Spam and Offensive Email a Growing Concern for Educational Institutions
Nemx Software working with education sector to secure critical messaging systems
Ottawa, Canada ? November 3, 2003 ? Nemx Software, a provider of anti-virus and secure content management products for companies of all sizes, today announced that its Power Tools offering is enabling the education sector across North America to address the consistent growth of spam and offensive content in the Microsoft Exchange environment. Currently, Nemx is working with educational institutions including Wayne County Community College District in Detroit, the University of Alberta, and other higher education and K-12 schools to provide secure messaging systems. By eliminating email threats, administrators and IT are able to overcome issues including harassment and online bullying and ensure a non-threatening environment to students and staff.
Pornographic and harassing email that causes discomfort among students, staff and faculty often violates school conduct policies. School administrators unable to block offensive emails ? whether generated internally or externally – are being increasingly viewed as accountable, and may be at risk of legal liability. As email abusers become more sophisticated, IT administrators are finding it increasingly difficult to stop harassing emails from reaching recipient desktops.
“While email is a critical communications tool to the functioning of the education community, it also has the ability to create havoc if offensive content comes into play,” said Kurt Gollinger, Director of Systems Administration at Wayne County Community College District. “Nemx Power Tools has enabled our IT team to block offensive emails, regardless of the challenge that spammers present to our community. Now, students, staff and faculty only receive email that is relevant to them, and our administrators can be assured that our email systems are secure.”
Nemx Power Tools for Microsoft Exchange software enables students, staff, faculty and administrators to experience the benefits of an secure email system, compliant with IT and school conduct policies. One of the key challenges for educational institutions is knowing how to identify content that would be considered “offensive” to all email recipients on the system. To address this need, Nemx Power Tools provides Concept Manager filtering, a technique that monitors and blocks emails based on the entire concept of the message.
“Concept Manager filtering has enabled us to meet the unique needs of our department,” said Rick Patsula, a network administrator within the University of Alberta’s engineering faculty. “When a person looks at a message, you can usually tell very quickly whether it’s offensive or not. Concept Manager simulates that process using thesaurus matching, so if the words ‘free’ or ‘easy’ are being used in close proximity with the word ‘diploma’, the Nemx software can intelligently detect the actual meaning of each keyword to identify it as spam, and effectively stop the message from passing through to our staff.”
IT administrators also face the challenge of identifying the origin of each message. Nemx Power Tools Advanced edition enables educational institutions to monitor not only for email that originates externally, but also any offensive content that derives from within the organization.
“With spam and harassing email messages coming from all corners, it is not surprising that the educational community is a target for offensive content,” said John Young, President of Nemx Software. “As long as unwanted email is a reality, IT administrators at institutions of all sizes will require new tools to outwit spammers and to monitor email. Nemx is committed to enabling schools to ensure the quality and productivity of their email systems with an arsenal of cost-effective tools.”
About Nemx Software Corporation
Nemx Software Corporation was established in 1994 to provide adaptable security solutions for the Microsoft Exchange environment. Nemx was the first company to develop anti-virus products for the Microsoft Exchange client and since then, the company has designed products to work seamlessly with Microsoft Exchange. The company’s products meet the growing need for secure email content management, protection from viruses and SPAM, and monitors for inappropriate employee behavior and content. Nemx Power Tools offers multiple lines of defense in the fight against spam, and comes in two editions. Advanced Edition, offers enterprises of all sizes complete protection from both Internet and internal email, while Internet Edition, designed specifically for small to medium sized enterprises, addresses security at the Internet level. Nemx Software has more than 3,000 customers around the world, and is based in Ottawa, Canada. For more information about Nemx Software, please visit www.nemx.com