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Proofpoint launches Proofpoint on Demand, Hosted Service for Enterprise-class Email Security and Data Loss Prevention

(Aug 07, 2007)-- Proofpoint, provider of unified email security and data loss prevention solutions, introduced its Proofpoint on Demand offering, which delivers Proofpoint's industry-leading messaging security features-including anti-spam, anti-virus, email policy enforcement, data loss prevention and policy-based encryption capabilities -- as a cost-effective, easy-to-adopt and easy-to-manage on-demand service.

Based on the same enterprise-proven platform that powers Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway appliances and Proofpoint Protection Server software, Proofpoint on Demand offers the industry's most effective protection against both inbound and outbound email-borne threats, without requiring the installation of on-premise hardware or software. Proofpoint now offers customers the widest array of deployment options and is the only email security vendor to deliver its solutions in hardware appliance, virtual appliance, software and hosted service form factors.

Proofpoint on Demand is a highly-configurable, cost-effective service that can be deployed with a variety of Proofpoint's email security and data loss prevention modules. Large enterprises that prefer the convenience of hosted email security can now benefit from Proofpoint's unrivalled anti-spam effectiveness, comprehensive DLP features and unparalleled ease-of-use.

"Hosted services continue to be a popular form factor for deploying messaging security solutions and we expect this to be a high-growth area in the coming years," said Brian Burke, research manager for IDC's security products service. "Proofpoint on Demand is a good example of the growing sophistication of hosted email security services in that it helps to mitigate both external threats such as spam, viruses and malicious code while also protecting against the internal threat of deliberate or inadvertent leaks of sensitive information."

Complete Protection Against Inbound Threats

Proofpoint on Demand blocks all types of undesirable inbound email messages, ensuring that enterprises receive only a clean, safe stream of valid email. All of Proofpoint's modular inbound email security features -- including anti-spam, anti-virus, zero-hour anti-virus and acceptable use policy enforcement -- are available in any combination.

Advanced Spam Detection, Powered by Proofpoint MLX(TM) Technology

Proofpoint on Demand delivers 99.6% or higher effectiveness against all types of spam email using the latest advances in reputation- and content-based anti-spam technology. Powered by patent-pending Proofpoint MLX machine learning technology, the Proofpoint Spam Detection(TM) module examines hundreds of thousands of attributes in every email -- including message envelope headers and structure, image properties, sender reputation data as well as unstructured content in the body of messages -- to block the most spam, attachment-based spam (including image-based, PDF-based and Excel-based spam) and phishing attacks, while automatically adapting to new attacks as they appear.

Proofpoint on Demand's spam protection is automatically kept up-to-date, ensuring maximum effectiveness at all times. Proofpoint Spam Detection is also multi-lingual and offers outstanding accuracy against spam in any language -- including hard-to-analyze, multi-byte character languages such as Japanese and Chinese.

Both administrators and end-users benefit from Proofpoint on Demand's web-based interface. Easy-to-understand reports and controls -- such as Proofpoint's end-user digest, web-based quarantine and personalized safe- and block-lists -- give users complete control over their own spam preferences.

Proofpoint on Demand allows anti-spam policies to be customized at the global, group and end-user levels with full integration to LDAP or Active Directory to streamline ongoing administration.

Virus Protection and Zero-Hour Anti-Virus Defenses

Proofpoint on Demand offers enterprises a choice of anti-virus options, powered by leading anti-virus engines from F-Secure and McAfee. Proofpoint on Demand automatically ensures that virus signatures are up-to-date, to provide complete protection against email infected with viruses, trojans, worms, malware and other malicious code. Additionally, the Proofpoint Zero-Hour Anti-Virus(TM) module protects against emerging viruses in the earliest stages of their proliferation -- stopping them hours before competing solutions even begin to react.

Easy Enforcement of Acceptable Use Policies

Proofpoint on Demand gives customers vastly more flexibility than competing solutions for defining and enforcing email acceptable use policies for message content and attachments. The included Proofpoint Content Compliance module simplifies the process of defining complex rules related to file types, message size, and message content. These features can be used to identify and prevent a wide variety of inbound and outbound policy violations -- including offensive language, harassment, file sharing and violations of external regulations.

Comprehensive Data Loss Prevention

In addition to delivering the industry's most effective protection against spam and virus attacks, Proofpoint on Demand is also the easiest and most cost-effective way for organizations to prevent leaks of sensitive data via email. Proofpoint's modular data leak prevention features can be deployed as a completely hosted solution, or in Proofpoint's unique hybrid configuration where outbound data loss prevention features are deployed on-premises while inbound email security features are hosted "in the cloud". In either case, data loss prevention features are managed through the same easy-to-use, web-based policy management interface.

Keep Private Data Secure

The Proofpoint Regulatory Compliance module enforces best practices for securing private data and protects organizations from liabilities associated with privacy and data security regulations (such as HIPAA, GLBA, PCI, SEC rules and others). Customizable rules, managed dictionaries and "smart identifiers" are used to automatically scan outbound email for non-public information -- such as protected health information and personal financial information -- and reject or encrypt messages as appropriate.

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