An Ottawa-based security vendor said it is looking to grow its channel sales to help companies fight spam and viruses.
Nemx Software Corp., which manufactures anti-spam and anti-virus software for Microsoft Exchange Server-based environments, said 20 to 25 per cent of its sales in Canada are
through the channel.
“”We really need to be partnering with the channel,”” said John Young, president of Nemx, who recently spoke with CDN about fighting junk e-mail.
“”They have the accounts and we have the product that’s going to address this.””
Weighing in on anti-spam John Kvasnic, chief executive officer and chief architect of Navantis Inc., a Toronto-based solution provider, said the government needs to legislate against spam and viruses.
“”Right now, people aren’t taking it that seriously. If you look at the billions of dollars lost because of viruses and even spam, I think they have to put some very stiff penalties forward where people are caught,”” said Kvasnic, citing Microsoft’s bounty fund.
A recent Aberdeen Group Inc. study questioned the relevance of anti-virus software in the wake of three large-scale Internet worms that afflicted many corporations last year.
When asked about this, Young replied, “”Yes and no. Anti-virus software is designed to handle the casual virus that’s going around. With any new virus that comes out, there’s a latency in the time we see it and the time the virus definitions in the products can detect it and move forward.””
Young said Nemx was protecting people within several hours of the MyDoom virus coming out.
“”The definitions had been updated and pushed out to our customers,”” he said, adding that the company was still getting about 20 e-mails per hour at the end of last month.
While Kvasnic said Navantis did not get hit by the virus, the company did get a lot of e-mails from people who did. His advice to IT departments: make patch issuing part of your daily routine.
“”They have to keep up and integrate it into part of their operating procedure.””
Both Young and Kvasnic agree spam and viruses are only going to get worse.
“”There’s legislation that says you can’t do it. Bill Gates says in two years it’s going to stop. It ain’t going to stop,”” Young said in reference to spam.
“”Somebody is going to write a virus someday that’s going to really cause chaos. Right now it’s basic — the virus goes into your address book and sends it to other people. It’s not taking systems down.””
In the meantime, Kvasnic says companies have to make the investment.
“”There’s no silver bullet solution. If you look at the amount of time, money, bandwidth and loss of productivity spam takes, I think that’s criminal.””
