Not only do zombies degrade the network performance for those infected internet users, but they increase the service provider’s costs through rising helpdesk calls, higher bandwidth usage and subscriber churn.
In many cases, the service provider becomes blacklisted by other providers and is forced to manually track down the infected machines and isolate them from the network.
Until now, service providers have had to rely on crude tools that look for anomalous IP traffic patterns to identify infected users.
StreamShield’s Content Forensics technology can transparently analyze the content of all emails on the network – including those that do not originate from the service provider’s own email systems – to automatically identify bulk spammers and alert the service provider to the source of the problem.
StreamShield is able to do this at the speeds and email volumes found in service provider networks with its revolutionary, silicon-based StreamScan™ technology used in the StreamShield CSG-3100 content security gateway.
This carrier-class platform enables a wide range of protection capabilities to be embedded within the service provider’s infrastructure to safeguard subscribers and the providers own systems from a wide range of content-based threats.
Geoff Bennett, Director of Product Marketing at StreamShield, said: “Zombie
PCs are a serious industry issue, but it is the residential service providers that are carrying the cost of trying to clean them up. Zombie activity leads to lost customers, wasted network bandwidth, thousands of dollars in network operation and helpdesk costs, and a risk of blacklisting. This is a real opportunity for ISPs to lower their operation costs, retain customers for longer and thereby maximize the average revenue per user.”
The Content Forensics solution is available as part of release 3.0 and is expected to commence customer trials in June. Geoff Bennett will be speaking about the ground breaking Content Forensics solution at the London
Internet Exchange (LINX) members meeting on 15th May.