Commonwealth Signs Contract to Increase Security, Reduce SPAM

April 2, 2004

Are you feeling the impact of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003? It went into effect on January 1, 2004, "To regulate interstate commerce by imposing limitations and penalties on the transmission of unsolicited commercial electronic mail via the Internet." Unlike Kentucky's No-Call Telemarketers list which has been effective in reducing the number of unsolicited calls from telemarketers, the CAN-SPAM Act doesn't seem to have reduced the amount of SPAM. In fact, everyday, Commonwealth of Kentucky employees continue to receive thousands of SPAM emails costing the state time and money. Most SPAM is more of an annoyance than a threat. But some emails contain virus and worm attachments that can cause harm. Now a new contract has been implemented to help with SPAM and some other important IT content security issues the Commonwealth faces.

The Governor's Office for Technology (GOT) has just entered into a strategic partnership with Network Appliance to provide the Commonwealth with an integrated content security management solution. The contract is designed to help reduce SPAM, email viruses and worms and help the Commonwealth implement Internet filtering and reporting. It's anticipated that this will increase security for the Commonwealth's information systems, improve protection from unsolicited email and consolidate critical security defenses to protect Commowealth resources.

The new partnership is just getting started with implementation expected within 90 days. It will be in place for the Commonwealth's executive branch agencies.

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