The True Story of How a Simple Appliance Transformed Angry Email Users into Delighted Customers, Cured an ISP Supervisor’s Headache and Protected a Big Fish in a Big Pond
Manuel Miranda had a headache.
For most people, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean islands are a tropial paradise of white sandy beaches, crystal blue seas, swaying palm trees and romance. For Manuel, the area was a snakepit of deception, lies and unwelcomed intruders.
Miranda is ISP supervisor for WorldNet Telecommunications, Inc. and, like most ISP supervisors, he was trying to accommodate email users (both business and personal) who wanted him to do something about spam and viruses. Like email users worldwide, they were upset at the
wasted hours they spent unclogging email accounts that, in some instances, were 90 percent spam. Users received regular spam, image spam, PDF spam, Excel spam, “pump and dump” spam and pornographic spam. There were viruses, worms and Trojan horses. And Miranda was responsible for getting rid of all of it.
The Company: WorldNet Telecommunications, Inc.
WorldNet is a big fish in a big pond: the Caribbean region. Established in 1996, it is the only 100% Puerto Rican-owned local telecommunications company. Over the past decade the company has grown from a traditional supplier of telephone services with 10 employees into a modern telecommunications facility with over 180 employees. Their mission is to satisfy the specific telecommunications needs of local industries that include pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, hospitality and government as well as small businesses and home users.
Over the past decade WorldNet has experienced steady growth by offering customers one-stop
shopping for “concierge” telecom services including voice services (zone, local and long
distance), Internet services (including VoIP and high-speed web hosting), electronic billing and
telecommunications consulting. They have the capability of providing a single Internet home
connection or evaluating, implementing, servicing and maintaining a complete world-class
corporate telecommunications solution for their 6,000 customers.
WorldNet attributes its growth and success to rapidly responding to clients’ requests. And that
was why Manuel Miranda had a headache.
The Problem: Death by clogging
Recently, WorldNet began offering ISP services - including a Linux-based mail server running
on a Sun Solaris using a Java Enterprise system - and almost immediately spam began strangling
their mail server. Customers found themselves spending more time eliminating unwanted email
than in answering legitimate email - assuming they could even find it. Moreover, all that spam
was residing on WorldNet’s email server, consuming up to 40% of the company’s storage space.
In addition, Manuel Miranda had to combat the proliferation of new viruses and worms that, in
some instances, threatened to shut down corporate servers. By the time filters were developed to
prevent these viruses and worms, it was too late; the system was already infected.
Miranda recognized that the problem he faced was beyond the capabilities of most software
security solutions, so he began evaluating security appliances.
“I decided on an email security appliance because it was the best solution for us,” Miranda
revealed. “We required something that stopped spam and viruses in their tracks. That requires
advanced features like zero-hour protection and pattern recognition - features that the software
programs I evaluated didn’t offer.
“This level of protection doesn’t come cheap. I looked at the industry leaders - the brands I expected would solve the problem - and, indeed, they were very costly. Then I heard about Mail- SeCure from PineApp. It offered everything I wanted for about half the price. Naturally I was a
little suspicious because this seemed too good to be true.
“I accepted the Mail-SeCure free 30-day trial because they guaranteed my satisfaction and they
offered free tech support. Basically I had nothing to lose.”
The Solution: Mail-SeCure Total Perimeter Security
Mail-SeCure is attached outside the network, so it blocks spam and viruses before they ever enter
the network. Because spam is quarantined offline, it frees up valuable network storage space.
Right out of the box, Mail-SeCure blocked 95% of WorldNet’s spam and viruses.
“Installation was very easy,” Miranda recalled. “Because we’re an ISP, we spent a couple of
hours fine tuning the system, inserting domain names and determining rules. Fortunately, Mail-
SeCure worked with our existing rules, so that made my job easier. In fact, their entire
management system simplifies my oversight responsibilities.”
