Spam has gone beyond being a minor nuisance, so companies have gone into the combat mode, says Atanu Kumar Das.

Spam is no longer considered a minor irritant. It has reached the stage where it is perceived as a significant threat by Indian organisations. Spammers use viruses to take control of computers that in turn relay more spam. Comments Ambarish Deshpande, Head, Channels and Consumer Sales, Symantec India, “Today it has reached a stage where organisations with more than 500 users realise that spam is affecting their overall growth.” Deshpande says that on the average, enterprises are willing to spend Rs 1,000-1,200 per user to curb spam. And a recent report by Netcore Solutions states that junk e-mail accounts for 65.73 percent of Indian e-mail traffic.

Though the report takes into account only the 3-4 lakh e-mail that arrive on corporate e-mail servers maintained by Netcore, it reveals the magnitude of the problem.

Vendors are hopeful that rising PC sales will contribute to the demand for anti-spam solutions. Says Kartik Shahani, Sales Director, McAfee India, “Given that the Indian PC market is growing at a fast clip, the market for anti-spam solutions is also on the rise.”

Most anti-spam vendors are doing brisk business. Symantec says that it has seen a robust demand for its anti-spam solutions. “We have been witnessing a strong sense of awareness among enterprise users,” notes Deshpande.

Security vjendors are looking at marketing their anti-spam solutions as a complement to anti-virus products. Says Rajendra Dhavale, Director, Computer Associates (CA), “We have introduced PestPatrol in the market which complements traditional anti-virus defences by giving network administrators the ability to define granular rules that are used while scanning for spyware.” Administrators can define ‘safe lists’ or exclusion files of authorised applications that are fine-tuned by the department or the individual to prevent false alarms.

Long-term impact

“The way spam is increasing in India, customers have realised that in the long run spam e-mail can make a tremendous impact on overall growth,” says Niraj Kaushik, Country Manager, Trend Micro India. With the volume of spam reaching new heights, e-mail usage leads to a drop in productivity. Vendors are also educating end-users on the negative impact of spam.

The market for anti-spam solutions will continue to grow as spammers see the activity as an effective marketing strategy. Comments Kalpit Jain, Chief Technology Officer, Netcore Solutions, “The response rate is the key to the whole spamming business. A response from a quarter of one percent of 250 million e-mail sent by spammers would mean a response from 6,25,000 innocent e-mail users who have just confirmed the validity of their e-mail addresses and have also given good business to spammers.” This explains why the spamming business is flourishing and is hard to crush. Worse, there is as yet no law against spamming in India.

Cost is another reason for the continuing spam explosion. Says Harish Tyagi, CEO, Taarak, “The cost of sending spam is negligible, and a single spam blast can vary from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands of messages sent in one instance. Even if there is a response percentage in decimals, it is significant when compared to the costs involved in bulk mailing.”

Comments Niall King, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Barracuda Networks, “The anonymity of the Internet and the ability to run programmes makes it easy to send out spam.” King believes that the company’s gateway appliances have a good potential in the Indian market.

While most vendors advocate blocking spam at the gateway, organisations such as CA have a different point of view. Says Dhavale, “It is best left to the user to decide which mail should be classified as spam and which as genuine.”

The role of channels

Vendors are also taking the help of channels to promote anti-spam solutions and products. Comments Shahani, “Channels are an effective medium to take anti-spam products to consumers.” McAfee runs programmes for its channel partners to help them market anti-spam solutions effectively.

Trend Micro is looking at building a huge base of partners divided into two clear categories. One set of partners will be involved in just selling the products while the other will be those who sell and have the capability to support the product. Says Kaushik, “We generally advise customers to buy the product from partners who have adequate support resources.” He says that support is a crucial factor for users choosing its products.

Symantec also has about 50 partners in the country, with 20 partners who are totally dedicated to selling and deploying anti-spam solutions. Customisation is important as most anti-spam solutions fail to stop spam without this feature.

Comments Jain of Netcore, “An SMB is more likely to buy from a channel partner. If the solution proves effective, then the brand of the company is enhanced.” CA offers its channel partners free Web-based support, including a complete knowledge library and direct e-mail support to the company’s technical support team. CA also provides telephone support to its channel partners. Till date, awareness of anti-spam technologies has been restricted to the metros. However, vendors are of the opinion that with the reach of channel partners, they can educate customers in B&C-class cities on the benefits of anti-spam technologies. With the growing proliferation of spam e-mail, vendors believe that the anti-spam opportunity could be as big as the anti-virus space.