Cloudmark Helps PayPal Deliver “No-Phishing” Solution to Its Customers

SAN FRANCISCO – December 16, 2004 – CloudmarkTM Inc., the company that delivers the immune system for email, today announced that the anti-fraud component of its new SafetyBar(tm) solution will be offered to PayPal users free of charge. The SafetyBar solution is designed to empower businesses and consumers stop online fraud. PayPal customers interested in taking advantage of the free offer can download the solution at http://www.cloudmark.com/paypal/safetybar.

SafetyBar is available to any PayPal customer worldwide that uses the Outlook e-mail system. The tool is easy to install, with the new SafetyBar appearing as a toolbar in Outlook immediately after downloading the product. From installation forward, messages that are identified as phishing e-mails are automatically forwarded to the Spam Folder. Along with SafetyBar, PayPal users also get a free 30-day trial of Cloudmark’s anti-spam protection, the most award-winning anti-spam solution this year.

“Online security is a top priority for PayPal and we continue to fight phishing attacks in every way we can,” said Dave Nielsen, technical evangelist for PayPal. “We’re happy to work with Cloudmark to develop tools and techniques that enhance our fraud protection initiatives.”

“Cloudmark is extremely proud to be working with PayPal to promote trust in the Internet as a safe place to conduct business,” said Karl Jacob, CEO of Cloudmark. “Cloudmark’s mission has always been to protect consumers from fraud before it occurs versus raising fear or sounding warning alarms when it’s just too late. By offering both SafetyBar and our first of its kind rating system, we are confident we can re-establish trust within the world of e-commerce.”

While SafetyBar helps eliminate fraud before it reaches the Inbox, Cloudmark Rating solves the other problem created by “phishing” – namely the erosion of consumer trust in e-commerce brands. Cloudmark Rating helps ensure that the email customers receive is from the trusted brand that sent it. The reputation system helps confirm that mail sent from a company is legitimate. Cloudmark Rating displays the company’s logo in the SafetyBar, to help consumers be confident in knowing that the messages received is from the brand they trust.

“Phishing attacks are on the rise, and the need for e-commerce companies, financial institutions and providers to take measures to protect their customers,” said Teney Takahashi, Messaging Security Analyst with the Radicati Group. “By working with SafetyBar and the Cloudmark community, companies are able to provide their users with a more reliable method of identifying legitimate e-mails. Dealing with both sides of the equation has become critical, as phishing and online fraud continue to threaten the integrity of e-mail, e-commerce and the Internet.”

“Phishing” is a technique whereby a perpetrator sends out legitimate-looking emails appearing to come from well-known banks, online retailers and credit card companies in an effort to obtain personal and financial information from the recipient. The result of these scams is that consumers suffer credit card fraud, identity theft and financial loss.

According to an April 2004 survey of 5,000 U.S. online adults, Gartner estimates that 57 million U.S. adults have received phishing attack email and more than 1.4 million users have suffered from identity theft fraud, costing banks and card issuers $1.2 billion in direct losses in the past year. Moreover, the FTC estimates that if one figures in the amount of money businesses must spend on security software to stop the phishers, the damage to brand names, and the costs of mitigating customer complaints and litigation associated with insecure websites, the total increases to over $50 billion.

The SafetyBar Solution
Cloudmark SafetyBar, formerly SpamNet, stands alone as the world’s most award-winning anti-spam desktop solution, by scoring the highest accuracy rate in PC Magazine’s last four reviews, while registering consecutive zero false positives in the magazine’s last two reviews. SafetyBar remains undefeated as the best spam protection this year having consistently garnered top accuracy to win PC World’s Best Buy, PC World 2004 World Class Award for Best Spam Filter, PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice and PC Magazine’s 5 Stars for accuracy among other industry awards.

Cloudmark SafetyBar automatically prevents over 98 percent of unwanted spam and fraudulent email from reaching a user’s Inbox. The service now offers improved fraud protection and a Block Fraud button enabling people to fight back against malicious phishing attacks and stop fraud in the same way they have been working together for over six years to stop unwanted email. If a rare spam or fraud message does slip through to a user’s Inbox, a user simply clicks the ‘Block’ button to remove the message from the Inbox, and immediately stops the threat for the entire community. Similarly, if a user thinks a certain message is not spam, or fraud, they can click the ‘Unblock’ button and share that intelligence with the network.

To establish trust and reputation for each user in the network, SafetyBar uses its Trust Evaluation System (TeS). An individual user’s trust rating is sent alongside every message submitted by Cloudmark community members, eliminating flawed submissions and gaming of the system. Because a group of trusted users has to vote a message as spam or fraud for it to end up in the Unwanted Folder, SafetyBar is able to achieve its benchmark, zero false positive rate. This real-time automated approach is also the reason that SafetyBar instantly protects its community from internet-based viruses and email born threats.

Cloudmark SafetyBar is available today for both Outlook® and Outlook Express®, and will also be available in additional product platform versions later this year.

About Cloudmark Rating
Cloudmark Rating automatically verifies legitimate communications such as newsletters and mailing lists to ensure delivery, protecting your organization against fraudulent uses of your brand and protecting your customers from fraud. Each mailing is given a unique identity and the solution requires minimal implementation.

Any site can request free membership in the Program 1 level of this system by signing up at http://rating.cloudmark.com. Member sites send a copy of each newsletter and mass mailing to a special address at Cloudmark. When a new mailing arrives, Cloudmark associates its unique fingerprint with the corresponding member site. The site’s reputation improves when Cloudmark members refrain from marking its mailings as spam.

A site that maintains a sufficiently high reputation can move up to the Program 2 level. When the user views an e-mail message from a Program 2 site, the SafetyBar displays a “Cloudmark Rated” button and company logo. Clicking on the button brings up a window proclaiming that the site is a “Cloudmark Rated Spam-free e-mail sender” and offering more details about the rating system.

About Cloudmark, Inc.

Founded in 2001, Cloudmark(tm) is the company that delivers the immune system for email. The company offers tailored anti-spam and anti-fraud solutions for the individual user, small and medium businesses (SMBs), large enterprises and service providers to bring immediate relief to thousands of businesses and more than a million individuals in 72 countries using its solutions today.

Cloudmark invented the highly effective spamDNA technology, the recent innovation of Email Genetic Mapping(tm) coupled with Cloudmark’s revolutionary nDimensional technology and the first peer-to-peer, real-time, SpamFighting community in 1998.

CTO Jordan Ritter, also co-founder of Napster, and Vipul Ved Prakash, chief scientist and author of Vipul’s Razor founded Cloudmark. Prominent venture capital firms Ignition Partners, Presidio Venture Partners, a Sumitomo Corporation company, and FTVentures back the company.

Ø For more information about Cloudmark, visit the company’s web site at: http://www.cloudmark.com/.