Brightmail Global Leader in Anti-spam

San Francisco, CALIF. - Brightmail, the global leader in anti-spam technology, today announced that it is working with EarthLink (NASDAQ: ELNK), one of the nation's largest Internet service providers, to provide data to support ScamBlocker, EarthLink's new consumer application designed to help protect Internet users from insidious "phisher" site scams. Brightmail's data will be added to EarthLink's phisher-blocking tool starting May 5th, 2004.

EarthLink is the first major Internet service provider to roll out such a feature, and it is available to all Internet users, not just EarthLink subscribers.

Brightmail's Probe NetworkT is a collection of millions of decoy email accounts worldwide that are specially seeded to attract spam, including phishing emails. The Probe Network receives tens of millions of messages a day, allowing Brightmail to detect phishing scams as they hit the Internet. Brightmail's Anti-Fraud service sends the URLs of phishing websites in real-time to EarthLink's toolbar, protecting users from the fraudulent websites.

Phishing attacks continue to proliferate at an alarming rate. Brightmail has seen an increasing number of phishing attacks in the past months - worldwide phishing has increased from 300 million messages in August 2003 to over 2.9 billion messages in March 2004 alone. That represents about 5 percent of all Internet email worldwide.

Phishing is a relatively new online method of gathering confidential information and of identity theft. Phishing emails direct consumers to fake "phishing" websites that mimic legitimate websites to steal financial and other valuable personal data. The information collected by the phishers is often used to conduct traditional fraud. For example, credit card and account information provided is used to produce fake cards that are then used at cash machines. Any company that does business online is a potential victim - not just financial institutions, but also ISPs and consumer companies such as retailers, airlines or online bookshops.

"Brightmail is excited to extend its relationship with EarthLink to protect Internet users from fraudulent websites," said Enrique Salem, president and CEO of Brightmail. "Phishing has become one of the most dangerous types of email threats and we are pleased to share our phishing data with EarthLink to strengthen its toolbar."

Users are stopped from accessing known or suspected phisher sites and are redirected to an EarthLink generated Web page that describes the particular URL's phisher status and whether the particular Web site has been blocked or disabled. The Web page information will also include definitions of phishers and similar scams and what actions subscribers can take to further protect themselves from online scams.

About Brightmail

Brightmail, the global anti-spam market leader delivers technology that makes messaging environments secure and manageable. PC Magazine's EDITORS CHOICE for best enterprise anti-spam software, Brightmail Anti-Spam protects the email networks of businesses, government agencies, and service providers, blocking unsolicited bulk email, or "spam", while assuring that legitimate mail is reliably delivered. Brightmail protects over 1,800 enterprises globally, including Avaya, eBay, Bechtel, Booz Allen Hamilton, Cisco, Cypress Semiconductors, Deutsche Bank, Eastman, Lucent Technologies, Macromedia, Microsoft, Motorola, SAS and Terra Lycos.

Brightmail also provides spam protection for the leading Internet service providers, including AT&T WorldNet, Cox Communications, EarthLink, MSN, TelstraClear, Xtra and Verizon Online. Brightmail now protects more than 300 million mailboxes worldwide.

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