Mirapoint adds LDAP directory info to gateway e-mail security appliance

Mirapoint on Monday announced a version of its e-mail security appliance that integrates aspects of a corporation’s LDAP directory so messages sent to invalid e-mail addresses are automatically rejected.

Available now, Mirapoint’s RazorGate appliance with Embedded Policy Engine skips the timely and resource-intensive process of having to check a company’s corporate e-mail directory to determine if a recipient address is valid before accepting the message, according to company officials.

Instead, the new appliance checks the validity of a recipient’s address at the network’s edge, therefore avoiding communication with the directory inside the network that takes up resources and can create security holes, they say.

With Mirapoint’s product, customers can load the e-mail addresses and related policies into the policy engine that sits outside of the firewall, but does not include password information or other sensitive data, officials say. Because the e-mail security appliance can leverage this policy engine to verify recipient e-mail addresses, the corporate e-mail directory doesn’t need to be accessed through the firewall.

“I don’t like to have to come through the firewall for anything unless I absolutely have to,” says Jim DeSantis [stet], an independent consultant in Warren, Ohio. “When you punch a hole through the firewall to do LDAP queries there is a security concern that if someone compromises [the system] they’re getting access to a lot more data. If they compromise the directory [stored on the Mirapoint appliance] they’re only getting SMTP addresses.”

The policy engine can embed directory information from Active Directory, Domino, or eDirectory, officials say.

The RazorGate e-mail security appliance with the new Embedded Policy Engine is priced starting at $5,250.