Web hosting Companies Waging the Battle Against Spam and Viruses [16th October 2003]

In the never ending war against the volumes of spam and viruses hitting inboxes each day, the responsibility is shifting. Previously, the onus was on the user to sift through their mail to sort the valid communications from the junk and security threats. Customer expectations have changed and some web hosting companies are rising to the challenge.

New York, NY October 16, 2003 - In the never ending war against the volumes of spam and viruses hitting peoples' inboxes each day, the responsibility is shifting.

Previously, the onus was on the user to sift through their mail to sort the valid communications from the junk and security threats. But customer expectations have changed.

Web site owners in particular are expecting hosting companies to play a leading role in filtering the email that comes through their systems. Various surveys have indicated that between 50 and 77% of Internet users now expect their ISP or hosting service to assume this responsibility. Some companies are recognizing this and are responding to market expectations.

Vladislav Davidzon, CEO of ThinkHost.com (http://www.thinkhost.com), recently implemented a combined spam filtering and anti-virus solution as a free feature for all ThinkHost.com's web hosting packages.

Vladislav states: "When we started ThinkHost in 1999, spam and viruses were nowhere near the problem they are today. After watching the global havoc wreaked by the recent SoBig virus, monitoring the effects on our equipment, and more importantly, our customers - we decided to tackle the issue head-on".

It is estimated that the SoBig virus caused $29.7 billion in damages worldwide during August 2003. This was double the damages bill that the Klez virus of 2002 caused for the whole year. Small businesses, multi-national corporations and government departments were crippled by the amount of email generated by SoBig. With these figures in mind, ThinkHost also realized that SoBig-type viruses would invariably hit again in the near future - with equal or worse effects.

The technical team at ThinkHost.com reviewed a number of different strategies, tested the most promising, upgraded server hardware and implemented what they believe to be one of the best hybrid server-side solutions currently available.

"We've been amazed by the accuracy with which email is processed" says Vladislav, "there's very few false positives (incorrect detections) and even then, the mail isn't deleted. Email detected as spam still goes to the client, but it's tagged as possible spam. Because of the special tag, it's simple for our clients to configure their email software to automatically redirect these messages to another folder for review later on. In the case of viruses, the client still receives the email, but the attachment is stripped off; greatly decreasing bandwidth usage and time spent in downloading."

The solutions put in place by ThinkHost also help their clients to cut their costs. Vladislav recalls: "During the SoBig onslaught, some of our customers' email folders grew up to a gigabyte in size. This could have translated into incredibly high excess storage fees for them. Of course, we didn't charge our clients excess fees as these were extraordinary circumstances; but now our clients never have to worry about this situation again".

"Our hardware isn't under as much load, our operating costs are down and our clients are happy - everyone's a winner."

For information:
Vladislav Davidzon
ThinkHost.com
http://www.thinkhost.com

About ThinkHost:

ThinkHost is a New York based web hosting company. Established in 1999, ThinkHost delivers quality web site hosting solutions to a wide range of clientele.

For more information: http://www.thinkhost.com

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Michael Bloch
ThinkHost
39 Highview Drive
Hamlin , NY 14464 USA
mbloch@thinkhost.com
http://www.thinkhost.com