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Barracuda Spam Firewall Protects Customers from Growing Incidence of Image Spam
Product Enhancements Feature Optical Character Recognition and Fingerprint Analysis
Mountain View, Calif., July 19, 2006 –Barracuda Networks, Inc., the leading provider of enterprise-class application security appliances, today announced availability of new techniques to block the growing incidence of unwanted email messages containing images. Image spam is a growing phenomenon as more spam operations are using the technique to circumvent content-based scoring systems used by many anti-spam solutions.
“The Barracuda Spam Firewall’s layered architecture has been correctly classifying the vast majority of image spam through a myriad
of techniques,†said Stephen Pao, vice president of product management for Barracuda Networks. “The new OCR and fingerprint analysis
techniques demonstrate to our customers that we are continually advancing our technology to block all new forms of spam.â€
Over the past several months, Barracuda Networks has found that as much as 25 percent of all spam messages contain images. In a large number
of these cases, many of these images also contain text. Using optical character recognition (OCR), the Barracuda Spam Firewall can identify this
text, convert it to data and then give it a score based on specific rule sets developed by engineers at Barracuda Central. The OCR score is then
combined with other factors about how the message is constructed, including its headers and other content to determine whether to block the email.
In addition, Barracuda Networks has developed methods to uniquely fingerprint components of spam messages, including images. Barracuda Central collects these spam fingerprints from honeypots as well as from thousands of Barracuda Spam Firewalls belonging to customers who opt-in to submit spam messages for analysis. Using this vast database of spam fingerprints, the Barracuda Spam Firewall’s new fingerprint analysis can profile message components of new spam emails against known spam fingerprints and automatically block, quarantine, or tag messages based on a match. Fingerprint analysis is capable of blocking image spam regardless of whether images contain text.
Pricing and Availability
OCR analysis is available immediately to current Barracuda Spam Firewall customers running firmware release 3.3.03 or higher. The new fingerprint
analysis techniques are available to current Barracuda Spam Firewall customers who perform a firmware update to release 3.4.04 or higher. Both
OCR analysis and the new fingerprint analysis techniques are provided at no additional charge to Barracuda Spam Firewall customers with active Energize
Update subscriptions.
About the Barracuda Spam Firewall
The Barracuda Spam Firewall is available in six models and supports from 1,000 to 30,000 active users with no per user licensing fees. The Barracuda
Spam Firewall can be installed in front of the email server in typically less than five minutes and is automatically updated hourly to block new forms
of spam and viruses. Its architecture leverages open source spam and virus solutions in conjunction with ten defense layers: simultaneous
inbound and outbound email filtering with the inclusion of sophisticated outbound email filtering techniques such as rate controls, domain restrictions,
user authentication (SASL), keyword and attachment blocking, dual layer virus blocking and remote user support for outbound email filtering. The Barracuda Spam Firewall’s layered approach minimizes the processing of each email, which yields the performance required
to process millions of messages per day. Unlike software solutions, the Barracuda Spam Firewall reduces the load placed on the email server by
off-loading both spam and virus filtering. Barracuda Networks also offers the Energize Update subscription service to automatically update the
Barracuda Spam Firewall with the latest spam rules and virus definitions.
About Barracuda Networks, Inc.
Barracuda Networks is the leading provider of enterprise-class application security appliances for comprehensive email, Internet and IM protection. Its products protect over 40,000 customers around the world, including Adaptec, Caltrans, CBS, Georgia Institute of Technology, IBM, NASA, Pizza Hut, Union Pacific Railroad Company, and the U.S. Treasury Department. Barracuda Networks is a privately held company with headquarters in Mountain View, California. Barracuda Networks has offices in eight international locations and distributors in over 43 countries. More information is available at www.barracuda.com.