Press Release - For Immediate Release
IronPort Systems Introduces Protection From Email Bounce Attacks
First Email Security Appliance to Adopt Industry Standard
SAN BRUNO, Calif. - July 26, 2006 -- IronPort® Systems Inc., the leader in email security, today announced deployment of IronPort Bounce Verification technology, designed to protect customers from email bounce attacks. IronPort's unique solution signs the envelope's return (bounce) address, in SMTP's MAIL FROM: command for outgoing mail. When bounce messages are sent to an email gateway the existence of the correct signature will help determine legitimate bounces from fraudulent bounces. IronPort's Bounce Verification technology represents the first appliance-based solution compliant with Bounce Address Tag Validation (BATV), which is circulating as a draft with Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and is expected to enter the standards process.
Bounce Attacks Growing by Leaps and Bounds
The total volume of misdirected bounces has grown 35 percent since Q1, 2006. Misdirected bounces now make up 15.2 percent of hostile email, or over seven billion messages per day. The vast majority of these messages are sent to invalid return addresses, clogging the mail systems of the forged domain owner, but never getting delivered to an end-user. An emerging technique is for spammers to forge the end recipient's email address (as the return address), so that legitimate organizations will bounce spam on to its final destination. These attacks can cause the mail servers of these legitimate organizations to get blacklisted. Additionally, these attacks may result in more spam getting through to end-users, as legacy anti-spam solutions are forced to either accept bounces coming from these sources or risk blocking other legitimate email from these organizations.
Providing a Solution
"Market demand for a solution to bounce attacks has never been greater. Traditional email security solutions available in the market today are simply not effective at stopping bounce attacks. IronPort's Bounce Verification incorporates pioneering technology from the Internet community and makes it available in an easy to use, 'set and forget' appliance," said Tom Gillis, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at IronPort Systems.
Providing Immediate Benefit
"What makes BATV unique as an email security tool is that it requires no ongoing administrative overhead and no global adoption. Each organization that deploys BATV gains immediate benefit from it. IronPort's initiative in adopting BATV shows industry acceptance that will help promote the draft through IETF standards adoption process," said Dave Crocker, Principal of Brandenburg InternetWorking Consulting and Co-Creator of Bounce Address Tag Validation.
Bounce Verification Increases Email Reliability
"Five 9s email availability is critical to our business. IronPort's dedication to new technology that secures our network is one of the many reasons we deploy their solution. Bounce Verification is another tool in the IronPort toolbox to protect us from a wide range of email-borne threats," said Brian Hayashi, Sr. Director, Engineering at Vegas.com.
IronPort's Bounce Verification technology is available now, at no additional charge with IronPort C-Series and X-Series™ email security appliances. "Fixing email requires a sustained commitment to ground-breaking technologies. Bounce Verification is precisely the type of innovation that customers have grown to expect from IronPort. We are delighted to make this available, without additional cost, to our customers," said Gillis.
About IronPort Systems
IronPort Systems is the leading gateway security provider for organizations ranging from small businesses to the Global 2000. The company has developed a family of security gateway appliances, including the IronPort C-Series email security appliance, and the IronPort S-Series™ Web Security Appliance. All IronPort application-specific security gateway appliances offer breakthrough performance, and utilize SenderBase, the world's largest email and Web threat detection network and database. For more information on IronPort products and services, visit: http://www.ironport.com/.
