Sunnyvale, Calif. – June 26, 2007 – Commtouch® (NASDAQ:CTCH) today announced two new industry alliances to combat the abuse of children on the Internet, and to enable pornography-related compliance. The alliances are with the Internet Watch Foundation and Image Analyzer Ltd., two organizations that are active in fighting online child abuse images and pornography in the workplace.
Both alliances enable Commtouch licensing partners to offer compliance-related features to their customer base.
* Commtouch Anti-Spam licensing partners can subscribe to have their email-streams cross-referenced with the IWF child sexual abuse URL list to help prevent the distribution of illegal content in emails, together with their ongoing spam classification.
* Commtouch partners can utilize Image Analyzer software in conjunction with the Anti-Spam solution to eliminate traffic containing pornographic images.
“In addition to the moral imperative to eradicate online child abuse images, enterprises face a serious threat from pornography, due to both the legal risk and the fact that it can be a severe resource drain,” said Commtouch CEO Gideon Mantel. “We are committed to working with both IWF and Image Analyzer to eradicate online exploitation, while assisting enterprises to enhance their compliance with sexual harassment and other legal statutes. Several of our partners have already begun offering these special protections in their security products.”
“Illegal online content is a worldwide problem and global cooperation is vital to combating this abuse.” explains Peter Robbins, IWF CEO. “We are very pleased to welcome Commtouch to join our self-regulatory approach to fighting this insidious crime.”
IWF is an independent hotline in the UK, whose aim is to minimize the availability of potentially illegal Internet content, especially child abuse images hosted anywhere in the world. Since its inception a decade ago, IWF has processed an average of 1,000 reports of abusive online content per month. More than 31,000 websites have been found to contain potentially illegal child abuse content. Commtouch has integrated the IWF list into its real-time Anti-Spam service, allowing all of its OEM partners to offer the anti-child abuse feature to their customers.
“In today’s world, enterprises face potential sexual harassment suits, and even criminal prosecution, if they do not make every practical effort to prevent their employees from accessing or spreading sexual content deemed offensive via the corporate infrastructure,” said Crispin Pikes, CEO of Image Analyzer. “We are pleased to offer to many of Commtouch’s licensees the opportunity to utilize this crucial compliance technology in protecting their customers.”
Image Analyzer provides a detection engine developed for accurate and fast scanning of images using algorithms that uniquely evaluate colors and shapes to categorize images as clean, pornographic or suspect.
Legislation such as the US Federal Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), EU directive 2000/31/EC and other child protection laws increase the need for compliance solutions. In addition, based on US Title VII, corporations have faced sexual harassment suits by employees who have been exposed to pornographic content at work via their co-workers. To protect themselves from such legal action, companies need to prove that they have taken all reasonably practical measures to avoid the act complained of.
About Image Analyzer
The company develops Image Analysis engines which can identify inappropriate or pornographic images in digital data transmission. The company incorporates proprietary ‘best of breed’ image analysis technology and individuals who possess years of experience in the IT security market. The company was formed to provide technology globally, on an OEM basis to major IT software and hardware vendors across a broad range of market sectors, including Email and Web, telecommunications, online storage etc. The company’s goal is to provide world class technology and customer service. The company has offices in the UK, US and Asia Pac.
About the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)
The IWF is the only authorized organization in the UK operating an internet ‘hotline’ for the public and IT professionals to report their exposure to potentially illegal content online.
Its aim is to minimize the availability of potentially illegal internet content, specifically:
* child abuse images hosted anywhere in the world
* criminally obscene content hosted in the UK
* incitement to racial hatred content hosted in the UK
The IWF works in partnership with UK Government departments such as the Home Office and the Department of Trade and Industry to influence initiatives and programs developed to combat online abuse. This dialogue goes beyond the UK and Europe, to ensure greater awareness of global issues and responsibilities.
About Commtouch
Commtouch Software Ltd. (NASDAQ: CTCH) is dedicated to protecting and preserving the integrity of the world's most important communications tool -- e-mail. Commtouch has over 16 years of experience developing messaging software and is a global developer and provider of proprietary anti-spam, Zero-Hour virus protection and Reputation Service solutions. Using core technologies including RPD (Recurrent Pattern Detection™), the Commtouch Detection Center analyzes billions of email messages per week to identify new spam and malware outbreaks within minutes of their introduction into the Internet. Integrated by scores of OEM partners, Commtouch technology protects thousands of organizations, with hundreds of millions of users in over 100 countries. Commtouch is headquartered in Netanya, Israel, and has a subsidiary in Sunnyvale, Calif. For more information, see: http://www.commtouch.com. The site includes the Commtouch online lab detailing spam statistics and charts.
Contacts:
Commtouch
Rebecca Steinberg Herson
rebeccah@commtouch.com
US: 650-864-2112
Int'l: +972-9-863-6877
Image Analyzer
Gemma Elton
UK: +44 (0) 773 958 9095
Gemma.elton@image-analyzer.com
IWF
Sarah Robertson
UK: +44 (0)122 323 7700
sarah@iwf.org.uk
