Companies are always looking for ways to reduce costs and maximise efficiency, however, Osterman Research recently reported that smaller companies are spending nearly four times the amount per seat than larger companies on their messaging infrastructure.
The higher expense to small companies is due to the management costs involved. A user survey conducted by Osterman Research, in March this year, found that on an average work day, users spent 152 minutes on e-mail, 125 minutes on the Web and 15 minutes using instant messaging, totalling 52% of the average user's work day.
According to messaging security company Commtouch, 72% of all e-mail traversing the Internet in the first quarter of 2009 was spam, with Messagelabs reporting that one in 284 e-mails contained malware and one in 285 e-mails was a phishing attack.
“Large companies have generally settled on their basic security infrastructure and are spending more time on data leakage and employee disclosure than are smaller companies,” comments Grant Chapman of Camsoft Solutions, a local data security company.
“Smaller companies, however, are still more concerned about security threats emanating from outside of their organisations. This includes phishing attacks, spyware and the lag between virus outbreaks and fixes as well as e-mail fraud, which also appears to be the major concern for these organisations,” continues Chapman.
According to the survey by Osterman Research, large organisations spent only three hours per 1 000 users managing their anti-spam capabilities, whereas smaller organisations spent six times as much time, at 18 hours per 1 000 users, managing their anti-spam efforts.
Furthermore, overall, 25% of all the time spent managing Internet-related correspondence, including messaging and Web security, was spent on managing spam. “These figures make a compelling case for organisations to consider using an effective security solution, such as Commtouch's unique cloud-based, proactive messaging and Web security technologies that block threats at the zero hour, keeping them protected with minimal management overhead,” comments Chapman.
“The threatscape is continuously changing, and unfortunately the threats will most likely continue to evolve into more sophisticated attacks if the history of such threats is anything to go by, and companies will find that they can ill afford to spend so much time trying to manage such threats on their own or try to anticipate where the next attacks will emanate from.”
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Commtouch
Commtouch (NASDAQ: CTCH) provides proven messaging and Web security technology to more than 100 security companies and service providers, including 3Com, Check Point, F-Secure, Openwave, Panda Security, Mirapoint, Sendmail, Tumbleweed, and WatchGuard, for integration into their solutions. Commtouch's patented Recurrent Pattern Detection (RPD) and GlobalView technologies are founded on a unique cloud-based approach, and work together in a comprehensive feedback loop to protect effectively in all languages and formats. Commtouch technology automatically analyses billions of Internet transactions in real-time in its global data centers, to identify new threats as they are initiated, protecting e-mail infrastructures and enabling safe, compliant browsing. The company's expertise in building efficient, massive-scale security services has resulted in mitigating Internet threats for thousands of organisations and hundreds of millions of users in 190 countries. The key Commtouch services - Anti-Spam, Zero-Hour Virus Outbreak Protection, GlobalView Mail Reputation Services, GlobalView Zombie Intelligence and GlobalView URL Filtering - all provide information for each other in a comprehensive, self-learning feedback loop that learns locally as well as globally. Relying on Commtouch enables licensing partners to focus on their own areas of expertise, secure in the knowledge that Commtouch is always well ahead of the latest e-mail and Web threats. The Commtouch Online Security Centre with real-time outbreak monitors can be found at: http://www.commtouch.com/security-center. www.commtouch.com
Camsoft
Camsoft Solutions comprises two divisions: CRM and data security, and the company has provided solutions to a wide variety of different organisations throughout Africa since 1994. Camsoft's Data Security division provides security solutions and services to a wide range of customers throughout Africa, and our expertise and capabilities include solutions for anti-virus, anti-spam, spyware, authentication, secure access and firewalls. Our technology partners include Commtouch for Advanced Spam Defence, F-Secure, BitDefender and eScan for anti-virus and personal firewalls and spyware and Microsoft for Forefront (formerly Sybari Antigen) anti-virus and Advanced Spam Manager (ASM) for MS Exchange and SMTP servers. Camsoft has successfully implemented and supported CRM projects at companies of all sizes, ranging from SOHO installations to corporates with several thousand users. Camsoft is capable of providing full turnkey CRM solutions, including software sales, training, support, development and service level agreements, where required. With full service offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town (north and south) and Durban, Camsoft provides the full range of technical services to a variety of different customers, including ISPs, banks, insurers, manufacturers, retailers, recruitment agencies and call centres, among others. Camsoft's CRM division has achieved Maximizer Software's Africa Business Partner of the Year award every year from 2004 to 2008. www.camsoft.co.za