Cloudmark added Jan. 23 a new feature to its Cloudmark Authority 2.0 security tool to help Internet service providers reduce spam.

Cloudmark's Active Scan is able to block the vast majority of unwanted e-mail by allowing service providers to filter unread messages against up-to-the-minute lists of known attacks. Every minute, Authority 2.0 updates local caches of message fingerprints, allowing a simple but sophisticated rescan to be performed locally by checking header information against these caches.

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The company claims the new features will block 98 percent of spam, while most of the remaining 2 percent can be identified using feedback from 180 million reporters in the Cloudmark Global Threat Network.

Cloudmark Chief Scientist Vipul Ved Prakash said the company will continue to create innovative features tailored to service provider business models.

"In architecting Authority for the service provider, we've built in flexibility to rapidly bring new features to market and to enable our ISP customers to do the same," Prakash said in a statement. "Authority is the only solution intelligent enough to help providers combat today's biggest risks—zombies, false positives, regulatory infractions—and stay a step ahead of whatever is coming next."

Click here to read why 2006 was dubbed the "Year of the Zombies."

Since many subscribers check mail only once or twice per day, ISPs using Cloudmark Authority could effectively eliminate all unwanted mail for some users, company officials said.

Cloudmark Authority 2.0 also offers programmatic access to CNFS (Cloudmark Network Feedback System) to provide ISPs with fuller insight into their user base, company officials said. In addition, Cloudmark provides detailed reporting to service provider abuse teams on all feedback received through the CNFS reporting interface. This service lessens administrative burden while improving customer service, officials said.

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