With the proliferation of spam, viruses, worms, and other email-borne threats, email security is one of the most important IT challenges for companies of all sizes. Small and midsize businesses (SMB) frequently find themselves at a major disadvantage in combating these threats because they lack the IT budget of their larger counterparts: whereas SMBs typically spend between 3 percent and 7 percent of their budget on IT, large companies spend between 8 percent and 15 percent, according to Osterman Research. Smaller companies are also less likely to have an in-house IT staff.

Worldwide, spam accounted for $50 billion in lost productivity and other expenses last year. Studies indicate that SMBs are the recipients of a disproportionate amount of spam. To combat the threat, SMBs can implement an email security application that offers a broad range of protection. There are multiple solutions to choose from, however, and many are not suited for SMBs. At a minimum, an email defense system for a small company should provide antispam and antivirus protection, defense against fraud and phishing, and protection from denial-of-service and directory-harvest attacks.

The three types of email defense solutions for SMBs to consider are installed software, hardware appliances, and managed security solutions. Among the criteria to consider when evaluating them are cost, ease of use, effectiveness as real-time protection, complexity, and maintenance.

Source: Digital ID World (09/25/06) ; Smith, Paul Kincaid