuard's number one goal is to help customers achieve stronger security, without any additional hassles," said John Stuckey, WatchGuard vice president of Marketing. "Our partnership with Commtouch is in line with this strategy and will enable us to deliver the broadest and most powerful Unified Threat Management protection in the industry."

"We see a great deal of potential in technologies such as Commtouch RPD, which uses recurrent pattern analysis to track email senders' behavior and reputation," said Richi Jennings, email security practice lead at Ferris Research. "This approach is inherently automatic, and independent of full content analysis. It is designed to detect threats in their early stages."

The round was led by Empire Online investor Aviv Reis and included DS-Apex Holdings Ltd.
Anti-spam and virus protection technology developer Commtouch Software Ltd. (Nasdaq: CTCH) today announced that it has closed a private placement of 6,000,000 ordinary shares at a purchase price of $0.50 per share, for a total of $3 million.
The deal was led by businessman Aviv Reis and included DS-Apex Holdings Ltd. Reis, through Sidmore Holdings Ltd., is the third largest shareholder in Empire Online Ltd. (AIM: EOL).

The premier global market intelligence and advisory firm in the information technology and telecommunications industries, International Data Corporation (IDC) has published a new White Paper titled "Zero-Hour Virus Protection: Defending Against the Unknown" (August 2005), which investigates a persistent problem in the anti-virus (AV) industry -- how to provide immediate protection from emerging outbreaks, in the hours before signatures are available.
Said Dan Yachin, IDC's Research Director for EMEA Emerging Technologies: "The problem of signature-based AV solutions lies in their reactive nature. Given their lengthy development cycles, signatures developed against new, rapidly propagating attacks cannot prevent mass infection in the first hours. Emerging technologies such as Commtouch's Zero-Hour Virus Protection could have an important role in mitigating those risks."

Dan Yachin, IDC's Research Director for EMEA Emerging Technologies: "The problem of signature-based AV solutions lies in their reactive nature. Given their lengthy development cycles, signatures developed against new, rapidly propagating attacks cannot prevent mass infection in the first hours. Emerging technologies such as Commtouch's Zero-Hour Virus Protection could have an important role in mitigating those risks."

"Aimed at detecting mass outbreak indicators, Zero-Hour is differentiated from other proactive virus detection technologies by several advantages. First and foremost is the immediate and accurate detection of new outbreaks" stated Yachin. "... this solution demonstrated signature-independent, new virus detection and blocking of well over 90%. This performance is especially impressive considering that common proactive solutions such as heuristic-based ones hardly exceed the 30% mark."

China, South Korea and the United States continue to be the top three "contributors" to spam traffic.
Commtouch announced its spam trends and statistics for the month of July 2005 which were highlighted by a 20.2% higher spam volume than those seen during June. The numbers were based on data from the Commtouch Spam Detection Center.
"While July's spam volumes were 20.2% higher than the previous month, more significant is that we recorded 43.2% more spam in July 2005 than during July 2004”, said Commtouch CEO Gideon Mantel, “which highlights the continuing increase of spam throughout the last 12 months."

Commtouch’s sales model is to use distributors and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreements. OEM agreements generate 20-30% of product sales. The company currently has 28 OEM partners, seven of whom signed contracts during the second quarter, and Commtouch now protects thousands of enterprises in over 100 countries.

A few weeks ago, Microsoft acquired Sybari Software for an undisclosed amount. Sybari is an anti-virus and anti-spam company that provides enterprises with means of defense against hostile programs and attacks. It is a major distributor for Commtouch, and Commtouch now believes that it has found a back door to Microsoft for a new relationship. “I assume it will take time before Microsoft’s salespeople understand our product, but I hope there’ll be a big upside for the company in late 2005,” says Mantel.

“Globes”: What will the company look like in three or four years?

Mantel: “I don’t want to toss out numbers. We don’t give guidance, and not before the end of the year, but over time, we should achieve quarter-on-quarter double-digit growth. We have a lot of OEM agreements, we’ve kept our expenses at $4-5 million over recent quarters, and we’ll make profits from the middle of next year. We’ve gone through a lot as a company, and I’m quite proud of where we are now.”

Commtouch announced an Osterman Research survey that shows that even though every enterprise has some form of anti-virus (AV) protection in place, 93% of companies have been infiltrated by at least one type of Malware.
“It is striking that more than three quarters of messaging decision-makers consider zero-hour virus protection important or extremely important in the context of protecting their messaging systems,” said Michael Osterman.

