Agitum unleashes new Spam Terrier

In December 2006 we announced the beta version of Spam Terrier, our upcoming free anti-spam plug-in for Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. The Terrier is now out of puppyhood and is ready to graduate from his obedience classes into the real world, now that he understands how to distinguish between wanted and unwanted emails.

In a nutshell, Spam Terrier uses a Bayesian filter approach, which means that its decisions are based more on behavior patterns than specific white or black list criteria. When you identify a message as spam or not-spam, Spam Terrior uses this information to determine which email behavior patterns are accesptable to you and which are not, rather than relying on the blocking of specific words or phrases.

The more thoroughly you train Spam Terrier, the better its nose for junk becomes. The Bayesian filter uses probability algorithms to assess the odds of new messages having the same characteristics as previously-defined spams.

For the time being Spam Terrier is only compatible with Microsoft mail clients (including Vista) . However, we may consider making it compatible with other popular email programs in the future – if this is something you’re interested in, please post a comment here.

The complete list of Spam Terrier features can be found on the main Agnitum web-site at http://www.agnitum.com/products/spam-terrier/features.php. As it has already been announced the core of Spam Terrier constitutes an anti-spam module in the Outpost Security Suite Pro.

We look forward to hearing your opinions of Spam Terrier, whether you’ve had a chance to use the product or you’ve just been reading about it.

You can download Spam Terrier (final release version) here.

Mikhail Penkovsky
Global Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Agnitum Ltd.

Outpost Security Suite Pro - public beta version

Agnitum team have come up with a release event - Outpost Security Suite Pro for XP is now available in public beta: http://www.agnitum.com/products/securitysuite/beta.php.

We’ve already posted several articles about different aspects of the suite in this blog, mainly focused on explaining why we’re developing a suite in addition to the firewall. We recognize that everyone is free to choose whether to use a number of separate solutions or a suite. We don’t believe that choosing a suite should mean *not* choosing best-of-breed for each security category, so from now on Agnitum is ready to provide both options: Outpost Firewall Pro and Outpost Security Suite Pro.

For us, one of the most exciting parts of the Suite is the unique approach to malware protection, bringing together anti-virus and anti-spyware in one anti-malware module, but there’s plenty more to get excited about.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Igor Pankov
Product Marketing Manager
Agnitum Ltd.

Security Trends: Reflections About Today and Tomorrow

In this entry we would like to share some thoughts about the current situation in the e-security market. Here we need to distinguish between two rival parties: software vendors and cybercriminals. Let’s start with the latter group.

It seems like modern malefactors generate three major types of threats:

- "old style" viruses (both discovered long ago and unique);
- custom malware (designed ad hoc and tailored to a definite group of computers); and
- “legal” spyware.

By “legal” we mean a very curious factor concerning peculiarities of international law. Security products are not entitled to scan and unpack executable files and reveal fraudulent contents due to the fact that archiving vendors are protected by licensing agreements. Therefore, if a rogue program is packed by certain archivers, then it is legally exempted from any antimalware actions.

It’s common knowledge that custom malware usually disguises itself as benign or acts imperceptibly; a user won’t even notice any changes until the money from his/her bank account is withdrawn by someone else.

The best example of contagious rubbish is Mr. Trojan, capturing 90 percent (Symantec’s figures) of Internet infestations. Mail worms also find their way actively to unprotected computer data.

However, security solutions vendors are keeping up. They show the unanimous tendency for integrating various defense components. Those who scored well as antivirus makers added antispyware modules to their products and vice versa. For instance, PC Tools and Zone Alarm, and Agnitum (in the upcoming Outpost Security Suite) decided to increase antivirus elements.
Complex protection seems to be an inevitable step. But still we need to understand that the goal of modern malware “engineers” is not vandalism or, say, self-expression but financial gain. As a result they create custom malware that can hardly be detected and deteriorated by any antivirus program, including the best-of-breed ones.

What can’t be cured must be endured or — better — prevented. Therefore, proactive defense becomes a must-have in the world of security threats—a certain industry standard. Those vendors who don’t comply with it — demonstrating weak or nonexistent proactiveness — fail to reach the appropriate Internet security level.

Impartially, the makers of Outpost have always deemed preventive approach a priority. As a result, Agnitum is soon coming up with a security suite that will unite all existing defense components (antivirus+antispyware, antispam, etc.) and retain the ability to block malware at initial stages. Evidently, there’s nothing original in this principle; many security software providers are taking this path. The question is not whether to do it, but how. How to advance proactive measures to the extent unattainable for the hackers?

Alexey Belkin
Chief Software Architect
Agnitum Ltd.

Under the Spotlight: Keyloggers

The keystroke logging system, or keylogger, is a tool used to monitor and record keyboard events such as when a user types in a password and other valuable data. That data is later covertly transmitted to the perpetrator/owner/installer of the keylogger.

Those who are interested in the problem may find our article useful. Please, share your opinion below in the comments.


Igor Pankov
Product Marketing Manager
Agnitum Ltd.