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Looks like we had a nice pop today on the news. As always, there will be some pullback. Also notice that the float is tighter now though, a half mil. shares traded and a 10% spike. One of the other things I'm looking forward to is for CTCH to upgrade their RPD product to include other ways of protecting from the terrors of the internet. If you notice, in a lot of cases, CTCH's product is used in conjunction with other products, this implies that we have work to do and room to grow. Is this what is meant by, 'Commtouch Anticipates Entrance to Web Security Market in 2008'? We'll have to wait and see. MDLAND~
Taiwan's Draytek Chooses Commtouch Anti-Spam
Wednesday August 8, 8:01 am ET
New VigorPro5500 UTM Enhanced With Commtouch RPD Technology
SUNNYVALE, Calif. & HSIN-CHU, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Draytek and Commtouch® (NASDAQ:CTCH - News) today announced that Draytek has licensed Commtouch Anti-Spam technology to enhance the new VigorPro5500 all-in-one unified threat management appliance.
"For our customers, solid spam and malware defense is imperative," said Donald Lin, Vice President of DrayTek Corp. "Therefore Draytek chose the world's leading OEM provider of outbreak detection solutions. Adding the Commtouch Recurrent Pattern Detection (RPD(TM)) technology makes VigorPro5500 the complete security appliance for small to medium-sized enterprises."
"Draytek is a leading provider of UTM solutions in Taiwan and we are thrilled to work together to bring the Commtouch advanced email defense solutions to their customers," said Ronni Zehavi, vice president of international business development at Commtouch. "RPD technology has a very small footprint, making Commtouch a perfect fit for memory-constrained UTMs and network appliances."
Based on DrayOS 3, DrayTek's own highly efficient integrated network operating system, VigorPro provides broad security functions without extra hardware costs. Commtouch's patented RPD technology enables real-time detection and blocking of malicious email, regardless of language, format or encoding, and helps VigorPro5500 achieve a detection rate of over 97% with very few false positives.
About DrayTek
Since its establishment in 1997, DrayTek has been focusing on providing comprehensive remote access solutions for small office and home users. From its roots as the leading provider of remote access solutions, Draytek today has become a global vendor of VPN Firewall, VoIP and Unified Security solutions for small and medium size enterprises (SME). Draytek's tradition of innovation and technology excellence continues to provide market-leading products including enterprise-level Security Firewall, mission-critical VPN facilities for SMB, and versatile xDSL CPE integrated with VoIP, Wireless and ISDN for SOHO users. For more information, please visit www.draytek.com.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070808/20070808005349.html?.v=1
Commtouch press release. See website for details.
http://www.commtouch.com/Site/News_Events/pr_content.asp?news_id=925&cat_id=1
Things that make you go humm! It seems to me, and I could easily be wrong, the chart on this stock for the last few days seems to subtly follow the two main indicies, especially today (Tuesday). It looks as though the pps took a dip about an hour and a half before the mkt closed today which makes you wonder if a margin call played a part on in today's charting. Not necessarily with CTCH, but with some other stock that took an unexpected dip. Just a thought since nothing else exciting is going on right now. MDLAND~
Well here we are, the end of another trading week, what a ride. The indicies have taken a beating and we've taken somewhat of a hit also. I know expectations were higher, but all in all, I think we've faired well. I know, some of you were expecting a PPS of $2.35 a share. Well, right now we just don't have the eyes and ears of the street, not to mention the lack of good volume. The day that we had the most volume and volatility was the day of the news. As I mentioned before, some buy before the news, in anticipation of a spike the day of the news, for a quick profit. Others have held on to their shares for months thinking that this was the best day to sell for profit. When they didn't get the results that they expected, the jumped ship not wanting to wait another three, six, or even twelve months with their money potentially being tied up. Right now, I think that we should be near the $2.00 mark after the dust settles, depending on whether or not there's news in the near future. Can't wait for next week....or can I? JMHO
CTCH is improving its financials on a consecutive basis,
the most recent financial release is just one more positive step.
I have no explanation for the current trade pattern, however
i truly expect the share price to appreciate substantially.
I am still holding onto my shares till i meet my target price/date.
GLTY,
Dubi
A classic implementation of the second part of the phrase
Buy on rumour, sell on the news.
As for the reasons for their selling, i have no idea.
Dubi
Rally Cry, you're going to have to be patient with this stock. Remember, everybody invests differently. We all knew earnings were coming out on Aug. 1st. Some traders buy on the rumor and sell on the news. Some buy and sell based on a P.R. Some traders/investors would consider today's selling of a possible 2-bagger a win-fall. It just depends on when you got in and how much profit you want to take before you get out. Remember too, it's not like we made $.15 per diluted share either. Right now investing in this stock is a package deal. If you want large earnings P/S or a lower P/E, then you would be paying $25.00 P/S for this stock. If you want a stock that has great potential for the future, then you pay $1.92 per share ($1.96 after hours) and hope that the fundamentals look better down the road. Except for that one hit early Aug 1st, I think we did well, all things considered. This is what we like to call a shake. Most of the traders will be gone after Friday for the foreseeable future. Also, you have to realize that the float is much tighter now. According to my one source, after hours trading of 200 shrs. moved us up $.04. I think we are pretty much where we should be given everything that has happened recently. As was alluded to in the conf. call, some of the volatility over the last few weeks was due to the Postini deal. I'll continue to hold my shares. JMHO M~
Rally, everything is good IMO
nothing is stinks!
the ernings are fine. maybe someone got panic because of the subprime cryses and sold that big blocks which drop the pps.
i dont think the market was expected for better ernings.
note that there is a tremendous collaboration with CHKP which didnt PR'd yet. (going to push the stock up very hard IMO)
PS when the first net income ernings was released, at Nov 06, the pps fall more than 10% (to 0.88), why! isnt it crazy ?
