Commtouch debuts online spam center

Spam filtering services firm Commtouch has debuted a new online tool that informs viewers of data about global virus outbreaks.

The Commtouch Malware Outbreak Center, on the company's Web site, gives updates on the latest virus variants and how quickly anti-virus solutions can defend against them.

The center includes a sample of e-mail-borne malware that has recently been detected by Commtouch's Zero-Hour Virus Outbreak Protection platform and incorporates data from AV-Test.org, an independent third-party organization that tests most of the commercially available anti-virus scanners.

This data includes comparative detection times from various malware detection firms. Detection times are critical, since individual virus variants often peak and nearly disappear in under three hours.

According to last week's report on the state of spam, from spam filtering firm Symantec, MP3 and presidential campaign spam are the newest kinds of spam beginning to appear.

The Commtouch center includes a real-time outbreak monitor that displays the location and content of spam outbreak; a spam cost calculator, which assesses the financial damages of spam and a spam lab with online statistics of the recent spam outbreaks and locations over the past 12 months.