CipherTrust service protects against nefarious net traffic

E-mail security company CipherTrust this week is set to launch a service to protect customers' brands from being pilfered in a phishing attack, and to keep companies from unwittingly having their PCs used as spam senders.

The service, called Real-time Anti-fraud Data and Resource (RADAR), is available in two forms. RADAR Inside monitors an organization's e-mail sending patterns and alerts administrators if there's a spike or other telltale sign that the company's PCs have been compromised, says Phyllis Schneck, vice president of CipherTrust strategic development.

Compromised PCs, or zombies, are computers that have had malicious code installed on them - usually from Web downloads or e-mail attachments - and begin sending spam, often with virus or phishing attacks included and without the user knowing it.

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E-mail security company CipherTrust this week is set to launch a service to protect customers' brands from being pilfered in a phishing attack, and to keep companies from unwittingly having their PCs used as spam senders.

The service, called Real-time Anti-fraud Data and Resource (RADAR), is available in two forms. RADAR Inside monitors an organization's e-mail sending patterns and alerts administrators if there's a spike or other telltale sign that the company's PCs have been compromised, says Phyllis Schneck, vice president of CipherTrust strategic development.

Compromised PCs, or zombies, are computers that have had malicious code installed on them - usually from Web downloads or e-mail attachments - and begin sending spam, often with virus or phishing attacks included and without the user knowing it.

Getting alerts of suspicious e-mail sending activity on the network is a valuable service, says one potential customer.

"This is one of the first products I've seen that is proactive; it gives you the ability to resolve the issue before it impacts your e-mail," says Kyle Hussey, network analyst at Grant County Public Utility District, a hydroelectric power generation utility in central Washington state. The utility, which uses CipherTrust's IronMail e-mail security appliance, is evaluating the new service.

The other form of the service is RADAR 360, which includes the capabilities of RADAR Inside but is aimed at large organizations that risk having their brand misused in a phishing attack. Because CipherTrust's e-mail security appliances scan roughly 30% of the world's business e-mail, according to Schneck, the company can inspect the e-mails and determine if one of its customer's brands is being spoofed.

If CipherTrust notices one of its customer's logos is present in a large amount of e-mail sent out in bulk from a domain different from the customer's domain, the RADAR 360 service will flag those messages and alert the customer that phishers may be using its brand to trick e-mail recipients into giving out personal or financial information.

Other companies that offer anti-fraud services include Cyota, which RSA Security announced plans to acquire, Cyveillance and Symantec.

The RADAR service starts at about $1,000 per month, and increases based on features and the number of users in an organization.

Read more about security in Network World's Security section.