Comtrust and MessageLabs alliance to deliver comprehensive email security solutions to the Middle East

Dubai, UAE, 21^st October 2003

Comtrust, the e-solutions business unit of Etisalat, has formed a partnership with MessageLabs, the leading provider of managed email security services to businesses worldwide, with a view to providing a range of email security solutions to the Middle East’s corporate community. This new partnership will add another layer to Comtrust’s rapidly expanding eSecurity portfolio. The partnershipaims to tackle head on the growing menace faced by Middle East enterprises from email threats such as viruses, spam and other undesirable material (pornographic content). At the same time, the new venture heralds MessageLabs arrival in the Middle East, as it is set to open its first regional office to support regional activities.

“While we have an existing customer base in the Middle East, this is the first time we will physically have a presence in the Middle East,” said Jean-Benoit Sorge, Head of Sales for Continental Europe, Middle East and Africa, MessageLabs. “With an increasing number of Middle East businesses expressing a need for our services, we required to establish a presence within the region to maintain the levels of service our customers have come to expect of MessageLabs. A partnership with Comtrust will provide us with an ideal opportunity to address the growing demands for our services.”

Under this partnership, Comtrust would host MessageLabs’ regional technology infrastructure at Comtrust’s state-of-the-art data center as well as provide extensive bandwidth and managed data center services, enabling MessageLabs to offer its range of email security services through Comtrust. The UAE-based ‘control tower’, MessageLabs name for the advanced architecture supporting its email security systems would join the company’s global network of ‘control towers’ which currently spans Germany, Hong Kong, The Netherlands, UK and USA.

“These control towers are located at strategic points across the globe enabling us to deliver the optimal service levels to a diverse international customer base. Our intention to house key components of our global infrastructure with Comtrust clearly indicates the importance we place upon the Middle East,” said Jean-Benoit Sorge. Comtrust said the timing of the alliance was “perfect” and that the unveiling of this latest offering coincided with the increasing regional demand to combat the encroaching email threats. “With the majority of businesses in the Middle East utilising email, the threats posed by this medium of communication to these users is very real and on the increase,” said Ahmad Abdulkarim Julfar, General Manager, Comtrust. “As part of our efforts to help protect regional e-businesses we have partnered with the global leader in business email security solutions ensuring our offering is second to none.”

MessageLabs reiterated what Comtrust said. It pointed out that nuisance factor aside, spam, thanks to the convergence of virus and spamming techniques, is becoming increasingly more than just a daily torment to email users. The company said in August this year it stopped 91.2 million spam emails. However, more alarmingly 1 in 28 email messages contained a virus. The number was largely attributable two major outbreaks in August: MiMail.A on the 1st and the extraordinary Sobig.F outbreak that occurred on the 18th August. “Businesses in the Middle East face exactly the same Internet threats as their counterparts in the rest of the world. However, with the advent of this new partnership they can also source the same level of protection,” said Jean-Benoit Sorge.

The MessageLabs email security system currently comprises of three components to deal with three key email issues of viral infection, spamming and pornography. An additional service will be launched very soon - Content Control.  The concept behind the system is unique yet quite simple. A customers’ email traffic is routed through the new MessageLabs control tower, located within Comtrust data center. There, the email is scanned for all known and unknown threats through a combination of industry leading scanners and Skeptic™, MessageLabs’ predictive technology. All this process introduces no discernible delays for the user.

The scanning software is continually updated to keep pace with the changing nature of email security threats. “By continually adapting and storing the profiles of each new threat, which is detected and stopped, Skeptic’s unique intelligence ensures that MessageLabs can offer complete email security and set the standards for the industry,” said Jean-Benoit Sorge. The new service would be open to all businesses in the Middle East, whether they are hosting their systems in Comtrust data center or at any other location. “MessageLabs’ technology basically acts as a filter between the Internet and the customer’s email server. It doesn’t matter where that server is located within the Middle East,” said Julfar.

Both parties see significant benefits for Middle East business. Current MessageLabs customers would have the added benefit of now having their email traffic routed locally instead of internationally and they like new customers can take advantage of Comtrust’s ever growing focus on regional e-business industry.

“Much has been said about the problems that come with email with recent viral attacks highlighting the potential risk business industry faces from using email. Until now there has not been a regional service available to enterprises that did not require them to invest in hardware and/or software. This new alliance between MessageLabs and Comtrust’s avails regional businesses the opportunity to pass the headache of email security to the experts,” said Julfar.