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MessageGate Uncovers Growing Compliance Gap in Latest Market Survey

BELLEVUE, Wash. – Oct. 14, 2008 – MessageGate, Inc., a leader in enterprise email controls for corporate risk management, today released a MessageGate sponsored Network World Business Intelligence survey revealing a growing gap in enterprise email management solutions that is effectively hindering compliance measures in the face of growing regulatory mandates.

The survey of Network World readers represents an extensive sampling of IT and security professionals in North America who manage their company’s inbound and outbound email management and security systems. Of the respondents surveyed, three out of every four professionals are from companies with more than 10,000 employees.

The report’s findings reveal purchasing patterns in email management and security software that indicate a potential weakness in overall enterprise email security as IT and security professionals struggle to meet compliance measures. Findings include:

Nearly 25 percent do not know, or are not sure, if their current email security solution provides real-time policy based monitoring of emails

Over 50 percent of respondents believe that it is necessary to facilitate the accurate retrieval of email

Nearly 30 percent of companies surveyed do not believe that real-time review and management of email is a requirement for their enterprise security standards

Of companies who spend more than $250,000 a year on email retrieval, 90 percent retrieved email due to litigation or compliance activities in the past 12 months

70 percent plan on purchasing an email security and controls solution in the next 12 months

Regulatory mandates including SOX, HIPPA and FERC, have resulted in a rising amount of email being stored. It is now more critical than ever that organizations leverage real-time enterprise email controls to solve compliance and security concerns.

“After extensive research across hundreds of organizations, it is clear that many enterprises have not yet committed to integrating a viable, long-term approach to email risk management, despite the frequent headlines touting flagrant compliance breaches due to email misuse. Without properly addressing key issues in enterprise email risk management, organizations are at risk of being compromised, resulting in very costly penalties and litigation,” said Michael Osterman, principal analyst for Osterman Research. “In order to meet mandatory compliance mandates, organizations need to evaluate their specific enterprise email activities and commit to an ongoing policy-based approach that addresses incidents in real-time before it’s too late.”

To successfully address weaknesses in current email security, IT departments can take the following proactive steps to help enterprises meet compliance regulations and prevent email misuse:

Provide real-time blocking and re-routing of outbound emails: Email remains the de facto communication method needing controls. Near real-time reporting functions are no longer enough given that a majority of intellectual property is stored somewhere within the email network. Enterprises need real-time email controls with the ability to take action on emails in-stream through proactive security and archive management.

Ease accurate retrieval of archived email:According to a recent Osterman Research survey, 36 percent of surveyed CIOs are more concerned about the need to archive email today than 12 months ago. Many companies try to retain all emails, but the huge and growing volume of email impacts storage budgets and resources. Often email records must be produced immediately upon request, and frequently no later than 24 hours in practice. Real-time email management and archive categorization can save costly and lengthy litigation battles.

Manage employee email misuse:Due to the casual nature of email communications, there is growing unintentional misuse and security violations across the enterprise.Growing email technology sophistication and insufficient email controls can lead to potential data leaks and leave the door open to e-discovery regulations. Managing unintentional email misuse within the email stream at the employee level helps provide insurance against casual email misuse.

4. Reduce email archive storage costs: The greatest expense of email storage lies in its management. Each administration task, including backups and restoration, consumes up to 43 percent of IT support costs. Companies are concerned with managing their email glut as much as their critical database storage. Email archive categorization helps to automatically verify the quality and accuracy of the archiving process while scheduling deletions according to compliance timelines.

5. Analyze email usage and patterns: In order to enforce email policy controls, IT departments need to create proactive email security policies to effectively maintain compliance and prevent email misuse. By conducting usage audits to determine how enterprise email is being used and abused, IT can then implement policies to manage and control content.

6. Eliminate unwanted email: Enterprises may have email management and security software in place but still fail to have a comprehensive end-to-end email risk management solution through archive categorization and controls. Many companies try to retain all emails, but the huge and growing volume of email impacts storage budgets and resources.

“Even with an email management solution in place, a majority of enterprises remain unaware of the risks that lie within their email stream that remain unaddressed and can potentially trigger a violation of any of the various regulatory mandates,” said Norbert Orth, president and CEO for MessageGate. “Enterprises need to take action now to address a critical gap in their current email management systems or risk enduring costly litigation battles and embarrassing headlines that may damage consumer trust.”

MessageGate facilitates enterprise email risk management through email controls that incorporate active security and archive policies. The company promotes proper email use through activity profiles, archive categorization, and policy enforcement.

About MessageGate

With a simple and practical approach, MessageGate provides software and services for enterprise email controls to leading companies worldwide. From product to architecture, MessageGate makes a company’s experience with email management both simple and secure. Helping companies cope with threats, improve archival and retrieval activities, and ensure proper usage across a variety of industries, MessageGate’s offerings include MessageGate® Activity Profile (MAP), MessageGate® Policy Enforcement, MessageGate® Archive Categorization, and MessageGate® Email Filtering. For more information, call 1-877-544-8500 or visit www.messagegate.com.

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