Message Systems Wins "Excellence in Security by Design" Award by the Online Trust Alliance

October 20, 2011

Company honored for contribution to OTA's "Security by Design" initiative by creating a holistic approach to security for the interactive messaging ecosystem

COLUMBIA, MARYLAND — Message Systems, the industry leader in messaging technology solutions, was awarded the 2011 "Excellence in Security by Design" award by the Online Trust Alliance (OTA). In the category's inaugural year, Message Systems was honored for its leadership and contributions to the development of the Security by Design initiative. Proposed as the framework for a holistic approach to security, the Security by Design initiative is predicated on the belief that all members of the messaging community have a stake in the preservation of consumer trust.

In conferring the award, OTA Executive Director and President Craig Spiezle cited Message Systems' commitment to the success of the initiative, and ongoing efforts to educate stakeholders and the media on the importance of maintaining a secure messaging ecosystem based on OTA guidelines. A non-profit organization, the OTA, and its members, work to develop and advocate best practices, training and public policy, with the overarching goal of increasing consumer protection, transparency and control of their data, online activities and transactions.

"We are honored to receive the inaugural award for Excellence in Security by Design from the OTA," said George Schlossnagle, President and CEO of Message Systems. "Education and advocacy for best practices is something we take very seriously as a company, so being recognized for our efforts to build a secure messaging ecosystem is highly gratifying. As the messaging community contends with the fast-evolving threat landscape and other business and technological challenges, such as the implementation of IPv6, Message Systems will continue to provide both the thought leadership and technology solutions that the next generation of digital communication demands."

"The 'Security by Design' framework is rooted in the ability to deliver and build upon consumer trust. Creating a culture of security is a critical priority for business and technical leaders as we move into an era of data-driven cross-channel communications and platforms," said Craig Spiezle, Executive Director and President of OTA. "Message Systems exemplifies a commitment to ensuring that consumers can communicate and engage electronically with 100% confidence. The efforts of the Message Systems team have been invaluable in fostering the ecosystem for trusted online communication and we are excited to present them with this honor, which sets a precedent for years to come."

With the onslaught of phishing and related attacks such as advanced persistent threats (APT) in recent years, all organizations are under increasing pressure to stay abreast of the fast-changing requirements in cyber security. Message Systems has published a series of white papers and articles with business and technical guidance on how companies can protect their brands and data assets as well as safeguard their trust relationships with customers and ecosystem partners. The most recent of these is the new white paper, Safeguarding Message Streams for Enterprises and Email Service Providers. Setting out clear technology principles for architecting a secure messaging environment, the paper makes clear that enterprises and service providers ignore the rising threat of spear phishing at their peril. Often overlooked, email is frequently the means of access and exploitation in criminal attacks. The paper, written by Mike Hillyer, Director of Solution Engineering, Message Systems, and Dave Lewis, CMO, Message Systems, outlines how to put these principles into action to protect both inbound and outbound messaging streams.

Additionally, the company's CTO, Alec Peterson, has penned a white paper, Managing Reputation in an IPv6 World, which proposes a set of best practices by which Internet Service Providers (ISP) can deploy the new IPv6 protocol while preserving defenses against messaging abuse.

"As the leader in messaging technology, Message Systems sees the 'preservation of trust' as central to interactions with end users, to relations between stakeholders in the ecosystem and to the future vitality of digital communication and commerce itself," said Dave Lewis, CMO, Message Systems. "We're fully committed to the OTA's mission in this regard, and to ensuring that our expertise and capabilities are applied to its attainment in our products and services as well as through our technical and business thought leadership."

Judging criteria for the OTA awards are rooted in an organization's commitment to online trust, demonstrated company and product leadership, collaboration with others in the industry and adoption of accountability principles. Other factors considered in the recognition of Message Systems included:

• Leadership and support of OTA's mission and vision
• Technology adoption
• User education and prescriptive advice
• Leadership and industry / business collaboration
• Public policy, regulatory affairs and enforcement
• Adoption of OTA Online Principles
• Impact and results

About the 2011 Online Trust Leadership Awards

The OTA Awards program recognizes achievements by companies, non-governmental agencies (NGO) and individuals who demonstrate commitment to preserving and improving online trust and the vitality of online services. Learn more about the OTA Awards here.

About Message Systems

The industry leader in messaging technology, Message Systems offers a family of software solutions and services that addresses the digital communications needs of today's most innovative companies. Telecommunications carriers, ISPs, marketing services providers, cloud computing firms and social media companies rely on Message Systems software to power the message-based communications driving their critical business initiatives. Message Systems solutions get billions of unique messages to the right place at the right time every day through the full range of channels: email, SMS/MMS text messaging and IM chat. Founded in 1997, the company is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland. For more information, go to messagesystems.com or call 877.887.3031.