Not surprisingly, 93% of IT managers expect to obtain zero-hour protection from their current AV vendors. The majority will also consider purchasing zero-hour virus protection solutions from other sources, including their current anti-spam vendors (57%), other anti-virus vendors (44%), other anti-spam vendors (26%) or from other vendors (10%).

The problem is the speed with which new viruses are identified and profiled by security companies, and then the speed with which the resulting virus signatures are sent out to members of a particular antivirus network. A slow response by anti-virus vendors is not a good thing. (To see just how important speed can be, check out Osterman Survey Points Up Anti-Virus Dissatisfaction).

Early-hour virus protection is a key messaging-security problem, according to survey of IT managers of leading organizations. Osterman Research surveyed 115 respondents, including IT and security managers from 12 vertical segments. The average organization surveyed has 21,000 employees, and 74 have over 2,500 employees.

The survey shows that even though every enterprise has some form of anti-virus (AV) protection in place, 93 percent of companies have been infiltrated by at least one type of Malware. Since signatures are fully effective once they are released, this level of vulnerability is primarily due to exposure before new signatures are released (zero-hour exposure).

By Galit Yemini
About a million spam messages worldwide were e-mailed every day in June, according to Commtouch's monthly spam report. Commtouch, which develops software to block spam, said Israel ranked 18th on a list of the world's major spam producers. Worldwide, it said, the fastest-growing type of spam was pornography.

"A million pieces of spam per day has been the constant rate over the last few months," said Oren Drori, Commtouch's marketing director. "But this represents a significant rise compared to last year. In the second quarter of this year, the amount of spam rose 30 percent compared to the same quarter of last year."

Commtouch Spam Detection Center, analyzes 1.5 billion messages each month.
The Commtouch Spam Detection Center recorded about 28,260,000 new spam outbreaks during the month of June, or 942,000 new outbreaks per day. “Spam volumes have held steady during the past few months, at just under a million new outbreaks per day,” said Oren Drori, director of product marketing at Commtouch. “However, there has been a marked increase in the past year. We recorded 30% more spam outbreaks in Q2/2005 than during the same period last year.”

...to Enhance its Security Products for Over 1 Million Home PCs. Private PC Users to Enjoy Enterprise-Level Anti-Spam Protection
Commtouch ... announced it signed an agreement with ParetoLogic Inc. leading to the integration of Commtouch RPD technology into ParetoLogic's security and privacy software applications for PCs.

ParetoLogic CEO Don Wharton said, "By integrating Commtouch's RPD technology into our software applications, we are giving our users the highest possible anti-spam protection. Your home, office, or small business can now have the same level of protection achieved by large corporate enterprises -- and we are talking about detection levels that are well above 97%, with virtually no false positives."

Avner Amram, executive vice president at Commtouch, said, "RPD technology has been integrated into many of the leading enterprise security solutions. This new agreement with ParetoLogic shows that Commtouch technology is equally suitable for off-the-shelf solutions for private users."

Commtouch today announced that it has launched a new online statistical lab covering global spam outbreaks. The company is best known for its RPD anti-spam technology and Zero-Hour virus protection. The lab can be accessed free of charge in two ways. For statistics and graphis, visit www.commtouch.com/Site/ResearchLab/statistics.asp. If you want to view a global e-mail outbreak monitor, visit www.commtouch.com//Site/ResearchLab/map.asp.

Commtouch Spam Lab data is based on information from the Commtouch Detection Center, which filters some 1.5 Billion messages a month. Commtouch's network-based approach to spam detection is said to provide scientifically accurate and reliable data on emerging outbreaks in real-time.

Commtouch , the developer of ground-breaking RPD technology for real time anti-spam and Zero-Hour virus protection, announced today that it has launched a powerful new online statistical lab covering global spam outbreaks.
Wed, 29 Jun 2005 10:00:00 GMT

Yigal Grayeff from Jerusalem Post: Commtouch's place on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market is secure after the US exchange said that the developer of anti-spam software meets its listing requirements. The company's listing is no longer conditional so it can drop the "C" at the end of its ticker symbol and revert to CTCH.
The Netanya-based company said on Sunday that its stock had been trading under the CTCHC symbol since June 30 last year, due to it failing to maintain shareholders' equity of at least $2.5 million. However, in April the company said it received $1.2m. from the exercise of previously issued warrants, which resulted in its shareholders' equity rising to over $2.5m.