GLTY
eli
Thanks for the calming words, but something stinks here and I'm frustrated because I can't find out what most others seem to already know. When they had bad quarters before, I didn't much mind takeing my lumps and waiting for them to get this thing turned around. When a stock falls like a stone on good quarterly news, there's normally a turd in the punch bowl.
Hi
bought into CTCH today at 1.96$.
dont worry, i know very well this ¨¨crazy¨¨ stock, it allways dropping after good news. lol
i´´m sure the direction will be up and above the last high which was 2.49$
GLTA
I'm hanging on MD. It is just beyond me how good earnings spark a selloff. Oh well. Better times will come.
Hang on Rally Cry!
Some people invest for the long haul, some for the short haul. I think that if you hang in there, you will be rewarded in the long run. Expectations and or anticipation can be high on earnings day, some would rather take profits now as opposed to waiting for another 3 months or longer. Who knows, today's sellers may have gotten in at $.85 and figure it's time to take profits. Everyone invests differently. I think we'll bounce back nicely. JMO
Can someone please explain this trading to me. This is the third time in the last week that I have seen a stock I own absolutly plummet after publishing excellent 2nQ financials. I really can't understand this at all. Should I be looking for company's that are loosing money?
Commtouch Reports Financial Results for the Second Quarter of 2007
Wednesday August 1, 5:30 am ET
Anticipates Entrance to Web Security Market in 2008
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Commtouch® (NASDAQ: CTCH - News), a leading email defense technology provider, today announced its second quarter results for the period ending June 30, 2007.
Second Quarter 2007 Highlights:
Revenues for the second quarter of 2007 increased by 54% to $2,617 thousand compared to $1,698 thousand in the second quarter of 2006. Revenues for the first six months of 2007 increased by 58% to $5,022 thousand compared to $3,171 thousand recorded in the first half of 2006.
Net income in accordance with US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) for the second quarter of 2007 was $483 thousand compared to a loss of $114 thousand in the second quarter of last year. For the first six months of 2007, US GAAP net income was $750 thousand, as compared with loss of $492 thousand in the first six months of 2006.
Non-GAAP net income for the second quarter of 2007, excluding $241 thousand of stock-based compensation expenses in connection with the company's adoption of Financial Accounting Standards No. 123R, was $724 thousand compared to a net income of $51 thousand in the second quarter of 2006. For the first six months of 2007, non-GAAP net income was $1,234 thousand as compared with loss of $163 thousand in the first six months of 2006.
Deferred Revenues (long term and short term) as of June 30, 2007 amounted to $2,811 thousand, an increase of 9% over deferred revenues as of December 31, 2006.
Operating cash flow in the second quarter of 2007 was $428 thousand, compared to $153 thousand in the second quarter of 2006. In the first six months of 2007, operating cash flow was $1,381 thousand, as compared with operating cash flow of $501 thousand in the first six months of 2006.
Cash and marketable securities as of June 30, 2007 amounted to $12,109 thousand, compared to $10,004 thousand as of December 31, 2006. The increase is due to the above-mentioned positive operating cash flow and receipt of proceeds from the exercise of warrants and options in the amount of $1,129 thousand.
The Company signed eight new OEM licensing agreements during the second quarter of 2007 and 19 in total for the first six months of 2007, bringing the Company's global OEM partner count to 73 as of June 30, 2007.
"Q2 was another strong quarter for us, exemplifying the continued positive momentum we have been enjoying for the last several years," said Gideon Mantel, Commtouch's chief executive officer and chairman of the board. "The growing sophistication of online attacks creates a demand for the equally sophisticated security solutions that we offer. In expanding and leveraging both our technology as well as our market reach, we intend to release a new web security solution in early 2008. Our future products together with our current offerings should ensure our continued success going forward."
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070801/20070801005447.html?.v=1
July 31, 2007
Well well well, looks like we made it up to earnings results without ending the days prior below $2.00, that would be a good thing. Did we get some help, I don't know. Nevertheless, here we are, the day before. I have a feeling that the results given on August 1st, will dictate, to a certain extent, who will invest in CTCH over the next few months. Ideally, we'd like to get noticed by the street, which would perhaps include some institutional investors. We have some great and unique products on the table, and I have a feeling that a few investors are sitting on the sidelines waiting for the results for Q2, and predictions for the rest of the year (of course no one can really predict the future). I, like you, am curious to see what the next few months hold for CTCH's future. Conference call anyone? MDLAND~
Looks like we made it through the toughest day of the week prior to earnings. With the major indices dropping 1.5%, we were very fortunate to stay flat for the day. I think we may have gotten some help in that last hour by investors realizing that this is one of the last chances to get in, or perhaps even by CTCH. Whatever the case my be, we're safe for now. M~
Friday (pre-market)
These next few trading days are going to be crucial for us. With the Dow dropping 300+ points yesterday and today being Friday, I think this is where we test CTCH's mettle. Most profit takers usually take their profits at the end of the trading week unless there's great news during the day. Again, if we can keep good volume and maintain the PPS today (Friday) and Monday, I think we will have weathered the storm. Hopefully the next two trading days will portend Wednesday's results. If we see rising volume and/or PPS increase, ....well, I'll let you make your own decision. M~
mdland - I'm watching CTCH but not in currently.
