Cloudmark Congratulates its SpamNet Users for Being Part of the First and Largest Spamfighting Community in the World; Stopping More Than 500 Million Spam Messages in 6 Months
Cloudmark SpamNet is the Consumer Spamfighting Solution of Choice; Stopping Spam for More Than 250,000 Users Worldwide With Over 90 Percent Effectiveness
SAN FRANCISCO — December 18, 2002 — Cloudmark, the company that empowers consumers to fight spam, today thanks its more than 250,000 spamfighters for participating in the largest and most successful spamfighting community in the world. People have joined forces through SpamNet, the first, easy-to-use Microsoft® Outlook® add-in to stop more than 500 million spam messages in just 6 months. During that time, the SpamNet community has saved its fellow members the equivalent of a century of time they used to waste deleting unwanted junk mail. Cloudmark is proud to offer the first collaborative spamfighting solution, proven effective on Unix since 1998 and today the only one that is continually gaining in effectiveness due to the record growth of its community. SpamNet's popularity is driven by its simplicity. You just download the add-in and it starts working immediately stopping 90 percent of spam automatically. Winning consumer polls and downloadable for free at www.cloudmark.com , SpamNet is the consumer spamfighting tool of choice and people are raving about it:
"SpamNet is absolutely the best program that I have installed on my computer in a very long time. Your SpamNet works SEAMLESSLY with Outlook in removing all the 'zillions' of spam e-mails that I get every day. I tried other 'spam killer' programs, but they are way too complicated to be of use. SpamNet on the other hand INTEGRATES into Outlook and works. And for those instances of missed spam, you just click one button-- block-- and it's all done. Please keep up the GREAT WORK, it is definitely appreciated." -- Russell Weisenbacher of Coram, New York
"I've been fine-tuning my spam filters for years without much success, and now this. So far, you've gotten more than 90 percent of the spam while letting through all the real mail...which includes some commercial mail that I wanted to receive. So, Okay, you win. I've sent it to everyone I know, and it works for them too." -- Doctor Alan Kornheiser of New York City
"First, let me commend you on an excellent product. I was one that had several tools running to stop spam and was getting discouraged about the ineffectiveness. I even went so far as to block all email from people that were not in my address book and forced them to a web site to fill out a form to get permission to email me. Since I've installed your plug-in I have abandoned all other efforts. I love this idea you have of using a central database that everyone contributes to. This thing is really working great for me. Even when I have to block one that did not get caught, it is a blessing to have the plug-in automatically move it out of my inbox when I block it. I can see it getting more effective the longer I have used it." - Jerry Mills of Largo, Florida
"SpamNet simply rocks. No Peer-2-Peer (P2P) hype, but P2P action: it *stops* spam. It helps us stop *more* spam." -- Chester of Brasil
"The positive testimonials and tremendous growth rate of SpamNet clearly demonstrate that Cloudmark has tapped the deep well of anger over spam and channeled it into one of the best spamfighting tools that's ever been available for the average user," said Ray Everett-Church, Chief Privacy Officer for ePrivacy Group and a founder of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE).
Simplicity is a Result of Being a Purely Collaborative Solution
SpamNet is the only collaborative solution that relies solely on the input of its spamfighters to stop spam and thus increases in effectiveness as more and more people join the network. People are raving about SpamNet and spreading the word because it's simple, it just starts working on new spam the second you download it. It doesn't require consumers to type words in, or deal with complicated whitelists by having to enter in the email of every friend, or family member who can contact you, or force your friends to register on a site in order to send you mail.
Cloudmark started this collaborative model of effective spamfighting in 1998 with Vipul's Razor, now known as SpamNet and today maintains the most up-to-date database of spam in the world with more than 29 million unique spam messages. Relying on real people to identify spam also enables Cloudmark to keep up on evolving spamming techniques and catch new, sophisticated types of spam messages even when they do not contain odd text or red flag words in order to get past traditional filters. For example, many new spam messages contain no objectionable words, or spam-flagging attributes, but inside a seemingly innocent text message is a link to an explicit and offensive pornographic site. SpamNet catches this trick because a real person immediately knows this is spam and saves the rest of the community from receiving it. This is also true for any language because SpamNet spamfighters are spread out across the Internet and across the world fighting spam in all languages in real-time.
"The team at Cloudmark would like to wish the SpamNet community happy holidays and thank all of you for making a difference in the fight against spam," said Karl Jacob, CEO of Cloudmark. "We look forward to setting new records on the spamfighting front in the New Year continuing to lessen your pain as the problem promises to get much worse in 2003 and beyond."
Availability
The beta version of SpamNet is available for free from the Cloudmark web site at www.cloudmark.com. This current version of SpamNet will remain free, so that customers currently contributing to the network can continue fighting spam successfully. We will also be delivering a pay-for release 1.0 version after the first of the year. To enable even more people to take advantage of SpamNet, Cloudmark will deliver support for other popular mail clients in the coming year. If you're an enterprise company looking for a gateway, or server-side solution that prevents unwanted email from entering your network, please visit www.cloudmark.com/products/authority/ to learn more about our award-winning enterprise solution - Cloudmark Authority.
About Cloudmark
Cloudmark builds messaging security software that protects communications service provider networks and their subscribers against the widest range of messaging threats. Only Cloudmark Security Platform™ delivers instant security and control across diverse messaging environments, enabling communications service providers to create a safe user experience, protect revenue and safeguard their brand, while streamlining infrastructure and reducing operational costs. Cloudmark's patented solutions protect more than 120 tier-one customers worldwide, including AT&T, Verizon, Swisscom, Comcast, Cox and NTT.