Commtouch(R) (NASDAQ:CTCH), the developer of ground breaking RPD(TM) technology for real time anti-spam and zero-hour virus protection, today announced that its ticker symbol will revert to "CTCH" from "CTCHC" as of the opening of trading Monday, June 27, 2005.

This change is highlighted by the determination of The NASDAQ SmallCap Market that Commtouch has satisfied all of the conditions of the exception to listing announced by the company on June 28, 2004, and the company meets all listing requirements.

Gideon Mantel, CEO of Commtouch, stated: "We are extremely pleased that we are able to return to our former ticker symbol. It's a reflection of the progress we are making in our business generally. The recent improvements in several areas of our business are all pointing to a successful future for Commtouch."

More spam from EU, Korea in May 2005 - Commtouch Reports May Spam Trends: More and More Spam Originates . ...

Featured article: Virus outbreak protection: Network-based detection
This article suggests an alternative approach to complement to existing virus outbreak protection methods - pre-emptive mass outbreak detection. Virus Bulletin, Features - Oren Drori - March 2005

More spam from EU, Korea in May 2005 Commtouch analysis: There was a simultaneous decline in spam from the US. BGU, Deutsche Telekom in $4m research deal ...

John Dickinson of Messaging Pipeline covers Mirpoint's RazorGate appliance, including early virus protection (based on Commtouch Zero-Hour™ technology):
Mirapoint today announced new enhancements to its RazorGate e-mail security appliances. There are two new additions to the product's layered approach to e-mail control, Junk Mail Manager and Rapid Anti-Virus which can be added to all existing appliances and will be included in new appliances. Also newly available is a new MailHurdle-only security appliance designed to enhance existing e-mail security environments.

Rapid Anti-Virus technology adds an additional layer of real-time protection to Mirapoint's existing signature-based approach to virus filtering. By using e-mail traffic pattern information collected on a global basis from network probes to address emerging threats, Rapid Anti-Virus helps customers identify viruses quickly at the first sign of an outbreak. Rapid Anti-Virus is based on the Zero Hour Virus Protection technology licensed from Commtouch. "We've expanded our relationship with Commtouch specifically to add this feature and provide the best virus protection on the market," said Mirapoint director of product and corporate marketing Jeff Brainard.

Bob Francis, cover's Mirapoint's early virus protection (based on Commtouch Zero-Hour™ technology):
Mirapoint will also add new enhancements to its RazorGate e-mail security appliance. The company is announcing its new Mirapoint Junk Mail Manager, Rapid Anti-Virus technology, and MailHurdle appliance. The new Rapid Anti-Virus technology is designed to help customers minimize their exposure to and risk from malicious code threats during the critical first minutes of an outbreak. The MailHurdle appliance complements existing security products to stop spam and virus messages at an SMTP connection layer before resources are wasted and traditional filtering techniques are applied. The Rapid Anti-Virus technology will be available in beta release this summer and will be licensed on a per-user basis with annual subscriptions for updates. Junk Mail Manager & Rapid Anti-Virus are available on Mirapoint's Message Server and RazorGate appliances.

For commercial users of DCC such as anti-spam vendors, security vendors and managed service providers, Commtouch will offer a new DCC licensing program. Companies using DCC will also have an upgrade path to RPD, Commtouch's anti-spam and virus outbreak detection technology. In connection with the use license to DCC, Commtouch's new commercial licensing program will also make available for license certain elements of U.S. Patent No. 6,330,590.

"By working with Commtouch, we expect to increase DCC's effectiveness in fighting spam, providing better services for commercial DCC users," said Vernon Scrhyver, author of the DCC code. "At the same time, we will continue supporting free spam fighting. Use of the DCC code and participation in the global network of DCC clients and servers will remain free to all public network users and organizations that are not reselling anti-spam services."

Contact DCC at http://www.dcc-services.com.
Contact Commtouch at http://www.commtouch.com.

The proportion of global spam that constitutes financial fraud jumped sharply during the past year, according to data compiled by anti-spam software maker Commtouch Software Ltd. The company's analysis shows that financial fraud now accounts for 9 percent to 11 percent of global spam, up from 3 percent to 5 percent a year ago.
Oren Drori, director of product marketing at the Mountain View company, noted that this figure reached 15 percent in peak months. The growing proportion of e-fraud shows that spam is more than just "direct marketing gone bad" and attests to the growing sophistication of financial fraud techniques, he said.