I appreciate your thoughts on the stock and hope you continue your observations.
When I have some free cash to invest, I'll probably be asking a few questions to get back up to speed on CTCH.
Wow, close to the $2.00 mark. Looks like we barely kept our heads above the $2.00 mark....for now at least. I think we're back to where the investors are now interested in buying CTCH. Looks like we had a little extra volume too today. I think the traders of three weeks ago decided to call it even and get out, the people that look at technical analysis decided that this is a good entry point. I wouldn't be surprised if CommTouch took it upon themselves to by back some shares to keep the price above $2.00. After all, it wouldn't look good on earnings day if the PPS has dropped below the $2.00 mark in the past week. This is all speculation on my part of course.
Anyone else out there in IHUB-LAND? Or,am I the only investor here? M~
Geez, it looks like only two or three of us even own this stock. Oh well, hopefully that will change next week. As I alluded to in one of my earlier posts, it looks like we may settle down to around $2.00. Hopefully we can get some support there for one more week. Looking at the charts, it seems as though that's where we were before the Motley Fool/IBD hype. After the first week of July, the short term traders jumped on board. I hope that since that time, there has been some accumulation to the point that now the float is tighter than it was then, which will give us a better chance to attract investors when the PPS starts to move. MDLAND~
The good news is that even though the volume is relatively low, the price is relatively flat. Most likely, someone is accumulating, probably on a limit or GTC order. If you notice the trading patterns, you'll see that the float is starting to tighten up too. I've seen the PPS move one or two cents on small lots of trades. That is good news for those who are already in. The not so good news is that as of this moment, not too many traders are following this stock. What we need is credible analysts or firms to give us the "thumbs up". A few news write ups wouldn't hurt either. I think next week will be our make or break week. JMHO MDLAND~
Thanks midastouch017.
Looks like we'll probably settle near the $2.00 mark until the release of Q2 results next week. Hopfully, if the results are satisfactory, we can get on the radar of institutional investors. I must admit though, the reason I got into this company was not only do I feel that the fundamentals are good, but also because of the fact that it is a possible take-over target. JMO MDLAND~
Welcome o'board, Mdland.
Commtouch Second Quarter 2007 Results Release Scheduled for Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Monday July 23, 8:00 am ET
Commtouch to hold a results conference call at 11am EDT
NETANYA, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Commtouch (NASDAQ: CTCH - News), announced that it will be releasing its second quarter 2007 financial results on Wednesday, August 1, 2007, before the US markets open.
The Company will also be hosting a conference call to discuss the results later that same day, at 11am EDT. On the call, management will review and discuss the results, and will be available to answer investor questions.
To participate, please call one of the following teleconferencing numbers. Please begin placing your calls at least 10 minutes before the conference call commences. If you are unable to connect using the toll-free numbers, please try the international dial-in number.
US Dial-in Number: 1 888 668 9141
UK Dial-in Number: 0 800 917 9141
ISRAEL Dial-in Number: 03 918 0609
INTERNATIONAL Dial-in Number: +972 3 918 0609
at:
11am Eastern Time, 8am Pacific Time, 4pm UK Time, 6pm Israel Time
For those unable to listen to the live call, a replay of the call will be available from the day after the call in the investor relations section of Commtouch's website, at: www.commtouch.com/ir.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070723/20070723005370.html?.v=1
New Excel Spam Hits the Airwaves, Commtouch Reports
Monday July 23, 7:00 am ET
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Microsoft Excel is the newest packaging spammers have created for their stock pump-and-dump scams, Commtouch (Nasdaq:CTCH - News) reported today, based on the Company's analysis of billions of email messages globally.
First identified and blocked by Commtouch on Saturday, July 21, at 1:20 pm GMT, the Excel spam promotes stocks in file attachments with names like "invoice20202.xls," "stock information-3572.xls," and "requested report.xls."
"Excel is a natural progression after the recent spate of PDF spam, which itself is a natural development from basic image spam," said Amir Lev, Commtouch's chief technology officer. "We expect other file formats to follow suit; think of the spam potential in Powerpoint files, or Word documents."
Spammers may assume that by wrapping the same message in a new format, they will bypass most anti-spam engines that try to analyze the content of mail messages. However technologies that rely on identifying patterns in mass emails, such as Commtouch's Recurrent Pattern Detection technology, block these types of messages automatically, regardless of the content or format.
Like other types of spam messages, the excel spam is being sent from zombie computers or "bots," typically home PCs that have previously been infected by Trojan malware. Spammers control massive numbers of these bots in vast "botnets" that they rally together to launch global spam and malware outbreaks.
