Webroot, a company that made its fortune in the client-side spyware detection market, announced its entry into the software-as-a-service (SaaS) market with Webroot E-Mail Security SaaS, an e-mail security service for consumers and SMBs.
This product is the result of Webroot’s November 2007 merger with Email Systems, a SaaS security provider in the United Kingdom. The e-mail scanning works through both cloud-based scanning and by Webroot’s AntiSpyware Corporate Edition with AntiVirus end-point software. Between the two products, the security service uses up to five different antivirus and two different spam filtering engines.
The service requires no edge network hardware, such as filters or security gateways, as is often the case with e-mail filtering. Webroot claims to protect against 98 percent of e-mail spam and 100 percent of known viruses.
“At enterprise class levels security and security management is difficult and complex and therefore often unfulfilled. This is especially true in SMBs with limited security resources. SaaS solutions re-define perimeter security by eliminating the pain and cost of hardware and software management,” said Mike Irwin, COO of Webroot in a statement.
Webroot E-mail Security SaaS features the anti-spam and anti-phishing that Webroot is known for, plus antivirus detection courtesy of its partner Sophos. The security system also provides a Managed Encryption Service for encrypting data on a peer-to-peer basis. Webroot also offers desk-to-desk e-mail encryption via public and private keys for an added layer of security.
The service also includes image filtering to determine if incoming attached images are legitimate or on a list of blacklisted images, and it offers archiving of e-mails in multiple datacenters for regulatory archival purposes.
Webroot Email Security SaaS is available for purchase directly from the company and from its channel partners.