Commtouch analysis shows that financial fraud now accounts for 9 percent to 11 percent of global spam. Oren Drori, director of product marketing at the Mountain View company, noted that this figure reached 15 percent in peak months.
In the "Pump & Dump" spam fraud, spammers invest in a specific stock and then "tip" millions of recipients, convincing them to invest in the same stock. When a critical mass of recipients buys in, the stock's value is artificially "pumped up." As soon as this happens, spammers "dump" their own shares -- at a nice profit. Following this massive "dumping" the stock's value typically plummets, leaving the new investors smarting from the loss. The entire operation can take just a few minutes - just long enough to cause a glitch in the stock value, and leave thousands a bit poorer than before.
"Our advice is simple," says Mr. Drori. "Ignore any tips you receive from unknown sources. If a stranger recommends a specific stock, it is probably to promote his own interests, not yours."

Commtouch progresse en France grâce à un accord avec Jet Multimédia, une filiale de Neuf Telecom
Commtouch(Nasdaq : CTCHC), le développeur de la technologie RDP™, leader en ce qui concerne la détection temps réel contre les attaques de spams et virus (virus zero-hour), a rendu public aujourd'hui un accord avec Jet Multimédia, le principal fournisseur, en France, de services d'hébergement et de services en ligne interactifs. Jet Multimédia a déjà implémenté la technologie anti-spam de Commtouch afin d'offrir des services à forte valeur ajoutée aux milliers d'entreprises françaises qui l'utilisent.

Commtouch partenr BlueCat Networks announces new product availability, referencing Commtouch technology, RPD:
"The Meridius 500 uses patented Recurrent Pattern Detection™ (RPD) technology to find the patterns in spam and keep these unwanted messages from getting through to the corporate mail system. When lab-tested, the Meridius captured over 99% of spam email with negligible false-positive rates. F-Secure's anti-virus software is an optional feature in the Meridius 500, offering one of the highest levels of virus protection. "
Michael Hyatt, president of BlueCat Networks: "The Meridius line of products is not content, language or form dependent, giving us an incredible catch rate and our customers a tremendous advantage. With the Meridius 500, small businesses can now enjoy the security and productivity of an enterprise email system."

- Commtouch (CTCHC), a global developer of anti-spam solutions featuring recurrent pattern detection (RPD) technology, has entered into a new technological cooperation with ComTV, one of China's leading e-mail and instant messaging service providers. ComTV says that spam act differently in China compared to the rest of the world, and thus need an anti-spam performance addressing the Chinese environment. Despite the accelerated growth of China's e-mail population, China has not been able to match the anti-spam protection levels said to be enjoyed by users in western countries.

Commtouch has entered into a new technological cooperation with Chinese e-mail and instant messaging service provider, ComTV. The company is reportedly developing customised solutions particularly suited to block Chinese spam.
China's e-mail capacity is growing at a fast rate, with analysts predicting that China will have 100 million new users by 2008.
Commtouch claims that its RPD technology is capable of overcoming the challenges inherent in Chinese messaging. ...due to a number of factors, including encoding, distribution methods, foiling techniques, and geography, unsolicited bulk e-mail acts differently in China than in the rest of the world.

... increase in spam coming out of Europe, particularly Western European countries, such as Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Spain, according to new research from Commtouch Software Ltd., ... ''These trends contradict prevalent assumptions -- that spam is primarily sent from developing areas,'' says Oren Drori, director of product marketing at Commtouch. ''In fact, Commtouch analysis shows that the wealthy countries of Western Europe are the source of more spam than developing Eastern European counterparts. Richer countries simply spam more.''

Rob McGan from ClickZ analyze recent spam trends, quoting Commtouch experts: "... Considered collectively, European countries account for nearly 25 percent of the world's spam, according to Commtouch, a provider of anti-spam solutions. The bulk (88 percent) of this volume originates in E.U. member nations, which may seem counterintuitive, as the EU boasts some of the world's strictest anti-spam laws. "

CEO Gideon Mantel: These two technology alliances reflect the beginning of our plan to accelerate market penetration in China and the Far East.

Anti-spam solutions developer Commtouch Software Ltd. (Nasdaq: CTCH) today announced two new alliances in China and the Far East.

