Anti-spam efforts gather speed

In separate developments, Microsoft and AOL have taken aim at spam, reports PC Magazine. Microsoft announced on Tuesday that new anti-spam technology will ship in Exchange Server 2003. AOL, meanwhile, filed five separate lawsuits against alleged spammers that the company says have blanketed AOL users with messages promoting everything from mortgages to pornography.

The moves parallel junk e-mail`s emergence as the scourge of computer users, the magazine says. Jupiter Research analysts estimate that the average e-mail inbox receives 42 spam messages a day - a number that is expected to increase by more than two-thirds by 2007.

Analysts at research firm Gartner have predicted that more than 50% of e-mail messages will be spam by 2004.

A group of hi-tech CEOs have once again called on private companies to step up their network security efforts, and begin treating information security as a business imperative instead of an annoyance, reports eWeek.

The site reports that representatives from TechNet, a group of about 200 technology executives, said that although there has been an increased focus on security during the last few years, enterprises need to do more to ensure that their networks and their data are not exposed.

TechNet has teamed up with the four major auditing firms - KPMG, Ernst & Young, Deloitte & Touche and PricewaterhouseCoopers - to help companies assess their security vulnerabilities and develop plans to address them. The Internet Security Alliance has also joined TechNet`s effort.

Cisco launched a new portal for its channel partners at its recent partner summit. Cisco Partner View serves as a single, personalised source of channel resources. The site provides partners with information and tools related to customer satisfaction, certification and specialisation, e-learning and business planning.

In addition to bringing together multiple channel tools, applications and content into one location, the portal`s information is interactive, allowing channel partners to access the underlying tools and applications to view detailed information or edit data. The data is then updated in the relevant modules in Cisco Partner View.