Duxbury Networking and UK-based Clearswift, one of world`s leading providers of software for managing and securing electronic communications, are to collaborate on the design of content filtering, electronic signature and other security solutions for the South African market.
"Electronic communication is now mission-critical to most organisations. It is rare these days to find a business not using e-mail or the Web as a common communications platform," says Graham Vorster, chief technology officer at Duxbury Networking.
"In the wake of the enactment of the Electronic Communications and Transaction [ECT] Act and the Promotion of Access to Information Act, there are a number of opportunities to develop new solutions to provide e-mail and Internet users with competitive business advantages," he says.
"In terms of the Acts, securing the content of an organisation`s electronic communications is no longer a matter of choice. The ECT Act effectively legalises the use of digital signatures and provides for legal surety of online transactions and communications, and enables the government to create a framework for a national e-commerce strategy."
He says the Acts effectively regulate online consumer protection and make cyber crime a punishable offence.
"Although its aim of regulating electronic transactions is widely praised, the Act came under fire because the scope and provisions of the new legislation have led to marketplace confusion," says Vorster.
"Working with Clearswift, our aim is to de-mystify this process for our customers, giving them a clear understanding of the implications of the Acts in terms of business risk and liability in commercial activities," he says.
A key role in this process will be played by Clearswift`s MIMEsweeper family of products, which is designed to assist users to implement e-mail and Web communications e-policies and deliver the infrastructure and enforcement technology necessary for complex organisations to deploy comprehensive management and security solutions.
IDC estimates that around 15 billion e-mail messages are sent each day and that the global daily e-mail traffic will hit 35 billion by 2005. In a further study, IDC has projected that 977 million people worldwide will use the Internet by 2005, with 50% of these accessing the Internet from business locations.
Share
Editorial contacts