Orange cracks down on dual threat of email

Mobile phone operator Orange has announced a plan to roll out email monitoring across 14,000 workstations in its UK offices - citing the dual threat of viruses and spam as reasons.

Working with technology from Sybari, Orange will be able to monitor all inbound and outbound email as well as communications sent internally. Sybari's Antigen solution will provide anti-virus support via third parties such as Kaspersky Labs and Sophos, and content filtering for all email travelling through Orange's exchange server.

Given the recent high-profile outbreaks of two worms, Fizzer and Palyh, and the ongoing battle against the proliferation of spam, Orange's move is certainly timely. Spam email now accounts for more than 40 per cent of all emails and estimates suggest it is costing businesses as much as £5bn in lost hours and resources in the UK alone.

Julian Bogajski, UK commercial director at Sybari, said: "As a telecoms innovator, it's natural that Orange has high standards when communicating both internally and with its customers in the UK and beyond.

"The security of its messaging systems is no exception to this rule, which is why we're delighted that Antigen has been selected to protect its messaging environment: it sends a clear message to Orange customers that security is top of the agenda."

Nick Hall, senior messaging architect for Orange UK, believes the scanning of internal emails is essential for total security - especially with a mobile workforce.

He said in a statement: "For any company with a mobile workforce, such as Orange, this is a real bonus. It can't be guaranteed that users will regularly update anti-virus packages on the desktop [at home], so it's almost inevitable that viruses will penetrate messaging systems. By scanning internal emails as well as external ones, [we are guarding] against this [and] providing an extra safety net."

Orange UK's Antigen licence includes five virus-scanning engines, manufactured by Computer Associates, Kaspersky Labs, Norman Data Defence and Sophos.