Verizon Gets A Bright(mail) Idea
Verizon Online is executing on a deal to provide all its dial-up and
broadband customers with free access to Brightmail’s spam filtering software,
which sweeps a customer’s e-mail box and diverts suspected spam into a
separate folder.
San Francisco-based message management and content-filtering company Brightmail calls its software the Spam
Detector. Suspect junk mail is sent to a folder stored on a Verizon server,
where the customer may review it at any time. Financial arrangements between
the companies were not disclosed.
Beth Cox has been a well-known keynote speaker and author as well as a business and technology advisor. She helps companies improve their business performance, better utilize data, and understands the implications of new technologies, such as (AI)artificial intelligence, big data, blockchains and the Internet of Things.
“It’s not always easy for an e-mail user to identify spam from the subject
line but Spam Detector spots it easily,” said Mitch Dornich, senior product
manager for Verizon Online, a unit of Verizon Communications .
“It saves customers time and precious disk space by separating suspected spam
from regular e-mail and putting it on Verizon Online’s server instead of the
customers’ hard drive.”
Dornich said the new Brightmail filter is helping Verizon Online stop between
750,000 and one million spam messages per day.
Spam traveling over the Net is identified by Brightmail’s Probe Network, a
network of strategically placed e-mail addresses. The network collects spam
for analysis by Brightmail’s Logistics and Operations Center technicians, who
send spam ID updates to Verizon Online.
More than 90 percent of Verizon Online dial-up and DSL customers agreed to
have the software installed on their PCs. Customers can opt out if they don’t
want to use it.
AT&T WorldNet, Critical Path and Earthlink also are customers of privately
held Brightmail.
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