OVERLAND PARK, Kan.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Electronic messaging is important for businesses, but the continued proliferation of viruses, worms, denial-of-service attacks and spam makes effective message security and management increasingly difficult. Businesses have invested heavily in their IP and MPLS VPN networks and they need to protect it from such threats. Sprint (NYSE:S) offers a solution to help provide peace of mind for businesses by blocking spam and viruses before they ever reach the company’s network. SprintSecure(SM) Message Protection, powered by Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services, is available for businesses of all sizes and now includes several enhancements to more robustly solve the challenges faced by IT managers.

“Sprint is a leader in helping businesses implement an IP-based infrastructure to support the convergence of data, voice and video over a single network, thus heightening the urgency to protect against electronic threats,” said Mike Coffey, vice president of product management, Sprint. “SprintSecure Message Protection is critical to protecting this network investment. In addition to protecting more than a million business users with this service every day, Sprint uses it to protect our own world-class IP network. The service has blocked more than 250 billion spam messages and viruses for our customers in just the last 12 months . . . a significant impact that improves customers’ productivity and efficiency of IP and MPLS VPN networks.”

SprintSecure Message Protection requires no hardware or software to be installed thereby reducing the upfront costs to businesses. It is composed of four distinct services, including recent enhancements to two of the services

Sprint has worked through a strategic alliance with Microsoft to offer and continually enhance this solution. “Microsoft values its relationship with Sprint and their continued dedication to provide and extend the capabilities of Exchange Hosted Services,” said Stephan Schirrecker, director for online services, Microsoft Corp. “By working together with Sprint, we are giving customers flexible options for protecting their messaging infrastructure - no matter their security requirements or technology expertise.”

SprintSecure Message Protection is part of the SprintSecure comprehensive portfolio of mobility and converged security services that meets a variety of customer needs given today’s complex and ever-changing environment. The newest addition to the portfolio is SprintSecure(SM) Laptop Guardian, introduced in 2007.

This innovative new service helps to solve the “mobile blind spot” of business customers. In collaboration with Alcatel-Lucent, SprintSecure Laptop Guardian is one of the first comprehensive laptop security solutions for businesses to help ease IT headaches and provide control over data maintained on end-user laptops. It enables 24/7 security through remote monitoring, location and locking if a laptop is lost or stolen, and simplifies security management since all capabilities are delivered over-the-air to the laptop anywhere on the nationwide Sprint Mobile Broadband network. Sprint and Alcatel-Lucent received a 3G CDMA Industry Achievement Award for Innovation in Wireless Enterprise Solutions Development for the service in 2007.