Malware writers have used Excel in the past as a carrier for viruses, for example in a series of attacks during June and July 2006 that exploited vulnerabilities in Microsoft software, including Excel, Microsoft Word, and Powerpoint.
Commtouch Recurrent Pattern Detection Technology Defends Inboxes
Commtouch's Recurrent Pattern Detection (RPD) technology protects against spam and virus attacks in real-time as they are mass-distributed over the Internet. The unique content-agnostic technology detects and blocks spam in any language and is highly effective against image-based, PDF and the new Excel spam. Commtouch's Reputation Service offloads unwanted traffic at the network perimeter based on the reputation of email senders, dynamically identifying zombie-generated spam and malware in real-time.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070723/20070723005593.html?.v=1
I think this week will be important for us. Will we settle back down to $2.00, or will we shake out the short term traders, dip and then contiune to rise. If we can maintain a decent PPS, maybe after the next quarterly we'll get the attention of the institutional investors as did CKSW. That's when the ride will get fun. MDLAND~
Commtouch (NasdaqCM: CTCH), the email defense company, has started the summer with a bang. The stock has surged 35% over the last three weeks, on the prospects of continued strong growth, and Google’s (NasdaqGS: GOOG - News) purchase of the privately held email security firm Postini for $625 million last week. Commtouch develops, and provides proprietary anti-spam solutions to combat over 180 billion email messages per day, 85% of which are spam.
http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/070716/41054_id.html?.v=1
I have a small position of ORCT (in TASE)
lost 15%, but waiting and hoping to see a contract till 15/8.
we shall see
eli
O/T,
If you believe the quote by Orckit CFO Aviv Boim
"We’re in a good position for a win there.”
"#msg-21293811
Than of course the situation could reverse for the
positive.
Dubi
i cant argu with that !
eli
Wanted: Spam killer
Andrea Orr | Jul 12, 2007 4:01am EDT |
Imagine shopping in a store where the majority of merchandise on display was complete junk, or subscribing to a cable television service where three-quarters of the programming was devoted to unwanted ads for sexual enhancers or weight-loss schemes.
It sounds implausible and in most legitimate businesses it would be. But those hypothetical scenarios help put into perspective the severity of the email spam problem. By the most conservative estimates, some 75% of all email sent today is spam. Some analysts put the figure closer to 95%. Of course, anyone who regularly loses important emails in a sea of junk mail for low interest mortgages and Nigerian money making schemes needs no statistics to understand that spam is to email what kudzu is to the South.
We are so used to it, we have almost come to accept it. But it threatens the viability of one of our most cherished communications tools, and no one can seem to stop it.
That’s not for want of trying. Scores of young companies have cropped up in recent years offering ways to separate the legitimate mail from the spam, and some have won a lot of attention. Earlier this year, Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) acquired the security technology and anti-spam company IronPort Systems Inc. for $830 million. Just this month, Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) paid $625 million for Postini Inc., an email security company.
Both businesses have developed promising ways to block spam, but neither has managed to solve the problem.
So the search for a killer anti-spam technology continues. Two Israeli small caps working on a solution - Commtouch Software Ltd. (Nasdaq: CTCH) and IncrediMail Ltd. (Nasdaq: MAIL) - have seen strong sales growth and stock price gains this year.
Commtouch Software Ltd.
Commtouch Software Ltd., a Netanya, Israel company with U.S. headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., makes anti-spam and virus detection products for enterprise customers, and has seen its stock price almost triple from $0.82 a year ago to about $2.37 today.
Commtouch was founded in 1991 but for most of its history operated as a standalone email and messaging provider. A shift in 2004 that focused the company more narrowly on anti-spam solutions led to a period of soft results and instability, from which Commtouch is now emerging.
The company’s revenues have grown from $1.5 million in 2004 to $3.9 million in 2005 and $7.2 million in fiscal 2006. After shrinking its net loss to $415,000 last year from $2.7 million the year before, the company in 2007 reached profitability on a quarterly basis. Last month it reported that first quarter revenues rose 63% to $2.4 million, on net income of $267,000.
Like most companies developing anti-spam products, Commtouch has managed to grow its business by constantly developing new products to keep up with the spammers’ shifting tactics. It is now working on products to block so-called hijacked newsletter spam, which commandeers a popular email newsletter and attaches the spam image or the message at the top.
And, as some of the recent acquisition activity by Google and Cisco shows, there’s a strong belief that a groundbreaking spam killer could come from a relatively small company. It’s also likely that even companies that are unable to block spam altogether will continue to thrive by selling technology that blocks just a little bit of the spam that overwhelms most email users. That’s all anyone has been able to achieve to date.
But investors should be warned: competition is fierce in this industry, and much of it is coming from well-backed companies like Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) and McAfee Inc. (NYSE: MFE). The market is wide open today, but that could change suddenly if anyone develops a truly superior product.
http://smallcapinvestor.com/articles/investing_strategies/tech_beat/07/12/2007/wanted_spam_killer
Shabat Shalom Umevorach, Eli
#msg-21159718 says it all.
When rats leave the ship, it means it is sinking.
In short risk/reward ratio does not look promising
at present.
Dubi
Shabat shalom Dubi
what do you think of ORCT ?
eli
The extra commission is worthwhile in some cases,
especially when good/bad news is published on a
time when one of the 2 exchanges is not operational.
