PRESS RELASE




‘SPAM BUSTER' SYSTEM UNLEASHED BY BT

12 October 2006

Automated system tracks down and helps eliminate spam and bot-infected PCs.

BT is taking a pioneering role in the global battle against spam by implementing the world’s first fully-automated ‘spam buster’ system to track down and tackle professional spammers and ‘botnet’-infected customers on the BT broadband network.

Around 80 per cent of e-mails on the internet, equivalent to 6.5 billion emails a day, are spam. These unwanted emails are not only generated by professional spammers, but also by ‘botnets’ - where the PCs of unsuspecting customers are secretly infected with rogue software to form a robotic network that generates vast quantities of unwanted spam. These compromised machines can be used in turn to attack other PCs and websites.

The new spam detection system selected by BT – Content Forensics™ from StreamShield Networks – scans millions of e-mails a day, providing BT with detailed reports on the location and size of spam-related problems originating from the BT network. Not only does the StreamShield Networks’ solution save time and resources by automatically identifying spam problems, it can prevent valuable bandwidth being wasted on unwanted spam and virus infected traffic.

BT’s Customer Security team can then take immediate action against professional spam operators, which could include terminating rogue accounts and adding offending IP addresses to industry-wide blacklists.

At the same time, BT can focus more effort on contacting and helping customers rid their PCs of botnet infections – reducing the likelihood of e-mail traffic from BT networks being blocked by other providers and third-party e-mail systems.

“In a world-first, we’re turning the tables on professional spammers and cutting off this scourge of the internet at source”, said Stratis Scleparis, CTO at BT Retail. “We are delighted to work with StreamShield Networks on this innovative approach which both tracks down and reduces spam messages on our network, and at the same time helps our customers overcome the threat of infection by bots.”

“Our Content Forensics solution has been developed with large ISPs such as BT in mind and delivers a powerful solution to the problem of professional spammers and botnets on ISP’s broadband networks”, comments Simon Gawne, CEO StreamShield Networks. “We are excited that BT has selected our solution after extensive testing in their network and we look forward to working with them in the future.”
etworks. “We are excited that BT has selected our solution after extensive testing in their network and we look forward to working with them in the future.”

About BT
BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. Its principal activities include networked IT services, local, national and international telecommunications services, and higher-value broadband and internet products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.

In the year ended 31 March 2006, BT Group’s revenue was £19,514 million with profit before taxation of £2,040 million. British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.

For more information, visit http://www.bt.com/aboutbt

About StreamShield Networks
StreamShield Networks is the leading provider of clean internet pipe solutions to service providers and mobile operators. Our products and technologies allow these companies to offer their customers innovative, revenue-generating clean internet services as well as provide protection to their own infrastructure against content-based threats. Our core strength is in content security: identifying and protecting against threats such as viruses, spyware, adware, other forms of malware, spam, inappropriate content and illegal content - for both email and real-time internet applications. We can stop threats in the internet before the content reaches the subscriber and causes them harm. We also help service providers track down botnet-infected subscribers, professional spammers and criminals that are using their network to launch spam, virus, phishing and other types of malicious attacks.

StreamShield Networks is a subsidiary of Detica Group plc (LSE: DCA). For further information please visit http://www.streamshield.com.