Commtouch has begun a new technological cooperation with ComTV, one of China's leading email and instant messaging service providers. The two companies have a prior technological alliance, which Commtouch stated helped to improve its anti-spam performance in the Chinese environment. In addition, a new distribution agreement with Softwork, a leading IP integrator in Taiwan, was concluded following the successful evaluation of Commtouch's localized anti-spam solution.

Commtouch has developed customized solutions particularly suited to block Chinese spam. The company noted that China's e-mail capacity is growing at phenomenal rates, with analysts predicting that China will have 100 million new users by 2008 (a third of global growth). Yet despite this accelerated growth, China has not been able to match the anti-spam protection levels enjoyed in western countries.

John Tilak, of DM Europe covers Commtouch February spam trends report:

Europe has become the greatest source of spam, according to a report from e-mail security solutions provider Commtouch. The announcement was based on data from the Commtouch Spam Detection Centre, which analysed hundreds of millions of spam messages in the month of February 2005.
During the past six months, there has been a marked rise in spam outbreaks originating from Europe, particularly from Western European countries such as Germany, France, the UK and Spain. With US spam levels holding steady, this results in an overall rise in global spam levels: On an average February day, 967,437 separate outbreaks have been distributed (up 94 per cent from parallel month last year).

Europe has now become the greatest source of unsolicited junk e-mails, or spam, according to a new report from Commtouch, a provider of e-mail security services. The firm said there has been a marked rise in spam outbreaks originating from Europe over the last six months, particularly from western European countries such as Germany, France, the U.K. and Spain.

"These trends contradict prevalent assumptions that spam is primarily sent from developing areas," said Oren Drori, Commtouch's director of product marketing. "In fact, Commtouch analysis shows that the wealthy countries of Western Europe are the source of more spam than developing Eastern European counterparts." Drori said the same trend could also be seen in the Asia Pacific region, where richer countries also produce more spam than poorer ones. Europe accounted for 24.7% of total spam. Japan and Korea followed closely, together being the source of 24.24% of spam, while just 22.8% of spam originates in the U.S.

Hungarian coverage for VirusBuster's announcement on being first to catch the Beagle worm, with Commtouch RPD technology:
„A Commtouch RPD technológiájának ... VirusBuster ismerte fel elõször a Beagle.BE variánst január 27-én 6 óra 30 perckor..."

COMPUTERWORLD Covers VirusBuster's announcement on being first to catch the Beagle worm, with Commtouch RPD technology:
A VirusBuster elsõként ismerte fel a Beagle új variánsát a Commtouch RPD ..."A Commtouch RPD technológiájának ...a Beagle.BE variánst január 27-én 6 óra 30 perckor és ezt a Commtouch RPD technológiája ..."

Magyar PC Magazine covers VirusBuster and Commtouch-RPD success in blockign Beagle worm beofore major AV engines:
„A Commtouch RPD technológiájának ...a Beagle.BE variánst január 27-én 6 óra 30 perckor, és ezt a Commtouch RPD technológiája tette lehetõvé.” - mondta Agócs Péter, a VirusBuster fejlesztési igazgatója

Email Systems has signed an international partnership to offer millions of its customers the anti-spam and anti-virus software from Commtouch, which has developed a unique approach to blocking emails that has secured more than 25 million end users worldwide in just eighteen months.

Neil Hammerton, Managing Director of Email Systems said “According to leading international technology analyst IDC, the RPD approach detects and blocks spam in the first few minutes of an outbreak, unlike other anti-spam approaches. Although our previous record of spam detection was actually almost 99%, this partnership further bolsters our service offering, ensuring our customers have peace of mind with the knowledge that they are protected by the absolute best of what’s available, particularly against viruses which are becoming increasingly invasive with each outbreak.”

Oren Drori, Director of Product Marketing at Commtouch, added “As the only real time anti spam technology in the market, we are confident that Commtouch is the best product available in this sector as it provides cover for the critical time period when traditional scanning methods lag behind our solution, which can be the difference between email running normally and a total breakdown of service. Email Systems online managed ASP approach, which allows them to take the strain off their client’s shoulders regarding spam and viruses, represents an ideal fit for our product. With malware developing into various new areas – such as phishing and increasingly sophisticated online fraud for example – it’s more important than ever for every user of email to be protected from these threats.”