New York City, NY – This has been a BIG year for Bigfoot Communications. The company has experienced rapid growth and change; which in turn has translated into more products and services. Most notable of these changes were a re-direction in strategic thrust and a shift in the company's long-term goals.

Bigfoot started as an e-mail forwarding and directory search company back in 1995. Since then, it has evolved into a Communications Powerhouse offering a wide spectrum of products and services.

The process of transforming into the Communications Powerhouse was difficult. The IT bubble of 2000 saw many promising dotcom companies close up. Bigfoot weathered the IT bubble by reorganizing and changing its corporate strategy and services line-up.

Instrumental to Bigfoot’s reorganization was the installment of a new management team. Headed by John Joseph Mercado, the new Bigfoot team has made great strides in turning Bigfoot into a Communications Powerhouse.

Strategic alliances with top-notch service providers have yielded outstanding results and are manifested in Bigfoot’s greatly expanded product and services line up. Companies like Register.com, Plezecall, Brightmail and Quios are now engaged in strategic partnerships with Bigfoot Communications.

Joe Mercado’s vision is to make Bigfoot a one-stop-shop for all communications needs. Existing services like Bigfoot Email Forwarding are now part of a services array known as Bigfoot Email and Web Tools. With new features like Domain Registration, Power Forwarding Tools, WebMail and an Anti-spam Solution powered by Brightmail, Bigfoot’s mainstay services are as strong as ever.

Bigfoot has also moved into the voice communications services area with Bigfoot Conference Call. Started in June 2002, this relatively new service boasts highly competitive rates, an easy-to-use interface and advanced conferencing features like the Conference Call Gateway for developers and Audio Prompt Suppression.

Bigfoot also entered the mobile communications sector in February and August 2002 with Bigfoot Web SMS and SMS Manager respectively. Short message service (SMS) or text messaging is becoming increasingly popular as a cost-efficient means of communicating with and marketing to mobile phone users.

Bigfoot SMS is poised to take a leading position for the upcoming 3rd generation of mobile communications with cutting-edge features built around its tray application, the Bigfoot SMS Manager. Learn more about SMS technology

Bigfoot Chairman Michael Gleissner has set high priority on the localization of Bigfoot’s services in international markets. Localization plans and infrastructure establishment for countries in East Asia and Western Europe are already underway.

Additional products and services for 2003 are already in the planning and development stages. New upgrades and features for existing product lines are currently under testing and new product lines are being planned to meet changing needs in the online community.

“This past year has been really good for us,” says CEO John Joseph Mercado,
“Our profitability has never been better and we’re breaking new ground every month. This year alone, we doubled our subscriber base.”

Morale in the company is high as corporate expansion gains momentum. Bigfoot subscribers can expect improved quality of service as the reorganization completes itself.

Bigfoot’s current stance of aggressive expansion promises to boost the company to a prime position for the next dotcom era.

	Year-End Report on spam From Inspector Mails

For the most part, the Internet has proven to be a boon to modern society. Today, most businesses deem the Internet indispensable in conducting business communications. But the era of e-communications has given rise to new forms of abuse. The year 2002 has been called the year of spam.

Spam or its more technical term, Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE), is now a problem of monstrous proportions. In 2001, spam mail represented about 8% to 10% of total e-mail received. Today, it accounts for 30% to 40% of total e-mail received. Simple extrapolations of this trend predict that soon, most e-mail will be spam.

The first and less damaging form of spam is when unsolicited marketing e-mail hits ones inbox. For the most part, this is just “in your face” e-mail marketing. As annoying as the telemarketer that interrupts your dinner but ultimately just that. Annoying. In some cases, the product or service being marketed is interesting enough to be worth a “click through”.

The second and more dangerous aspect of spam is when it is used as the vehicle for various scams and investment rackets. The “Nigerian scam” comes into mind as an example of this. Bogus products and services are also marketed this way.

The top ten spam mails for 2002 are:

Spam: Problem and Solution

Negative effects of spam range from lost productivity to actual data loss due to e-mail viruses. Office e-mail users spend an average of 10% of their working day dealing with spam. E-mail viruses can do untold damage to important data and company servers. Financial scams like the “Nigerian Scam” perpetuated through e-mail can do damage offline as well as online.

Among the worst effects of spam is the block-listing of companies or even ISP’s. When a company or ISP is block-listed, its e-mails are classified as spam or bounced. While some entities placed on block-lists are real spammers, others are completely innocent. It is not unheard of to be block-listed for sending out a service advisory. Criteria used by spam-blocking systems shift constantly and most companies will inevitably transgress some obscure rule on e-mail broadcasting. Remaining on a “white list” is an art few have mastered.

Efforts to control spam have given rise to new technologies. It is entirely possible that, in a few years, anti-spam utilities will be as indispensable as anti-virus utilities are today.

Spam filtering is becoming increasingly harder as spammers get smarter. Spammers use a number of ways to confuse spam filtering systems. One method is the insertion of random meaningless characters into the subject line. It’s become increasingly obvious that the arms race between spammers and anti-spam providers will not plateau for a while.

Brightmail, a leading anti-spam provider, is doubling its revenues and customer base for 2002. For this year alone, Brightmail has scanned 40 billion messages for spam. Combined with the figures above, that’s anywhere from 12 billion to 16 billion spam mails for 2002 alone.

Bigfoot on spam

On Bigfoot servers, an average of 36.62% of mails received is classified as spam. The Bigfoot Anti-spam Solution was instituted, in partnership with Brightmail, to control the flood of spam recently seen on Bigfoot servers. During the Anti-spam Solution free trial period offered in the latter part of September 2002 and the entire month of November 2002, spam levels hit as high as 59.56% of total e-mails received.

A total of 27,628,367 spam mails were identified during the free trial period. Since the implementation of the Anti-spam Solution, spam levels on Bigfoot servers have dropped in volume and percentage.

Brightmail’s anti-spam service boasts a 99% false-positive accuracy rate. This is to say that only 1% of the time will legitimate e-mails be identified as spam. The current false negative rate stands at 80%. That means that 1 out of 5 spam mails can appear in ones inbox. Brightmail was chosen by Bigfoot as its anti-spam partner due to its market leadership among anti-spam providers today.

Bigfoot Launches Corporate Giving Program

Hong Kong – Bigfoot Communications is pleased to announce that its corporate giving program is up and running. With its primary focus on education, the company hopes to develop IT talent among disadvantaged children in Third World countries.

Its three-phase corporate giving program will first be implemented in the Philippines where 20 Bigfoot Learning Centers will be established. The company will provide facilities, software and books for each learning center.

Bigfoot will also be training local trainors for each learning center to provide support for the infrastructure and facilities the company will put up.

The other two phases will be focused on (a) providing scholarships for economically disadvantaged youth and (b) developing community leaders. Bigfoot will be coordinating with religious missionaries and local private citizens respectively for the scholarship programs.

Also planned as an adjunct to the scholarship program is an internship program where Bigfoot scholars can work in the firm under the supervision of Bigfoot professionals.

Bigfoot believes that providing educational opportunities will one day benefit the entire Internet community, as more competent and qualified professionals will be on the field.

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