Recently, Aladdin Knowledge Systems, an information security company specializing in authentication, software DRM and content security, announced that West Coast Labs awarded the Aladdin eSafe with Checkmark Premium Level Anti-Spam Certification.

According to Aladdin's website, Aladdin eSafe

protects against Web-based malware and zero-day threats through an in-line, wire-speed secure Web gateway featuring powerful anti-spyware, application level controls, and URL filtering. eSafe also controls spam and inspects SMTP and POP3 traffic though a proactive email security gateway.

West Coast Labs, an independent test facility for information security products and services, included in its report some of the highlights of the test including:

Virtual Appliance performed exceptionally well in all aspects of testing during the course of the anti-spam and URL filtering, and so the solution has been awarded the Premium Level Anti-Spam Certification. -- Overall, the solution performed extremely well, achieving a 99 percent cumulative [spam] detection rate. -- Thanks to the wide range of settings available, the administrator can fine-tune [eSafe] Virtual Appliance to a high degree.

Israel is a hotbed for innovative information security. Other Israeli security companies besides Aladdin include, Check Point, PineApp, Sentrigo and Commtouch, among many others.

Company Facts
Founded in 1985.

Headquarters in Petach Tikva, Israel.

Yanki Margalit, Co-Founder and CEO.

Dany Margalit, Co-Founder & Director.

Tsion Gonen, Vice President eSafe.

Products: HASP, eToken, eSafe.

Website: www.aladdin.com.


About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

PineApp, an e-mail and content systems security provider, announced recently that

"North Florida Women's Care (NFWC) has utilized PineApp’s Mail-SeCure perimeter security appliance to provide the organization with secure email while eliminating a massive amount of spam attacks."

According to the PineApp website, Mail-SeCure is an

"advanced anti-spam and email security appliance that combats evolving email-based threats such as botnets, image and MP3-based spam and sophisticated virus attacks."

Mail-Secure, which claims to block 98.5% of spam, also provides multi anti-virus engines with multi layered anti-spam protection.

Just how prevalent is the threat of spam to companies (of any size)? Here are some numbers about spam over the past few years:

In 2005, fewer than 5 out of 100 e-mails were image spam. (CSO Online)
In 2006, 40 percent of e-mails were image spam. (CSO Online)
In December 2007, over 80 percent of emails were unsolicited. (ciol.com)
In 2007, 84 percent of companies had been affected by malware introduced via email. (ciol.com)

If your current spam protection program isn't doing enough to protect your company and you're looking for other solutions, you should add PineApp to your list of companies with products to consider.


Company Facts
Founded in 2002.

Headquarters in Nesher, Israel.

Hezi Erez, CEO.

Gabriel M. Mizrahi, Co-Founder and CTO.

Products: Mail-SeCure, Surf-SeCure and Secure SoHo.

Website: www.pineapp.com.


About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics. 

The week of August 3, 2008 was a good one for Israeli companies announcing funds raised. Israeli-Chinese social networking company, Koolanoo raised $25 million, and Confidela, software-as-a-service document security and control company that's still in stealth mode raised $5 million in second-round funding. Water management companies, Tahal and Environmental Energy Resources Ltd. (EER) made headlines with their projects while VoIP company, JaJah made headlines with its new translation services. For Information Technology news and more, check below for the complete 17 Israeil-related technology headlines from the week of August 3, 2008.

Cleantech
Tahal obtains financing for €41m Ghana water project

UK to use Israeli waste-disposal technology


M&A and Investments
Koolanoo Group raises $25M

WAN optimization co Expand raises $10m

Confidela raises $5MM, completes second round of financing led by seasoned entrepreneur, Shlomo Kramer and Gemini Israel Funds

YouLicense.com Secures Funding From Ofer Media and Logia Group

Carl Zeiss SMT to Acquire Israeli Start-Up Pixer Technology


Telecommunications
Micronet to expand its presence in the North American Mobile Resource Management Market

Jacada Signs Material Contract with New Telecommunications Customer in North America

New Translation Services Come to MS Office and JaJah


Information Technology
Shunra Software Joins the VMware Technology Alliance Partner Program

PineApp’s Mail-SeCure Provides North Florida Women’s Care with Unparalleled Spam Blocking and Secure Email Communications

ClickSoftware Products Excel in the Preliminaries, Now Ready for Prime Time During 2008 Beijing Olympics

