FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 24 May 2005

CEBIT STAND K12

MailGuard launches WebGuard®

Organisations today can eliminate web browsing abuse, offensive or pornographic browsing and time wasting

MailGuard, Australia's first and leading provider of outsourced email anti-virus, anti-spam, content filtering and email storage solutions for the business market, has launched its new service, WebGuard, at CEBIT today.

Without the need for investment in hardware, software, management or systems, WebGuard offers a means of protecting companies from Web-based dangers, such as viruses retrieved from Web-based mail systems.

"WebGuard allows organisations to control what their people can browse, download, and when; whilst keeping the organisation safe from web viruses, junk, and offensive downloads or browsing activity," said Andrew Johnson, MailGuard's Director of Sales and Marketing. "Fundamentally, our service gives all companies the ability to protect all browsing from viruses, while also developing logs of company-wide browsing activity."

Johnson explained that WebGuard eliminates web browsing (deliberate or inadvertent) abuse, offensive or pornographic browsing and time wasting. WebGuard is managed through a secure web console, using content filtering rules and lists of sites to be allowed or blocked. Regular reports and configurable alerts allow the administrator to be notified of excessive or inappropriate use.

MailGuard has invested heavily in the development of WebGuard and has been piloting the service since late last year. WebGuard's anti-virus software is updated every 10 minutes.

Roger Evans, IT Manager at Willow Ware Australia Pty Ltd, the iconic 100 plus year old Australian family owned company and manufacturer of coolers, storage, refuse and bake ware, has been trialling Web Guard and assisting in its development for the last seven months.

"We are an IT team of two [plus some outside contractors] looking after the requirements of over 50 users, in Melbourne and interstate offices. Having a solid appreciation of the importance of IT security needs for Willow, but not having the luxury of time or personnel on our side, WebGuard gives me peace of mind and flexibility," said Evans. "Knowing no viruses are being downloaded means I can focus on other areas of business processes along with my technical and reporting responsibilities.

"The service has given us an opportunity to manage what our users are actually doing without being big brother. We simply use the console to manage access to the web by user, file types, key words and sites by individual, group or company wide rules as required. IT Governance and best practices are in the forefront of the company's and end users' best interest, so WebGuard assists in the management of these important practices as well as providing some peace of mind for HR related issues."

Evans has also gained financially by reducing his company's data communications costs. WebGuard's detailed logs of who has browsed what and when and the hourly/daily/weekly/monthly reports of top users and most popular sites, including summary reports of how much, and how long users are browsing, assists in planning and implementing web access and usage policies for Willow.

Since the company's formation in June 2001 MailGuard has sustained a 100 per cent yearly growth rate in both its revenue and client base. It is projecting similar results for, at least, the next four years.

"It was in realising the need for a solution to spam, hackers and other internet-based menaces that was both easy to manage and low in cost, that we developed a range of services that help to secure email with the client barely lifting a finger," concluded Johnson. "We also learnt along the way that even organisations with the dollars and human resources to spend in terms of deploying a solution, the constant need to keep it up to date and maintained is all too hard."

- ENDS -

Issued by Rivers of Communication
On behalf of MailGuard

Media enquiries
Craig McDonald, Director of Strategy, MailGuard, tel: +61 3 9694 4444
Dolores Diez, Rivers of Communication, tel: +61 3 9572 4552 / 0417 330 881
email: dolores@riversofcom.com