Clearswift, continuing its drive to simplify content security, announced its strategic move into the anti-spyware market today. Clearswift intends to launch software, appliance and managed service versions of its MIMEsweeper technology, enhanced with anti-spyware capabilities, over the next six months. It also revealed key findings from its recent Spyware Audit research study, highlighting demand for this type of offering.

Clearswift’s Spyware Audit research study of over 630 IT security professionals reveals that 68% believe that spyware is a serious problem for their businesses, with 12% seeing it as a very serious threat. 29% of those surveyed suffer between one and five spyware incidents each week, with the vast majority of these incidents coming as a result of employee web surfing (71% of spyware comes from web surfing and 26% via spam email).

“30% of those surveyed that have deployed an anti- spyware solution say that it doesn’t provide the functionality they require. The majority of anti-spyware deployments sit at the desktop, yet 83% of those surveyed believe that anti-spyware is both a desktop and a gateway issue,” commented Jon Lee, CEO, Clearswift. “We have over a decade of experience and expertise at the enterprise gateway and are ideally placed to deliver true anti-spyware solutions that protect the whole environment.”

Clearswift’s proven track record in the e-security space makes them well-placed to enter the anti-spyware market. Over 73% of people surveyed stated that having a spyware solution which integrates other aspects of web security and web management is important. Clearswift will provide holistic solutions which will integrate full MIMEsweeper content filtering, AV and URL blocking, as well as anti-spyware. In addition, Clearswift will provide three form factors to make it easier for businesses to choose the right solution for them.

“Companies need a wide range of functionality from their anti-spyware solution - and that functionality needs to be present at the gateway and the desktop which you just can’t get with many of the products that have been available to date. IT security managers want Day Zero protection, spyware blocking and detection, protection for outbound data and excellent management and reporting tools. That’s the level of functionality we plan to deliver in all three of our anti-spyware form factors,” added Jon Lee.

The Clearswift Spyware Audit surveyed over 630 IT security professionals in the UK and USA in April 2006.

About Clearswift
Clearswift simplifies content security.
Our products help organizations enforce best-practice email and web use, ensuring all traffic complies with internal policy and external regulations. Our range of content filtering solutions makes it easy to deploy, manage and maintain no-compromise email and web security for both inbound and outbound traffic. Clearswift is the only vendor to offer comprehensive, policy-based content security in all three deployment methods: as software, as an appliance and as a managed service. All three platforms are designed to take the hassle out of securing internet traffic, with a clear, intuitive management interface; automatic, ‘zero-touch’ updates; powerful reporting and common-sense policy management. Twenty years of experience across 15,000 organizations has helped us raise security standards while simplifying security management at the same time. We’ve helped many of the world’s most successful organizations use the internet with confidence and are committed to staying ahead of the market and helping our customers defend against all emerging threats. http://www.clearswift.com