Crescendo Scales to Meet Web Applications’ Need for Speed


Miscellaneous
Applied Materials Promotes Gilad Almogy to Senior Vice President

From Silicon Valley to Silicon Wadi

N-trig Announces Availability of Multi-touch Gestures Software Development Kit



About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

Compared to previous weeks, the week of June 8th was lacking a little in the major headlines coming from Israel. Perhaps the biggest story from the past week was Intel's announcement that it will be closing its Yokne'am R&D center as part of its overall refocus. Most employees will be relocated to the company's Haifa center instead. Also, recent headlines on the Internet show much skepticism of a mass-produced, main stream electric car in the near future, indirectly (and directly) giving a blow to Project Better Place. Other headlines included Metacafe's downsizing, Continuity Software offering new features in its disaster recovery and data protection software and 800 members of Israel's hi-tech community (including yours truly) coming together at Mashable's MashBash Tel Aviv. Alas, check out these stories and the rest of this week's 12 Israel-related technology headlines through the links below:

Cleantech
Japanese firms cast doubt on electric car

'Israeli technology may offer cheap solar power'

Pics: Solar Thermal Demo Plant Rises in Israeli Desert

Israeli expertise to shape global water standards


Information Technology
Yokne'am R&D center victim of Intel's refocus

Consultancy co Comsec wins information security contract

Business intelligence co HighView completes IAI project

Startup Continuity Software Now Checks Virtualization DR


Miscellaneous
Metacafe downsizes

Israeli company develops radar system that sees through walls

Mobile broadcaster Flixwagon hitches to iPhone

MashBash Tel Aviv - The Official Jewneric.com Report


About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

First, it was IBM, now it's Microsoft. Globes is reporting that Microsoft is in talks to purchase its THIRD Israeli tech company this year. As the year isn't even half way over yet, there is no doubt, that more major corporations will likewise invest in Israeli tech companies and that maybe, they too, will make multiple purchases. On the Israeli company side, Zoran, announced that it purchased Let it Wave and solar energy company, Tigo raised $6 million for Smarter Solar. Information security companies, Commtouch and PineApp had a big week,as did Trustware. As usual, these aren't the only Israeli companies that made the headlines last week - check below for links to all of this week's 15 Israel-related technology headlines from the week of June 1st, 2008.


Cleantech
Israel cleantech start-ups show their wares

Tigo Raises $6M for Smarter Solar

Israeli start-up firms invest in 'clean tech'


Information Technology
Ceedo's CSO Dror Gill to Present at SYS-CON's Virtualization Conference & Expo, June 23-24, in New York City

Microsoft may buy automated data correction company Zoomix

Microsoft, other firms take aim at Enterprise 2.0 market with new tools (WorkLight)


Information Security
3Com Selects Commtouch GlobalView Mail Reputation Service as Anti-Spam Filter Service

PineApp’s Mail-SeCure Selected by Geotest to Secure Email and Aggressively Block Spam

Trustware Releases New Version of Desktop Security Software, Enhancing Consumer Privacy Protection


Telecommunications
IPextreme Brings ColdFire Architecture to the FPGA Masses

Endace and Voltaire Collaborate to Bring Passive Monitoring to InfiniBand

Wavion Introduces Self-Backhaul Wi-Fi – Optimal Service With No Alignments

Startup markets WiMax basestation chip


Miscellaneous
Over one-third of Israelis are over qualified for their jobs

Zoran shares rise on Let It Wave buy, upgrade


About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

What newsworthy events came from Israel in May? Enough for a special May headline sum up. The biggest stories of the month, of course, were the Presidential Conference, Project Better Place's unveiling its electric car prototype and VMware's acquisition of B-hive Networks. Other exciting news that received less international coverage, but are also noteworthy, included the Israel Venture Association's Annual Hi-Tech Conference and that OpTier, a business service management software provider, is currently raising funds to make an acquisition. For these stories and the rest of the major headlines from May 2008 check out the 30 Israel-related technology headlines below:

Israel at 60
Israel Presidential Conference

Yahoo's Susan Decker: Content is king

Remarks by President Bush, President Peres of Israel and Prime Minister Olmert of Israel

Israel at 60: 10 historic quotes and 1 joke

Google co-founder lauds Israeli innovation in tech, environment


Cleantech
Project Better Place presents electric car prototype

Techwatch: Solel closes second major contract

N-trig and Its Supply Chain Go "Green" to Help Protect the Environment


Information Technology
Shunra Software Announces New Chief Technology Officer as Company Expands Application Performance and Analysis Portfolio

