Mirapoint Inc. plans to release a new Rapid Anti-Spam technology next week that offers real-time protection against spam and many virus threats.

Rapid Anti-Spam works with Mirapoint"s MailHurdle edge-blocking technology to fight spam and viruses that spread via spam messages. Rapid Anti-Spam is based on the Recurrent Pattern Detection technology licensed from Commtouch, a developer of proprietary anti-spam solutions.

MailHurdle and Rapid Anti-Spam are available as part of Mirapoint"s Full-Spectrum e-mail security technology, which includes SMTP connection management features, spam and virus analytics, policy enforcement, and content-filtering tools. MailHurdle technology handles message traffic at the SMTP layer first to block and drop unwanted SMTP connections right at the network edge to reduce bandwidth, storage, and IT administrator resources.

"We believe this approach reduces most unwanted traffic before any IT resources are wasted," said Jeff Brainard, product marketing manager at Mirapoint. Brainard also said that rapidly propagating viruses such as MyDoom use spam messages to spread rapidly through networks. "Even if the virus is on the network for a few hours, it impacts the network. We believe we can stop those threats before they do that damage," he said.

Several other companies are offering products that focus on security at the network edge, such as F5"s BIG-IP product. Many analysts see the network edge as the most vulnerable point for security. "Mirapoint is responding to customers" anxieties over the constantly evolving spam and virus threats," said Mark Levitt, IDC security analyst.