McAfee, Inc. Receives Coveted Checkmark Premium Anti-Spam Certification

By Derek Iwasiuk
DomainInformer.com
December 13, 2006

McAfee, Inc. (NYSE: MFE) today announced that it has received a Checkmark Premium Anti-Spam Certification for accurately detecting 98 percent of spam in independent testing performed by West Coast Labs. Spam currently comprises more than 80 percent of all email, according to McAfee® Avert® Labs researchers. The Checkmark certification is one in a series of recognitions McAfee's anti-spam technology has received in the past two years.

"McAfee's anti-spam technology achieved a very high block rate considering the test was conducted under real-world conditions, with streaming live mail and spam passing through the product," said Chris Thomas, operations director of West Coast Labs. McAfee Secure Internet Gateway delivered 100 percent of the genuine mail correctly during the test.

"McAfee's anti-spam technology continues to lead the industry when tested in real-world environments," said Vimal Solanki, senior director of product marketing, McAfee, Inc. "Spammers are developing increasingly complex techniques to evade detection. Our global development teams have excelled in providing proactive and highly effective solutions against their evolving threats. This includes image spam, which currently comprises up to 40 percent of incoming email." According to McAfee Avert Labs, one year ago image spam accounted for less than one percent of the total spam received.

Image spam often includes slight variations such as random dots or color changes in order to circumvent traditional spam detection algorithms. McAfee anti-spam technology uses a combination of techniques to stop image spam, including innovative methods such as fingerprint technology, image property analysis and fuzzy matching algorithms.

McAfee anti-spam detection methods operate simultaneously and are both proactive and reactive. Through extensive threat research and continual tracking of spammers, McAfee products have the ability to block even "zero-day spam." For example, McAfee's domain name reputation technology tracks new domain registrations to predict malicious and/or spammer Web sites before a potential spam campaign. This technique alone can block up to 40 percent of all spam before dissemination.

Whereas most anti-spam solutions require extensive training and tuning, McAfee anti-spam products are virtually automatic, providing high spam block rates out of the box. Detection rules are updated around the clock based on the latest threat research. McAfee's award-winning anti-spam technology is available in multiple McAfee products in both appliance and software form factors, including:

    -- McAfee Secure Internet Gateway. These appliances are ideal for organizations that require highly accurate protection against spam, viruses and sensitive data loss
-- McAfee Secure Messaging Gateway. These dedicated, high-performance appliances are for large enterprises with demanding messaging security requirements
-- McAfee SpamKiller for Mail Servers. This software blocks spam on Microsoft® Exchange and Lotus® Domino® mail servers. It is included as part of McAfee Total Protection for Enterprise and McAfee Total Protection for Enterprise Advanced

West Coast Labs' report describing McAfee's anti-spam results is available at: http://www.mcafee.com/us/local_content/white_papers/
wp_nov_checkmark_premium_a s_cert.pdf

About West Coast Labs

West Coast Labs is an independent organization which tests and validates the functionality and performance of information security products. West Coast Labs has also developed the Checkmark certification system into one of the world's foremost certification programs an integrated system of standards that are recognized around the world as reliable indicators of performance levels. www.westcoastlabs.org .

About McAfee, Inc.

McAfee Inc., the leading dedicated security technology company, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, delivers proactive and proven solutions and services that secure systems and networks around the world. With its unmatched security expertise and commitment to innovation, McAfee empowers home users, businesses, the public sector, and service providers with the ability to block attacks, prevent disruptions, and continuously track and improve their security. http://www.mcafee.com.