ITV spared 30m unwanted messages a month

ITV, a leading UK media company, depends on e-mail for fast, efficient business communications, but this vital communication corridor had been subjected to ever-increasing amounts of junk e-mail.

Each month the company's IT resources were taxed by growing quantities of spam e-mail. The problem hit an all-time high with a massive 30 565 848 incoming spam messages. The company sought a solution capable of effectively protecting its 6 000 users from millions of spam e-mails, without running the risk that legitimate e-mails would mistakenly be blocked (false positives). The challenge was, therefore, to filter huge quantities of spam and ensure smooth delivery of legitimate business communication.

To meet this challenge, ITV selected Commtouch Anti-Spam for “strict IT security”.

“A strict approach to IT security means implementing the most advanced technology that appropriately solves a business issue,” ITV's Chief Technology Officer Gareth Wright said, as he explained why he selected Commtouch for their anti-spam solution.

ITV sought a solution capable of the highest spam blocking rates, without sacrificing legitimate e-mails that might be mistakenly blocked by an over-zealous anti-spam engine. “Commtouch's anti-spam solution delivers real-time protection without depending on fickle content filters or heuristics,” commented Wright. “Spammers are unable to penetrate by randomly varying keyword combinations, or using new image based techniques. Commtouch's RPD technology is very good at recognising legitimate e-mails, so we are confident that we are receiving all of our business-related e-mail,” added Wright.

Spam changes and grows so quickly that a solution that works well today won't necessarily be effective in the future. “One of the key benefits of Commtouch is that it is immune to spammers' changing tactics,” Wright said. “We are confident that Commtouch's RPD technology will continue to effectively combat spam in the future.”

The core benefits of the Commtouch anti-spam solution to ITV are:

Increased productivity - ITV employees can focus on their business, rather than deleting unwanted messages
Increased security - fewer malicious e-mail messages penetrate to the users' desktops
Reduced IT overhead - fewer IT support calls regarding spam overload and less e-mail storage space necessary. The third-party solutions supported by Commtouch anti-spam at ITV are Microsoft Exchange and Outlook 2007

ITV is a leading UK media company, owning all of the regional Channel 3 licences in England and Wales, which together account for over 90% of ITV1 advertising revenue. ITV's production arm comprises the largest commercial television production company in the UK and one of Europe's largest programme distributors. ITV owns the market-leading cinema screen advertising businesses in the UK and Republic of Ireland and has similar joint ventures in continental Europe and the United States. The company has 6 000 computer users across the UK.