When Miranda was finished, the company’s email server was working faster and more
efficiently, it easily accommodated increased traffic, and the Mail-SeCure appliance was
blocking over 98% of WorldNet’s spam and viruses with a false-positive rate of 1%.
“Best of all, our clients are extremely happy,” Miranda concluded. “Their productivity has
soared because they no longer have to deal with spam and viruses. If, on occasion, legitimate
email is blocked, it’s very easy to fix. I quickly search a list, place a checkmark, and the email is
released. That’s it.”
There’s an interesting postscript to the story. One of WorldNet’s customers, a municipality ISP,
was impressed with the almost total lack of spam and viruses on the company’s network. The
smaller ISP asked for the specs, and when they discovered that Mail-SeCure was half the cost of
the competition, they ordered one. As a result WorldNet, a Mail-SeCure client, became a
PineApp Caribbean Mail-SeCure reseller.
About the Mail-SeCure Appliance
Mail-SeCure provides total perimeter security
It is located outside the network, so it blocks threats like spam and viruses before they reach the
network. It creates a buffer between the Internet and an organization's email systems by using a
complete system of perimeter anti-spam/anti-virus security layers.
Mail-SeCure proactively protects networks against targeted and non-targeted email threats
The appliance includes multi-layered anti-spam and anti-virus systems that proactively protect
organizations and enterprises from both targeted email threats (spam, viruses, worms, Trojan-
horses) and non-targeted email-related threats (mail-bombing, denial of service and backscatter).
Anti-spam engines include pattern detection, zombie detection, zero-hour detection, IP reputa-
tion and image spam defense, plus a heuristic and a Bayesian engine to recognize spam in any
form and block it. Anti-virus engines include three signature based, one heuristic based and one zero-hour detection mechanism.
Mail-SeCure requires no updated filters and firmware to meet new threats
Most email security solutions require organizations to update their software or firmware to meet
new threats. Since it takes time to identify new threats and find appropriate protection, compa-
nies are left vulnerable. This is especially critical considering many threats last less than a day.
By the time security firms find a cure, it’s already too late.
Mail-SeCure’s anti-spam/anti-virus engines protect organizations right out of the box; Its zero-
day capabilities automatically protect a network against current and future spam, phishing and
virus threats. Moreover, its pattern recognition analysis spots spam in any form—including im-
age spam, PDF spam, Excel spam and other emerging threats—and blocks it. With Mail-SeCure, organizations are automatically protected from day one.
Mail-SeCure saves network bandwidth
Unlike most competitors, Mail-SeCure is located outside the network. As a result it blocks and
quarantines spam even before it ever reaches the network, which saves valuable bandwidth. This
is especially important since image spam (PDF, JPEG, GIF, Excel) requires megabytes of stor-
age. Reports indicate image spam now accounts for half (or more) of all spam on networks.
Some companies complain that image spam is clogging their mail servers and bringing them to
their knees.
Mail-Secure provides simple-to-use management tools
The appliance provides administrators with easy-to-use tools to enforce advanced local policy as
well as a mechanism to control and manage mail flow, so it is also easy to set up and use almost
immediately.
Mail-SeCure costs less
Many customers state they purchased a Mail-SeCure appliance and yearly license for less money
than many competitors charge for the annual license alone. However, the main reason they made
the purchase was that Mail-SeCure simply worked better than the others.
For more information on how Mail-SeCure can offer your company total perimeter security, visit
http://www.pineapp.com.
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“Best of all, our clients are extremely happy. Their productivity has soared because they no longer have to deal with spam and viruses.”
Manuel Miranda, ISP supervisor , World-Net Telecommunications
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IN A BRIEF
The Customer:
WorldNet Telecommunication
The Challenge: Save hours spent on dealing with spam, viruses, worms and Trojan horses
The Solution: A Mail-SeCure 5040 unit was deployed and cleared up the company’s storage spaceand bandwidth