Security companies reveal new highs in growth of Internet threats in Saudi Arabia

Representatives from leading IT solutions provider Algosaibi Information Systems (AGIS), OnLine Distribution and CipherTrust - the global market leader in messaging security - presented evidence to over 30 of the Kingdom's major employers and discussed the impact of spam on local businesses.

At the discussion, which was chaired by Ayad Algosaibi, managing director at AGIS, a speaker from CipherTrust presented findings based on an analysis of messaging activity collected from the company's global network of award-winning IronMail gateway security appliances.

The event was seen as a major opportunity to present CipherTrust's work to businesses in the Kingdom.

'I am absolutely delighted that AGIS has formally introduced CipherTrust, the pioneer and undisputed leader in the messaging security space, to the Saudi Arabian Market,'

said Ayad Algosaibi, managing director of AGIS.

'AGIS has already deployed Ciphertrust's IronMail within a number of key establishments in the Kingdom. It's about time that this message is shared with other key clients in the region so that they can equally benefit from Ciphertrust's offerings,' Algosaibi concluded.

CipherTrust declared November the worst month yet in 2005 in terms of spam volumes and floods proliferating on the Internet. This dramatic increase is primarily attributed to the latest Sober virus outbreak, which to date accounts for more than 500,000 total infections since the variant's outbreak.

IDC recently reported spam as the third highest concern for IT administrators today, up from number seven from the previous year. The impact of the volume increases during November confirms the significant threat presented by increasing volumes of spam.

Over the last six months, CipherTrust's TrustedSource global threat correlation engine had been identifying an average of 170,000 new infected 'zombie' computers - infected machines which send out spam e-mail automatically - each day. Since the outbreak of a new variant of the Sober virus in November, the number of new zombies sending spam and virus messages increased by nearly 50 percent, bringing the average total number to more than 250,000 new infected IPs each day.

'Spam is a major challenge for companies in the Kingdom, disrupting messaging efficiency and reducing productivity. The availability of new technology that can reduce the impact of this technological scourge should be welcomed,' said Jitendra Kapoor, business development manager at OnLine Distribution.