Indeed the commissions on TASE are significantly less
(unless you work with a broker, not a bank).
Dubi
The only reason i buy dual listed stock in TASE is because commission is cheapest.
eli
< I have nice posiotion in ALVR, but in TASE. >
As a rule, when i own dually listed stocks (such as TEVA,
ALVR and others) i own them 50% in the Naz, 50% in TASE,
The price is equal (just muliply NAZ $ price by shaar dollar
yatsig and you get the TASE price, and V.V)
I do this in order to be able to move quick in/out enjoying
arbitrage gaps, as well as buying/selling if news come at
TASE or Naz operating hours.
Dubi
You are right regarding PK stocks.
but where could you make 400% (or -99% lol) in a week ?
SPZI isnt typical pinksheet stock. make DD and decide.
I have nice posiotion in ALVR, but in TASE. im sure 2008 will be great year for ALVR.
( i hope they will win the contract of Australian government
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070628/20070628005390.html?.v=1
it could push the pps to the 20's )
elis
Hello - Hello, Eli.
Re : SPZI, thanks, i'll check into it.
Lately i am more inclined to ignore PK/OB stocks,
or should i say i refrain from newly investing into them.
For this and other reasons, i opt for more 'serious'
companies.
ALVR, for example is something i have quite heavily invested
in the past month. I believe it has substantial potential.
As for CTCH, i' ll nest on it for the long duration as i believe it will meet my new targets.
Regards,
Dubi
Helllllllllo Dubi
how are you ?
Well, i sold CTCH 2 days ago at 2.3$. should wait to my target price, but i need the cash for another stock.
i have a few milions in SPZI, and im trying to accumulate more cheap shares. this is huge opportunity to invest in a startup, which going to be leader of trading systems platform company.
you must look at it. there is excellent ihub board
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=3632
Spooz is going to lunch a new version of SpoozTools, at any day now, and they going to make revenues soon.
big opportunity IMO.
good luck with CTCH.
current pps 2.45$, good for you!
GLTY
eli
Israeli security firm reports huge spike in PDF spam
The outbreak emerged in the past 24 hours
Jaikumar Vijayan
July 11, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Israeli security firm Commtouch Software Ltd. is warning of a massive surge in Portable Document Format spam over the past 24 hours.
According to estimates by the company, about 10% to 15% of all spam over the past day or so has been in the form of PDF messages. "Given the fact that these messages are nearly four times bigger than standard spam messages, this increases overall global spam traffic by 30% to 40%," said Rebecca Herson, senior director of marketing at the Israel-based company.
So far, the outbreak has involved 14 billion to 21 billion PDF unsolicited messages and shows no signs of slowing, Herson said.
An analysis of the outbreak over the past six hours shows it to be a truly global zombie-distributed spam attack, Herson said. About 24% of the spam e-mails are from the U.S., 14% are from Taiwan, and China and Russia accounted for 10% and 4%, respectively, she said. In all, PDF spam e-mails are being distributed by computers in 167 countries, she said.
According to Herson, the technique of sending messages as PDF attachments is relatively new and was first detected only a few weeks ago. The current outbreak shows that spammers have widely adopted the technique, she said.
"The popularity of the PDF format for legitimate business communications makes it difficult for traditional antispam solutions to block effectively without causing massive false positives," she said.
Spammers seem to be aware of this fact and don't even appear to be trying to disguise their messages, she said. Unlike image spam messages, which were relatively easy to detect, "these look like standard business letters until you look at the contents and see they are about organ enhancers and stock tips," she said.
The spike in PDF spam comes even as there are reports of a steady decline in image spam, which in January constituted more than half of all spam messages. Symantec Corp., which publishes a monthly spam report, noted a continuing drop in image spam to just over 16% of all unwanted messages in May, compared with 27% in April and 37% in March.
"The drop in image spam this year has been significant," Doug Bowers, senior director of antispam engineering at Symantec, said in a statement accompanying the release of the report. "It's clear that spammers are focusing on other techniques such as using links to hosted images to try and get their messages through."
As a result, the spike in PDF spam reported by Commtouch is not surprising or unexpected, Bowers told Computerworld. "One of the things we have noticed is that spammers are going to poke around one way or the other" to break through antispam efforts, he said. Although spammers have been using PDF messages for some time, it is only recently that the growing number of such messages has pointed to a trend, according to Bowers.
"Absolutely, there's been a jump," said Matt Sergeant, a senior antispam technologist at U.K.-based MessageLabs Ltd. "Spammers have definitely switched to PDF. Who knows whether it's temporary or permanent, but they're using them in ways once [reserved] for image spam."
Although Sergeant did not cite specifics, he said "a couple of major kingpins of spam" had recently moved to PDF-based messages. "They account for about 50% of the spam on the Internet, so when they switched, it created a huge volume of PDF spam."
According to Sergeant, spammers are using PDF in two ways. "The first is a static PDF that they've generated from something like Microsoft Word," he said. The second is more dynamic and automated, and it involves dropping the images cranked out by spam generators into a PDF file, Sergeant said. "The first is used to make the e-mails look more legitimate," he said, especially when used in "pump-and-dump" stock-scam spam.
