Barracuda Networks Offers Free Access to Industry’s Most Comprehensive Real-Time Block List

Campbell, Calif., Oct. 2, 2008 – Barracuda Networks Inc., today announced it is making the Barracuda Reputation Block List (BRBL) available to email administrators as a free service.  Designed to be the most comprehensive database of IP addresses that have been identified as sources of spam and other email threats, the BRBL is derived from the Barracuda Reputation System and is generated automatically from Barracuda Networks' expansive spam data collection.  The Barracuda Reputation System is a compilation of the most sophisticated IP analysis techniques and is one of 12 defense layers included in the Barracuda Spam Firewall.

“As the worldwide leading provider of email and content filtering appliances, Barracuda Networks has access to the largest corpus of email and threat data,” said Dean Drako, president and CEO of Barracuda Networks.  “This gives us a broad view of the threat landscape and enables us to provide protections to our customers before outbreaks occur.  We are pleased to make some of Barracuda Networks’ spam fighting expertise available to the public in an effort to further our mission of reducing the volume of spam and other email threats worldwide.”

How IP Addresses Are Classified
Most IP addresses on the BRBL are listed as a result of directly sending spam or viruses to the Barracuda Reputation System's detectors. The Barracuda Reputation System detects spam using honeypots – special addresses created to receive only spam and do not belong to any real user – and through analysis of captive spyware protocol activity. 

The BRBL can receive queries in real-time from registered email servers throughout the Internet using standard DNSBL communications protocols.  Using the BRBL responses, email administrators can configure their email systems to identify, tag, score or block incoming connections from IP addresses which have been involved in spam campaigns.

“Barracuda Central, our security center which monitors the Internet for the latest email and Web threats on a 24-by-7 basis, captures data from two billion spam messages on average per day,” said Drako.  “From this diverse set of data we are able to identify some of the most egregious spam activity and very quickly take action to make sure that the spammer’s IP address is blocked. By opening the BRBL to the public, organizations across the globe will be able to quickly identify spam operations at the connection layer and stop spam in its tracks.”

For more information on the BRBL and to register for access, please visit www.barracudacentral.org.

About Barracuda Central
Barracuda Central is the 24x7 security center operated by Barracuda Networks to monitor and block the latest Internet threats.  Data collected at Barracuda Central is analyzed and used to create definitions for automatic Energize Updates that fuel the Barracuda Networks products.

BarracudaCentral.org is dedicated to providing technical insight for security professionals. By sharing data, BarracudaCentral.org aims to build a strong community to collectively fight the latest Internet threats.

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