Security news
Security news11 December 2007
Sophos debuts a powerful new weapon in the fight against spam Accelerated protection via real-time online queries
IT security and control firm Sophos today announced the addition of Sophos eXtensible Lists (SXL) to its Email Security and Control solutions portfolio. SXL is an online look-up system that dramatically accelerates the distribution of anti-spam intelligence, moving away from traditional scheduled updates to a real-time system that provides quicker response to new and emerging spam campaigns. Sophos customers will receive this industry leading, rapid detection and deployment capability automatically.
Rather than requiring the anti-spam engine to rely solely on local data when checking messages for spam, SXL enables real-time access to a wider range of information. It contains current and historical anti-spam intelligence such as IP addresses, URIs, message checksums, image/document fingerprints, etc. If the local anti-spam engine cannot conclusively determine if a message is spam, it can now reference the SXL database (using the DNS protocol) to check for any additional information that might be available from SophosLabs, but not yet downloaded.
A hosted database service, SXL works in conjunction with Sophos's email gateway solutions - Sophos Email Appliances and PureMessage for Exchange and UNIX - to provide the most effective security and control available today.
SXL possesses several key industry differentiators including the following:
- Wider range of spam data
SXL contains information on sender IP addresses, URIs, checksums, image/document fingerprints, etc. Most other anti-spam solutions only offer sender IP information. Therefore, the Sophos solution is far more effective in identifying and isolating spam messages based on a wider array of criteria. - Smarter server selection process
The first time a Sophos anti-spam engine attempts to contact the SXL database, it queries all locations and automatically chooses the servers that responds first. It then defaults to this location for up to ten minutes. After ten minutes, the systems re-tests all locations to ensure that it always chooses the fastest-responding SXL server, ensuring it has the most up to date protection information. Most competitors rely on random server connections rather than constantly seeking out the fastest responses, which can cause lags in their spam protection. - Better local database management
SXL provides access to a larger repository of anti-spam intelligence than possible on a system using only locally hosted data.
"Spam continues to put significant strain on corporate networks. Spammers and spam techniques continue to get smarter and in order to guarantee protection, detection methods must follow suit," said Jeff Epstein, a gateway security expert for Sophos. "With the addition of SXL, we're offering our customers the faster, more comprehensive spam detection they require for effective spam prevention."
About Sophos
Sophos enables enterprises all over the world to secure and control their IT infrastructure. Sophos's network access control, endpoint, web and email solutions simplify security to provide integrated defenses against malware, spyware, intrusions, unwanted applications, spam, policy abuse, data leakage and compliance drift. With over 20 years of experience, Sophos protects over 100 million users in nearly 150 countries with its reliably engineered security solutions and services. Recognized for its high level of customer satisfaction and powerful yet easy-to-use solutions, Sophos has received many industry awards, as well as positive reviews and certifications.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com