Parsing a PDF as possible spam, however, isn't any more difficult for a top-tier security vendor than figuring out whether an image is delivering a spammer's shill, said Sergeant. "One thing that helps [us] is that the PDF specification is widely available," he said.
"But that's also what probably makes it so attractive to spammers, who can use the spec to come up with [creation] engines," Sergeant noted.
Gregg Keizer contributed to this report.
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9026840
< my target price for the end of 2007 is 2.5$ - 3$.
GLTY >
You are certainly coming close to meeting your targets.
Mine are here, #msg-21159526
GLTY,
Dubi
Commtouch Signs Eight New Licensing Agreements in the Second Quarter of 2007
Monday July 2, 8:00 am ET
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Commtouch® (Nasdaq:CTCH - News) announced today that the Company signed eight new licensing agreements during the second quarter of 2007.
"The new agreements reflect another strong quarter of growth in global markets," commented Gideon Mantel, Commtouch's chief executive officer and chairman of the board. "Market-leading companies continued to select the Commtouch Recurrent Pattern Detection technology to integrate into their security solutions."
The total number of companies licensing Commtouch technology reached 73 at the close of the second quarter of 2007, making Commtouch one of the leading OEM vendors in the security industry.
"It is our task during the next two to three years to provide more products to our current licensing partners, while continuing to expand our partner base," said Mantel. "Already in Q2 we saw a number of upgrades made by existing partners, who are now licensing additional Commtouch products beyond those of the initial agreements."
Commtouch typically announces specific deals when the integrated product is being launched, and/or upon agreement of the licensing partner. Commtouch does not individually announce every licensing agreement due to a number of considerations, including confidentiality agreement restrictions.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070702/20070702005441.html?.v=1
Arkoon Integrates Commtouch Anti-Spam Protection to UTM Product Line
Monday July 2, 7:45 am ET
Leading French Information, Communication and Infrastructure Security Solutions Vendor Offers Commtouch's RPD to Fast360(R) Customers
SUNNYVALE, Calif. & LYON, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Arkoon Network Security and Commtouch (NASDAQ:CTCH - News), announced today that they have entered into an agreement to bring Commtouch anti-spam protection to Arkoon's FAST360® Unified Threat Management customers in France and throughout Europe.
"As global spam levels reach over 85%, spam has become a serious problem for medium to large corporations," explained David Dupre, Marketing Manager at Arkoon. "Our R&D department was given a clear directive to find the very best anti-spam solution. The result was a resounding vote for Commtouch."
One of Europe's leading network security innovators, Arkoon will offer Commtouch anti-spam technology to both its broad customer base and its new business. Commtouch RPD engine is being integrated into every series of the Arkoon FAST360® product line to ensure that all customers, from SMB to large corporations, can benefit from unrivaled spam detection and blocking rates. The new version with integrated RPD technology is expected to be launched in September 2007. Arkoon's Dupre added, "Commtouch has a long standing reputation of detecting and blocking all spam, no matter what new types of spam are unleashed."
"Commtouch is proud to be offered as part of the leading UTM appliance in France," said Ronni Zehavi, Commtouch VP of Business Development. "Arkoon insists on strong protection to keep their customers safe from threats, without compromising network performance. Commtouch detects and blocks all types of spam in real-time, keeping networks and inboxes clean."
About Arkoon
Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Lyon, France, in the heart of Europe, Arkoon Network Security is one of Europe's leading innovators in enterprise Information, Communications, and Infrastructure security solutions. With a focus on the critical security requirements of large corporations, public entities, and medium sized businesses throughout Europe and the Middle East, Arkoon "business-centric" solutions are designed to deliver enterprise-wide security in line with business objectives, protecting information systems and end-users against today's threats and those yet to appear. With over 5500 UTM appliances and over 300,000 Security BOX® licenses installed worldwide, Arkoon has a record of success in delivering solutions that answer our customers' needs. As the IT environment continues to evolve, as new threats continue to appear, Arkoon continues to invest a substantial portion of revenues in R&D to maintain the innovative edge which is the guarantee of ongoing customer satisfaction. For more information, see: www.arkoon.net
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070702/20070702005425.html?.v=1
Commtouch Reports Financial Results for the First Quarter of 2007
Thursday May 3, 7:00 am ET
63% Growth in Revenues Year-Over-Year
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Commtouch® (NASDAQ:CTCH - News), the leading OEM provider of real time email defense technology, today announced its first quarter results for the period ending March 31, 2007.
First Quarter 2007 Highlights:
Revenues for the first quarter of 2007 increased by 63% to $2,405 thousand compared to $1,473 thousand in the first quarter of 2006.
Net income in accordance with US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) for the first quarter of 2007 was $267 thousand compared to a loss of $378 thousand in the first quarter of last year.
Non-GAAP net income for the first quarter of 2007, excluding $243 thousand of stock-based compensation expenses in connection with the company's adoption of Financial Accounting Standards No. 123R, was $510 thousand compared to a loss of $214 thousand in the first quarter of 2006.
Deferred Revenues (long term and short term) as of March 31, 2007 amounted to $2,808 thousand, an increase of 9% over deferred revenues as of December 31, 2006.
Operating cash flow in the first quarter of 2007 was $953 thousand, compared to $348 thousand in the first quarter of 2006.