Voltaire and LSI to Cross-Certify InfiniBand Storage Products

Sicap and Red Bend Sign Agreement for Interoperable Device Management

Aternity Named as 2008 American Business Awards Finalist

XMPie Steps Up Web-Enabled Automation with Enhanced uStore


Information Security
Commtouch and Scalix Collaboration Brings Real Time Messaging Security to Linux-based E-mail Servers

Zones to Resell Applicure Web Application Firewall Technology

Check Point Pushes Virtualized Browser Protection

Info Security Products Guide Names Safend Winner of the 2008 Best Deployment Scenario Awards


Investments and M&A
Wanaka closes first fund at $50 million

Lightspeed Venture Partners Closes $800 Million Fund VIII

BTM co OpTier raising funds for acquisition

VMware to Acquire B-hive Networks to Further Enhance Virtualization Platform With Application Performance Management


Telecommunications
MobileMax in cellular-to-VoIP deal

modu in talks on handset launch

Israeli company aims to speed up the Internet


Miscellaneous
Israel Venture Association’s Annual Hi-Tech Conference 2008 Hits the Road

Touchwall: Microsoft's Inexpensive Wall-Based Multi-Touch Interface

High Tech Puts Israel in the Black

Israel's Garage Geeks Gather to Hear Google's Brin

Aniboom and I-play Partner to Create Animated Series Based on Popular Casual Games for Distribution Across Mobile, Online and Television Platforms

Copenda’s New Features Ease Communication Across Social Networking and Dating Sites



























(Picture of me at the 2008 Presidential Conference playing with a modu - one of the world's smallest cell phones. Thanks Oren for taking this! Get to know Oren and modu better by checking out the modu blog.)

About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

News
In the Third Quarter of 2007, Commtouch licensed its email defense technology to nine new companies, the company announced yesterday. The Netanya-based company now has 82 OEM partners, many of whom, "represent companies providing managed services, secure messaging, and security hardware, among others."

Background
Founded in 1991, Commtouch, is led by co-founders, CEO and Chairman, Gideon Mantel, and CTO and President, Amir Lev, and develops software to protect e-mail. According to the website, Commtouch provides "spam and Zero-Hour™ virus outbreak protection for 50 million users in 130 countries," and its technologies "have been licensed by over 50 partners, including security and anti-virus vendors, managed service providers and messaging security providers." Its anti-spam solutions feature its Recurrent Pattern Detection (RPD) technology.

What it does
Commtouch's Recurrent Pattern Detection technology, as explained by Director of Product Marketing, Oren Drori, doesn't "look at the content of each message," but instead, "looks for recurrences of patterns in huge amounts of mail." Basically RPD searches for recurring patterns and indicates spam that way.

Zero-Hour protection "complements traditional anti-virus solutions, and is designed to detect and identify email-borne viruses and malware by providing detection and blocking of viruses within moments of an outbreak, before traditional defenses kick in."

Sample Partners
Barbedwire Technologies
Tumbleweed
The Electric Mail Company

Market and Future
Spam is an ongoing battle that is affecting the Internet and continually evolves making it hard in the past for anti-spam programs to fight it. According to analyst findings, there is a need to block spam for reputation protection, yet there are "high barriers to entry." Barriers include having a "deep knowledge of email security, and access to vast historical and real-time information about global email traffic."

While one can consider well-established companies, such as Symantec and McAfee as the leaders in the anti-spam and spam protection arena, smaller companies, such as Postini and Commtouch, have been able to create little niches and are clearly in demand. Postini was bought by Google a few months ago and Commtouch is continuing to gain momentum and as Mantel mentioned "these new agreements, together with our existing partner base, are laying the foundation for our future growth in 2008.”

According to Aaron Katzman's analysis of this, "with over 58% of end-user organizations seeking new anti-spam vendors, the opportunity for Commtouch to grab market share is very real." Additionally, recent alliances with industry organizations such as Image Analyzer and Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) shows Commtouch's commitment to helping make a better Internet experience in the long run.

Additional resources
Commtouch and Postini
The Elusive Enemy by Amir Lev
Commtouch Software: CEO Mantel Has Regained His Touch
Commtouch in 1999
Commtouch Private Placement Secures $1.3 Million Funding; Company Pursues Turnaround Plan