BT Unveils 'Spam Buster' System for Broadband Customers

October 12, 2006 - BT is implementing a ‘spam buster’ system to track down and tackle professional spammers and ‘botnet’-infected customers on the BT broadband network.

According to BT, around 80 per cent of e-mails on the internet, equivalent to 6.5 billion emails a day, are spam.  These unwanted emails are not only generated by professional spammers, but also by ‘botnets’ - where the PCs of unsuspecting customers are secretly infected with rogue software to form a robotic network that generates vast quantities of unwanted spam . These compromised machines can be used in turn to attack other PCs and websites.

The new spam detection system selected by BT – Content Forensics™ from StreamShield Networks – claims to scan millions of e-mails a day, providing BT with detailed reports on the location and size of spam-related problems originating from the BT network. 

“We’re turning the tables on professional spammers and cutting off this scourge of the internet at source”, stated Stratis Scleparis, CTO at BT Retail.  “We are delighted to work with StreamShield Networks on this innovative approach which both tracks down and reduces spam messages on our network, and at the same time helps our customers overcome the threat of infection by bots.”

“Our Content Forensics solution has been developed with large ISPs such as BT in mind and delivers a powerful solution to the problem of professional spammers and botnets on ISP’s broadband networks”, comments Simon Gawne, CEO StreamShield Networks.  “We are excited that BT has selected our solution after extensive testing in their network and we look forward to working with them in the future.”