Cash and marketable securities as of March 31, 2007 amounted to $11,518 thousand compared to $10,004 thousand as of December 31, 2006. The increase is due to the above-mentioned positive operating cash flow and receipt of proceeds from the exercise of warrants and options in the amount of $830 thousand.
The Company signed 11 new OEM licensing agreements during the quarter, bringing the Company's global OEM partner count to 66 at the end of the quarter.
"This has been a strong quarter for us," commented Gideon Mantel, Commtouch's CEO and chairman of the board. "Again, we achieved good financial results with increasing revenues and profitability. To cap it off, we generated almost one million dollars in positive operating cash flow and signed a record eleven new licensing deals during the quarter.
"The majority of our revenues is derived from our anti-spam product," Mr. Mantel continued. "We are now just starting to see the demand and revenue growth in our Zero-Hour virus outbreak protection product line, which we launched in 2005. Most recently, we rolled out our new Reputation Service at the end of last year, and we expect to see the benefits from this product starting in several quarters. It has been quite an accomplishment to continue developing leading edge security solutions while at the same time increasing our profitability."
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070503/20070503005499.html?.v=1
LG N-Sys Offers Commtouch Anti-Spam to UTM Customers Across Asia-Pacific
Wednesday April 25, 7:30 am ET
SUNNYVALE, Calif. & SEOUL, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--LG N-Sys and Commtouch® (NASDAQ:CTCH - News) today announced that Commtouch anti-spam technology is now integrated within LG N-Sys Unified Threat Management platform. The Commtouch-enhanced UTM will be offered to customers across APAC as part of the LG N-Sys "Try & Buy" promotion.
LG N-Sys is a leading Korean provider of security appliances, including Intrusion Prevention and UTM products. Integrating the Commtouch solution into LG's complete IT security product adds best-of-breed spam protection.
"We searched for the very best anti-spam to protect our customers," said Byungsun Chung, director of Strategic Business Division of LG N-Sys. "Thorough testing showed that Commtouch technology consistently blocked 99% of spam. This is an excellent result, especially considering the challenge posed by spam in Asian languages. It is clear that Commtouch is at the leading edge of email defense solutions, and we are excited to investigate more of their offerings."
"We are proud to partner with such an important IT player in Asia. LG N-Sys is taking a huge stride by offering real-time spam protection to its customers across the region," said Ronni Zehavi, Commtouch's vice president of international business development. "Commtouch's anti-spam is truly global, not language or content dependent. This will give LG N-Sys an important advantage in Asian markets, where much of the spam appears in regional languages."
Commtouch Anti-Spam solution protects against all types of spam -- in any location, format, content, or language -- and consistently delivers top detection rates and very low false positives. Real-time blocking is effective against all types of spam; including image-based and double-byte languages common in Asia.
About LG N-Sys
LG N-Sys is the leader in Korea's IT industry with 30 years of business experience. Separated from LG Electronics in January 2002, the company's lines of business include server systems, banking systems and software solutions. In 2002, LG N-Sys entered the network security market with the SafeZone IPS and now is the market leading network security appliance provider in Korea. LG N-Sys intends to contribute to our society as an integrated information security company that provides comfort to the people with technology.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070425/20070425005422.html?.v=1
Commtouch has an excellent management too but it is still a speculative stock at present.
Shlomo Greenberg
Commtouch Software Ltd. (Nasdaq: CTCH) has yielded a 36.5% return for investors since the beginning of the year. 2006 was clearly the start of a positive turning point for this company. Very seldom does one encounter management teams that can make the turnaround in their business and pull their companies out of a crisis.
This is not to say that Commtouch is now a phenomenal business success, but the company has been managed wisely and efficiently and time is on its side. Its quarterly report on trends in spamming has long since become a global accepted source of information on this, and I will not be surprised at all if sooner or later Commtouch's reports become the standard monitoring tool worldwide. They won't make any money on it, but it will bring the company recognition from all corners of the globe, and every such report draws yet more visitors to its site and more investors on the hunt for opportunities.
Commtouch's founder and CEO, Gideon Mantel has shown himself to be a good marketing executive and good manager. The company's latest report indicates that in the war waged by companies against spammers, the latter are gaining the upper hand. Between 85% to 95% of all email traffic circulating the web in the first quarter of 2007 was spam. Zombies have been spreading throughout the world rapidly, and have now been found in more than 100 countries.
The term zombie - which is defined in the dictionary as the 'living dead' - refers to a group of computers that is connected to the net, but whose owners are unaware that they are being used by spammers. These computers are used by spammers and distributors of viruses to run what are known in web slang as 'bots' which refers to computer programs that run automatically. These programs, when run on various networks, are known as botnets, and their proliferation poses a real danger to users, since they cause considerable disruption and the infections they cause are difficult to trace. Incidentally, the two most common categories that are most likely to carry infections are sex sites, followed in second place by spam links to sites with stock picks, an interesting and deadly combination.
Either way, I expect to see the revival continue both for the company itself and the stock of course. I have been receiving a good many queries from investors worldwide about this company from investors, which was once worth $1 billion when no one had heard of it and today, now that everyone has heard of it, is worth $123 million. I must stress here, however, that stocks like Commtouch currently represent a highly speculative investment, in which the economic side is not their strong point.
