- West Coast Labs’ Checkmark Anti-Malware also received –

London, January 3, 2008 - MessageLabs, the leading provider of messaging and web security services to businesses worldwide, today announced that the MessageLabs Anti-Virus service Version 5.1 has received the UK Government's Central Sponsor for Information Assurance (CSIA) Claims Tested (CCT) Mark for the second consecutive year.

The CCT Mark scheme provides accredited independent testing on services and off-the-shelf products, enabling the public sector to have added confidence and assurance that its chosen information security products and services meet preferred standards.

In addition to the CCT Mark, the MessageLabs Anti-Virus service has also received the West Coast Labs’ Checkmark Anti-Malware certification, only awarded to products and services which have successfully passed and continue to satisfy the requirements of all three of the West Coast Labs’ Checkmark Anti-Virus, Anti-Trojan and Anti-Spyware certification categories. With test facilities in the US and UK, West Coast Labs is an accredited test laboratory for the CCT Mark scheme.

“As security has a direct impact on every part of a business including reputation, productivity and business continuity, the decision regarding which service or product to choose and trust is a critical one.  The CCT Mark scheme provides the government and businesses with certainty in their choice of security and confidence in its capabilities,” said Adrian Chamberlain, CEO, MessageLabs. “We were the first managed service to be acknowledged by this rigorous quality testing scheme and these awards further confirm our continuous commitment to superior services and standards.”

MessageLabs Anti-Virus service provides protection against email threats, such as viruses and Trojans, saving businesses valuable time and resource otherwise spent dealing with unwanted outbreaks and the associated clean up.

With 99.999% availability and backed by a service level agreement the service is run in secure data centres on multiple sites to ensure continuous availability in the event of a disaster. The multi-layered service uses multiple commercial virus scanners to identify existing threats and Skeptic™, MessageLabs predictive proprietary technology, to identify new and unknown threats. Learning from every message it sees and updating and evolving with every new threat, Skeptic constantly builds on its already vast knowledge base.

By offering a complete range of integrated managed services for email, web and IM, MessageLabs protects organizations from threats like viruses and spam and also allows businesses to secure, control and archive messaging according to their needs. These services help businesses to be certain of the integrity of electronic communications and ensure policy enforcement, thus helping to manage and reduce risk while securing critical infrastructure and business information. This managed service approach also allows organizations to manage their messaging without the burden or additional cost of traditional software or hardware solutions.

Other industry accolades recently received by MessageLabs include IT Services Supplier of the Year by Computing Magazine, Hottest UK Technology Prospect by the European Technology Forum, Security Company of The Year by SC Magazine and European Security Company of the Year by analyst firm Frost and Sullivan.