Is Gordano at The Vanguard of E-mail Security?

Any vendor that touches e-mail products for business customers is wrapping in plenty of extras to keep their computer systems virus or relatively spam-free.

Symantec , for example, now offers disaster recovery and system backup along with its virus scanning and traditional security software.

Gordano, a provider of messaging security software, is taking a slightly different tack with its latest souped-up products and services.

The company just launched a new standalone messaging security software product, called the Gordano Vanguard Server, that it claims is pulling “best-of-breed” security features from all over the messaging security landscape and taking them downstream for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB).

Gordano CEO John Stanners said the Vanguard Server provides antivirus and antispam protection to individual or multiple mail servers, including the Gordano Messaging Suite, Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes/Domino environments.

It’s about as platform-independent as it can be, with no specialized hardware; the software is also compatible with multiple operating systems, including Linux, (including SELinux support), Sun Microsystems Solaris, Microsoft Windows and IBM’s AIX.

Stanners said the Vanguard product builds in dual antivirus scanning engines that provide traditional signature-based virus protection as well as real-time checks for zero-day threats.

Services supporting the Vanguard offering include antispam protection through recurrent pattern detection algorithms, which checks IP reputation databases as well as anomaly detection facilities (which monitor traffic looking for unusual spikes in activity).

Stanners said the product includes over 100 additional checks, including Bayesian filtering (including automated training of filters), phrase-based checks (automated and custom), sender policy framework record checks and message quality checks.

The Vanguard Server also blocks and reports child abuse and child pornography e-mails Gordano in conjunction with the Internet Watch Foundation, an independent hotline in the U.K. that’s devoted to combating child pornography around the world.

“The list of Web sites containing images of child abuse and pornography provided by the IWF has been integrated into the zero-hour functionality developed in conjunction with Commtouch,” Stanners said.

It also rolls in quarantine and whitelisting facilities, with sender verification preventing any spoofing of whitelisted information.

The Vanguard Server comes amid an ever-exploding universe of spam, leaving SMBs with small budgets scrambling for economical but reliable fixes. In March, IDC reported that could surpass legitimate e-mail in volume by the end of this year.

Gordano plays in a highly competitive, acquisitive e-mail security market, which includes software and/or hardware from Microsoft  (through FrontBridge), CA  (through Qurb), Cisco  (through IronPort) and Secure Computing
 (through CipherTrust).