SenderBase.org gets a revamp

IronPort — also known as Cisco’s latest acquisition — has launched an updated version of its SenderBase.org traffic monitoring site, which serves as a free online malware and spam resource for IT administrators.

Along with a new user interface that claims to make it much easier for people to analyze trends in e-mail, virus outbreaks and spyware patterns, the e-mail distributor reputation service promises a list of upgrades including:

-New reputation scores that are meant to help people figure out if their network is being used by spammers and botnets. After entering their IP address, a user recieves a score of poor, neutral or good, depending on the results.

-More detailed summary reports for spam and viruses including geographical data about spam sources (linked with Google Maps), as well as information on the types of malware and volumes emanating from individual sources.

-Detailed reports about individual threat sources and formats, including the IP address, volume and domain associated with each threat, along with historical data. Users can also create their own customized reports.

Industry watchers said that SenderBase has already proven itself to be a valuable resource to the IT community.

“Breadth of data is key to making accurate decisions about security threats,” Brian Burke, research manager for IDC’s Security Products service, said in a statement. “IronPort’s SenderBase Network provides an unprecedented real-time view into security threats from around the world. The new SenderBase graphical interface, enhanced reporting tools, and the ease of use provides comprehensive data that ISPs and companies can use to help them make critical security decisions.”

SenderBase already claims to process over 25 percent of the world’s e-mail traffic for threats, with information taken from 75,000 participating organizations and totaling more than 5 billion queries per day.

According to the site’s latest results, only 12.4 percent of all e-mail traffic is legitimate, while some 78.3 percent of the world’s e-mail traffic is generated from IP addresses identified by the company as suspicious.

A number of security software makers have launched so-called reputation services in the last year which promise to take information drawn from SenderBase and other similar resources to track malware and spam patterns.

“Reputation is based on data and the breadth of data is the key in making accurate decisions about security threats,” Tom Gillis, senior vice president of marketing at IronPort Systems said. “When we first launched SenderBase four years ago we knew that that it had the power to change the way organizations ranging from small businesses to the Global 2000 waged war against spam. Today, the IronPort SenderBase Network is building on that success to provide even more accurate and unrivaled insight into not just spam patterns, but also into Web-based threats.”