Secure e-mail tools debut in the desert
Connecting state and local government leaders
A pair of software start-ups introduce new tools to protect organizations from damaging incoming and outgoing e-mail.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.'A pair of software start-ups have introduced new tools to protect organizations from damaging incoming and outgoing e-mail messages.
At the Demo@15 Conference, Cloudmark Inc. of San Francisco is touting anti-phishing technology, and Audiotrieve LLC of Boxborough, Mass., is showing software that detects potentially damaging e-mail before it leaves a user's computer.
The companies joined other vendors at the conference outside Phoenix this week to show off early-stage technology and products.
Cloudmark demonstrated a beta version of its SafetyBar for Internet Explorer. The software adds a toolbar to Explorer and monitors the sites a user visits. The toolbar rates sites as good, unknown or unsafe based on feedback from Cloudmark's more than 1 million users. Based on the ratings, people can choose to block or unblock a site.
The software could be particularly useful in cases where an agency's users attempt to access Web mail from the office. When someone clicks an unsafe URL in an e-mail, Cloudmark automatically blocks the page and helps mitigate phishing attacks.
Audiotrieve previewed OutBoxer, a client software that analyzes e-mail immediately after users click 'Send' and alerts them to possible policy violations. OutBox uses language analysis algorithms to identify potentially problematic messages, such as offensive jokes, personal business or confidential information and then presents a pop-up dialog box identifying the problem and giving the user a chance to fix it, cancel the message or proceed with transmission.
Personal e-mail can be tagged as such in the back-end database for easy identification and removal. When OutBoxer identifies potentially confidential material, such as Social Security numbers, it requires the user to fix the policy violation and will not allow the message to leave the user's system.
Company officials said OutBox would be available this summer. Audiotrieve is now rolling out a service that will help organizations identify e-mail risk in their archives.
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