Press Release

SOUTHFIELD, MI — October 26, 2004 — Computer Mail Services, Inc., a leading email security and management software provider, today announced the release of Praetor G2, the second generation of its popular email content filter product.  Praetor G2 implements new features to more effectively identify and filter spam email messages including Bayesian statistical filtering that can be trained, heuristic analysis of the message header and body content, and the creation of new weighted wordlists that are used to score text within the message. 

Essentially a comprehensive messaging firewall, Praetor protects any SMTP mail server such as Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino, Novell GroupWise, and Sendmail.  The application can be installed on any Windows machine including, but not limited to, the mail server itself.

Praetor’s default Bayesian token database, accompanying rules, and use of DNS blacklists all combine to give an out-of-the-box experience that can filter 90%-95% of all spam, with a misclassification rate for good messages under 0.5%.  What’s more, Praetor provides training on site-specific message samples to further increase spam detection and lower the incidence of false positives.

DEFENSE AGAINST REVERSE NDR ATTACKS

Since CMS’ public warning in June, 2003 that enterprises can be used as unwitting enablers of spam via Reverse Non-Delivery Reports (Reverse NDRs), more companies are finding themselves to be under this surreptitious form of indirect mail relay attack.  When a mail server is under attack, it becomes extremely sluggish as it is burdened with the delivery of spam messages in the form of non-delivery reports.  Praetor G2 continues to be one of the few products that can successfully defend against this attack without creating loopholes for new variants.

FLEXIBILITY IN USING DNS BLACKLISTS

Praetor G2 has improved its use of actively maintained DNS servers with their databases of blacklisted IP addresses via the ability to properly identify the originating IP address of the sending host.  Praetor G2 is able to detect such addresses even when the network point of entry is upstream.  Furthermore, by adding DNSBL filtering at the message level, Praetor G2 now logs more information about the message such as the sender and intended recipient’s address.  This capability makes it simpler to identify trading partners that are temporarily blacklisted so their mail server’s IP address can be added into the bypass list.

POWERFUL REPORTING FEATURES

Praetor G2 adds new traffic analysis and reporting capabilities including a Log Analyzer that, at a glance, shows overall inbound and outbound filtering activity via counts of messages accepted, quarantined, redirected and rejected.  Even the estimated percentage of incoming spam is shown, and administrators can obtain a report to show the spam caught by specific filters.  Several IP-specific reports also show sources of Reverse NDR attacks, prohibited attachments, and spam originating from blacklisted mail servers.

FLEXIBLE RULE WIZARD

Praetor’s familiar rule wizard enables administrators to not only combat spam, but also to easily create new custom rules by simply selecting the message direction, conditions, actions, and exceptions.  Using this wizard, for example, an administrator can create rules to add disclaimers for different purposes, or archive messages involving a problem employee. 

USER ACCESS TO PERSONAL QUARANTINED MESSAGES

To further ease the administrator’s job, Praetor G2 can allow users to access their own quarantined messages, which are held outside the mail server’s message store.  By accessing his/her personal message summary with a web browser, the user can now call up the details of any quarantined message.  If a message was not quarantined for the proper reason, the user can release and deliver it to their email client — all without administrator involvement.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Praetor G2 is priced beginning at $350 for 10 users; as the user count grows, the cost per user becomes more economical due to volume discount pricing. 

For more information about Praetor G2 or for a specific pricing quota­tion, contact CMS by calling 800/883-2674 or 248/352-6700, by sending an electronic mail to info@cmsconnect.com or by visiting the company’s Web site at www.cmsconnect.com.  Interested parties can also get a price quote immediately by using the online quoting form at www.cmsconnect.com/Sales/prPrice.htm.