Staying one step ahead in the anti-spam arms race

What do you make of the 'zombie' threat (Internet-connected PCs used for spamming after being infected by a virus)?
There is a significant problem with zombie computers. We can work out which IP addresses are sending spam, but it costs more for ISPs to chase down these people and educate them on how to clean their computer, than it costs in processing costs.

What's the best place in the system to stop spam?
Spam can be stopped at various places: recipient's desktop, mail server, gateway, router or outbound email. The companies that Brightmail works with generally stop it at the gateway or router level. ISPs are sometimes able to block the outbound email from going any further. This is the ideal situation, as the further down the network you let it go, the more network resources you use.

Symantec announced its acquisition of Brightmail in May. What is the latest news on this?
There should be movement on this in the next few weeks - probably around the same time that we announce our next product release. The US anti-competition commission has approved the acquisition, but we are awaiting approval in the UK.

Customers have been positive about the change as they will only have to deal with one vendor in the future -- and they know that we'll be around for longer.

What is the future of the anti-spam industry?
I think we'll see further consolidation of smaller anti-spam vendors. The main threat for small vendors is the large antivirus vendors, as they have well-established distribution channels. Microsoft recently bought a small antivirus vendor, but I'm not too worried about the threat from them. They are currently our largest customer and I don't see that changing.