Anixter Stops Spam with MailFrontier Gateway Appliance
MailFrontier Eliminates Millions of Emails Containing Spam, Phishing and Viruses for Distributor’s Employees

Palo Alto, Calif. – December 1, 2004 – MailFrontier™, a pioneer in email security and leading provider of anti-spam and anti-phishing solutions, today announced Anixter Inc. [NYSE: AXE]  selected the MailFrontier Gateway™ Appliance m500 to stop the influx of unwanted email, including spam, viruses, phishing, policy violations and directory harvest attacks. Anixter’s email system supports more than 5,000 employees and processes 4-5 million incoming email messages each month. Eighty percent of these messages, or more than three million emails, are spam, in addition to thousands of phishing emails. Since its deployment, MailFrontier has stopped 99 percent of spam at the perimeter of Anixter’s network.

“After experiencing poor results with keyword filtering, we needed a best of breed solution effective at stopping all email threats,” said Ron Meyers, manager of the Lotus Notes environment for Anixter. “MailFrontier Gateway Appliance is a spam killer! We wanted the best email security solution, and MailFrontier is the complete package.”

MailFrontier Gateway Appliance continues the MailFrontier tradition of email security innovation, ease-of-use and effectiveness. The product deploys at the network perimeter, with minimal extended investment and virtually no additional administration, and delivers complete protection against spam, viruses and phishing fraud.

Anixter had been using a keyword filter to block about half of incoming spam, but the filter became less reliable as spam evolved, for example, using images instead of text. Approximately 25 percent of incoming spam included sexually explicit messages, an increasing concern for human resources. Viruses entering via email also exceeded 100,000 emails per month. After reviewing various solutions, Anixter’s IT team was impressed by MailFrontier Gateway Appliance’s effectiveness, as well as the product’s ease of management and customization options for end users.

“A critical criterion in our selection of a new email security solution, other than effectiveness, was ease-of-use,” added Meyers. “We can’t afford to dedicate IT staff to managing spam every day, which includes handling end-user complaints about too much junk mail, as well as critical mail not getting through, and our users need to be able to customize their email filtering to their individual preferences. MailFrontier was quick to install, integrated with our LDAP, needed minimal configuration and provided end-user quarantine management capabilities. Our end users are very pleased they can customize MailFrontier Gateway Appliance email filtering for their individual needs.”

About Anixter
Anixter International is the world’s leading distributor of communication products, electrical and electronic wire and cable, and a leading distributor of fasteners and other small parts (Class inventory components) to Original Equipment Manufacturers. The company adds value to the distribution process by providing its customers access to innovative inventory management programs, more than 275,000 products and over $500 million in inventory, 164 warehouses with more than 4.6 million square feet of space, and locations in 200 cities in 42 countries. Founded in 1957 and headquartered near Chicago, Anixter trades on The New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AXE.

About MailFrontier
MailFrontier is a leading provider of email security solutions that stop unwanted email by protecting enterprises from the growing number of dangerous and costly email threats while giving them the ability to anticipate and stop new threats as they emerge. MailFrontier offers a comprehensive defense against all known email threats, including spam, viruses, phishing, blended threats and other attacks, such as directory harvest attacks. The company has more than 750 customers, including Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Pier 1 Imports, PNM Resources, San Francisco Giants and Wyndham International. Founded in February 2002, MailFrontier is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. For additional information, go to www.mailfrontier.com.

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MailFrontier and MailFrontier Gateway are trademarks of MailFrontier, Inc.  All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.