McAfee manages e-mail

Although network attacks can come from any direction, e-mail is still one of the most prevalent and hard-to-manage source of incursions. McAfee Inc. officials are tackling the problem with a new managed service aimed at small- and mid-sized organizations.

The company's Managed Mail Protection service, which company officials said is compatible with all major e-mail platforms, is aimed at catching spam and virus-infected attachments before they can get into the network.

It works by redirecting an organization's mail into McAfee's managed service infrastructure to screen for spam and viruses before sending it on to the intended recipients.

According to Gartner Research, more than 60 percent of small- and mid-sized organizations don't have the resources to dedicate to in-house security and are increasingly turning to outsourced services.

This move to "in-the-cloud" protection also means companies can assure both their inbound and outbound e-mail security without having to invest in additional resources, McAfee officials said.

Managed Mail Protection "is automated and transparent, so there is no need for additional management or personnel to monitor e-mail traffic," said Steve Crutchfield, McAfee's director of product marketing.

The e-mail service costs an average of about $20 per user per month, company officials said. It hopes to expand the service to also include intrusion protection sometime next year.

Robinson is a freelance journalist based in Portland, Ore. He can be reached at hullite@mindspring.com.