Demand For Anti-Spam Products To Lift Global Security Software Sales

By Agence France-Presse Demand for anti-spam software will lift global sales of secure content management (SCM) products to at least US$6.4 billion in four years' time as computer users seek to control the influx of junk mail, according to a recent report from IDC. Message security, which includes anti-spam products, is the smallest segment of the SCM market but will post the fastest growth in 2003-2007 with sales rising from $236 million last year to $1.1 billion in 2007, IDC said. Additionally, the SCM market itself will be worth $6.4 billion in 2007. "Spam is no longer just a nuisance, it is quickly becoming a potential legal liability and a major productivity drain for corporate IT departments and users alike," the Framingham, Mass.-based global IT and telecommunications intelligence and advisory firm said. "It not only drains worker productivity and consumes valuable IT resources such as disk storage . . . but it can also expose the organization to legal liability because of the offensive nature of some messages." Anti-virus software, the biggest segment of the SCM market, will grow the slowest in the 2003-2007 period with sales to reach $4.4 billion in four years' time. Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2003