Dublin, Ireland, March 01-- ESG Re, the Reinsurance and Direct Marketing company, has installed powerful GFI anti virus and anti spam software to protect its corporate servers located in Dublin.  The solution was recommended to the global reinsurance company by Deft, an IT professional services company.  Deft specialises in Microsoft BackOffice Server 2003 and security products that protect the Back Office environment.

The combined installation of GFI products has reduced all spam by 97 percent and is currently blocking upwards of 15 potentially damaging viruses on a daily basis. 

ESG Re’s IT Manager Markus Rieder, welcomes the solution which he says was trouble-free to install and easy to maintain.  “We have worked with Deft since 2001 and are very satisfied with their competency in this area,” he says.  “When it came time to replace our outdated MailSweeper on our corporate server, they presented a combined firewall and server package from GFI.  Not only has it been very successful, it was also great value.”

Deft first installed GFI’s MailSecurity as an SMTP gateway.  This intelligent solution combines four industry strength virus scanners.   Two of them: Norman and BitDefender; are pre-installed.  A further two virus scanners; Kaperskey and McAfee; were recommended and installed by Deft.

As Ian Keane, title of Deft explains:  “The four scanners, plus GFI’s own Trojan detection engine which scans executable files for embedded malicious code, protect the company at the periphery of network.  This stops some 99.9 percent of all possible virus infiltrations.

“In addition, the MailSecurity installed on the Exchange server extends that protection to within the company.”

GFI MailSecurity is available as an SMTP gateway version and for VS API. The gateway version should be deployed at the perimeter of the network as a mail relay server and scans inbound and outbound mail. The VS API version integrates seamlessly with Exchange Server 2000/2003 and scans the Exchange information stores. Both versions can be deployed simultaneously to achieve optimum protection

While Rieder was only initially interested in an anti virus solution, Deft advised the company to purchase the anti spam solution, MailEssentials, at the same time.  As Rieder explains:  “By purchasing both solutions as a package we achieved significant savings and now are benefiting from further productivity savings through the near eradication of spam.

“Again Deft has not only provided us with excellent service and products but has delivered this service in way that adds value to the core solution,” he says.

GFI’s MailEssentials is also installed at the firewall where some 90 percent of all spam is stopped and never penetrates the corporate network.  Recent reports produced by the GFI reporting software show that some 80,000 spam emails are stopped in this way.

Keane explains:  “The GFI MailEssential checks all incoming mail and if any are considered ‘black’ mail then they are immediately dumped.  Grey and white mail is delivered, however.

“At the exchange server within the company, the grey mail is delivered to the recipients’ inbox into a junk filter.  Individuals can delete if junk or repatriate if white or good mail.  The onus is pushed onto the individual to correctly define suspect mail which is easier than asking a central administrator to make the decision.”

GFI MailEssentials offers a fast set-up and a high spam detection rate using Bayesian analysis and other methods, with no configuration required, very low false positives through its automatic whitelist, and the ability to automatically adapt to a company’s email environment to constantly tune and improve spam detection.

It also adds email management tools to the mail server, including disclaimers, mail archiving and monitoring, Internet mail reporting, list server, server-based auto replies and POP3 downloading

The GFI suite of security products is exclusively distributed in Ireland by Commtech.

Ends

About ESG Re

ESG Re Ltd provides medical, personal accident, credit life, disability and special risks reinsurance to insurers and selected re-insurers on a worldwide basis. The company distinguishes itself from its competition by offering re-insurance products and services that help its ceding clients to manage their risks more effectively. ESG provides solutions to specific underwriting problems, actuarial support, product design and loss prevention.