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000203691&fid=1052
Commtouch Q1 Spam Trends Report: Botnets Continue Sending Massive Amounts of Spam
Wednesday April 18, 8:00 am ET
Spammers Develop New Ways to Evade Traditional Anti-Spam
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Commtouch® (NASDAQ:CTCH - News), today released its Spam Trends Report for the first quarter of 2007. Spam continues unabated, according to real-time analysis of billions of messages globally each week. Continuing trends include:
85-90% of all global email is spam
Global spam rates temporarily dropped a few percentage points after the holiday season, then climbed back to 85-90% by the end of the quarter
Zombies are detected in over 100 countries, having spread to almost every corner of the globe
Top spam category: sexual enhancers; second place: stock pump-and-dump scams
Latest spammer trick: Hijacked newsletter spam
"Massive botnets continue to be the force behind most global spam," points out Amir Lev, Commtouch President and CTO. "Solutions that attempt to detect spam by scanning individual messages for content are inundated by the spam floods the botnets are generating. Effective protection against spam requires dynamic blocking at the network perimeter based on the reputation of the sender."
Spam Hijacks Newsletters to Keep the Heat on Anti-Spam Solutions
Spammers unveiled a new email tactic in the first months of the new year -- hijacked newsletter spam. This type of spam aims to evade anti-spam filters by disguising itself as a legitimate form of mass distributed message -- email newsletters. Spammers essentially commandeer a popular email newsletter and insert their spam image at the beginning of the message. This trick gets the malevolent message past many anti-spam solutions by cloaking itself as legitimate email newsletter. URL blockers, Bayesian filters, and image-analysis technologies have been blindsided by this new technique of hiding spam within a real email newsletter.
"Hijacked newsletter spam is yet another technique developed to evade traditional anti-spam solutions," points out Lev. "Fighting spam on a trick-per-trick basis is futile. The spammer innovation cycle is so fast and sophisticated, that as soon as traditional anti-spam solutions come up with a way to block the latest trick, the spammers have already thought of something new."
More details, including samples of hijacked newsletter spam, are available in Commtouch's Q1 2007 Spam Trends, available from Commtouch Labs at: http://www.commtouch.com/documents/Commtouch_2007_Q1_Spam_Trends.pdf.
Commtouch Recurrent Pattern Detection Technology Fights the Spam Wars
Commtouch's Recurrent Pattern Detection (RPD) technology protects against spam and virus attacks in real-time as they are mass-distributed over the Internet. The unique content-agnostic technology detects and blocks spam in any language and is highly effective against image-based spam. Commtouch's Reputation Service dynamically blocks spam at the network perimeter based on the reputation of the sender.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070418/20070418005574.html?.v=1
Commtouch Signs Eleven New Licensing Agreements in the First Quarter of 2007
Wednesday April 4, 8:00 am ET
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Commtouch® (Nasdaq:CTCH - News) announced today that the Company has signed 11 new licensing agreements during the first quarter of 2007.
"It has been a remarkable quarter in terms of new deals signed, and we are pleased to see our business progressing according to plan," commented Gideon Mantel, Commtouch's chief executive officer and chairman of the board. "Eleven successful wins in one quarter are a strong testament to the superiority of our Recurrent Pattern Detection(TM) technology."
The companies that signed with Commtouch are based in North America, Europe and Asia, and include:
Network security providers;
Managed service providers; and
Messaging Security providers.
The number of companies licensing Commtouch technology reached 66 at the close of the first quarter of 2007, taking into account two older deals that were discontinued.
"We expect that several of these new licensing partners will open up new markets for Commtouch, leading the way to increased market share overall," Mantel said. "Many of these licensing partners will be launching our solution integrated into their products in the post-summer period, so we anticipate seeing the main revenue impact in the fourth quarter of 2007 and into 2008."
Commtouch typically announces specific deals when the integrated product is being launched, assuming prior agreement of the licensing partner. However, Commtouch does not individually announce every licensing agreement, due to a number of considerations including confidentiality agreements.
About Commtouch
Commtouch Software Ltd. (Nasdaq:CTCH - News) is dedicated to protecting and preserving the integrity of the world's most important communications tool -- email. Commtouch has over 16 years of experience developing messaging software and is a global developer and provider of proprietary anti-spam, Zero-Hour virus protection and IP Reputation solutions. Using core technologies including RPD(TM) (Recurrent Pattern Detection), the Commtouch Detection Center analyzes billions of email messages per month to identify new spam and malware outbreaks within minutes of their introduction into the Internet. Integrated by more than 60 OEM partners, Commtouch technology protects thousands of organizations, with over 50 million users in over 100 countries. Commtouch is headquartered in Netanya, Israel, and has a subsidiary in Sunnyvale, CA. For more information, see: www.commtouch.com, including the Commtouch online lab detailing spam statistics and charts.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070404/20070404005441.html?.v=1
'Token' is relative. At some point i held 12K shares,
i reduced it to current level and plan to hold till
it it breaks 5$, or in other words till eternity :)
Dubi
4K isnt token, it's nice position.
i hold 5k, purchase at 1$ a few months ago.
at the end of 2005 i bought CTCH at the 50`s and sold it at the 90's a few weeks later.
my target price for the end of 2007 is 2.5$ - 3$.
GLTY
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