Trend Micro Unveils IBM Security Suite

Top 10 Security Stories Of 2010

Internet security software developer Trend Micro Monday unveiled its ScanMail Suite, a solution designed for all 64-bit IBM Lotus Domino platforms, including IBM's new System z platform.

The vendor's newest offering provides anti-spam, anti-malware, Web threat protection, and content protection to prevent data loss and theft, according to Trend Micro. ScanMail Suite, which was designed specifically as a native Lotus Domino server application, was optimized for high-performance scanning, the developer said. The technology supports all current 64-bit Domino platforms, as well as Windows and AIX.

"The release of ScanMail v5 for Lotus Domino for Linux on IBM System z allows us to exploit the world's fastest chip technology on the IBM zEnterprise System to help our customers achieve unrivalled reliability, security, and manageability for their multi-OS datacenters," said Steve Quane, chief product officer at Trend Micro. "Further, since Lotus Domino, ScanMail, and IBM System z all support multiple operating environments, heterogeneity of data centers no longer stands in the way of dramatic consolidation and cost reduction -- a key objective of our large enterprise customers."

IBM's zEnterprise System was designed to be fast and scalable. The solution integrates a number of IBM technologies to support enterprises' multi-architecture data centers and private clouds, according to the vendor. In the fourth quarter of 2010, sales of System z mainframes grew 69% year-over-year, IBM said.

Likewise, Trend Micro turns to the cloud, using its domain-reputation database to track the credibility of Web domains and IP addresses. The database assigns a reputation score, using factors such as the site's age, IP email sending behavior, indications of suspicious activities discovered via behavior analysis, and historical location changes, the developer said. ScanMail immediately can access this rating, allowing the software to instantly block messages that include links to malicious URLs, said Trend Micro.

Malicious URLs are a growing threat today, according to many researchers and security developers. Creators of phishing sites are tapping into users' hunger for the shortened URLs popular on Twitter, direct messages, SNS applications, chat services on Twitter and Facebook, as well as friend-search optimization, according to AhnLabs, a provider of online security solutions.

Earlier this month, a new worm spread via the goo.gl URL abbreviator, said Kaspersky Labs security researcher Nicolas Brulez, in a company blog. The attack, first seen on Jan. 20, tweets a malicious URL, eventually linking a user to a scareware page. Scammers created a similar ruse in December, while a September attack using bit.ly's link shortening service saw more than 116,000 clicks.

To help combat these attacks, Twitter offers a link service that also will be used for analysis.

"A link converted by Twitter's link service is checked against a list of potentially dangerous sites. When there's a match, users can be warned before they continue," the company's site said. "Our link service will also be used to measure information like how many times a link has been clicked. Eventually, this information will become an important quality signal for our Resonance algorithm -- the way we determine if a Tweet is relevant and interesting."