The Malta Information Technology Agency recently signed a three-year renewal agreement for maintenance and support services on e-mail protection products with GFI Software.

This agreement will continue to provide the highest level of support to MITA’s e-mail protection software, and is part of MITA’s continuing efforts to ensure the highest level of security against malware and spam on the e-mail services provided to over 20,000 government users.

A thorough awareness of the security challenges that regularly arise in the e-mail service provision sector, coupled with the fact that MITA hosts the entire government’s e-mail environment, were priority factors when, in 2005, MITA originally chose GFI as its supplier for e-mail protection software.

The high performance of this software, comprising anti-virus and anti-spam capabilities was a determining factor in the decision to continue using GFI’s software and support as a first line of defence in e-mail security.

In addition, GFI’s wide experience and capability to deploy on-going support to MITA was also considered an essential element in renewing this agreement.

MITA chairman Claudio Grech said, “Security of our e-mail environment is a critical requisite to provide the levels of service expected from MITA on this application. MITA is the largest enterprise provider of e-mail services in Malta and hence we are bound to adopt only best-of-breed products, such as GFI’s, in our technology stack.

The fact that GFI is an international player operating from Malta adds even more value to our decision to extend this agreement.”

These considerations reflect MITA’s zero tolerance towards ICT security risks, a policy approach that is entrenched at the core of the agency’s strategy and which is driven through a prudent risk management posture to the information assets that have been mandated to its custodianship.