When suddenly my cellfone on vibration mode wakes up the lady on my right. It sends a naughty sensation. Unintentionally, of course, I touched her thigh as I pull out the fone from my pocket.

I read the SMS message. Grrrrr. Its from the mobile phone company sending me a promo ad message. An unsolicited message.

Can I call this spam, just like the unsolicited emails that bombard me at the office?

I tell this to my friend and he replies, "The mobile phone company should send you an e-mail instead of bothering you - during the most unlikely and embarrasing circumstance."

If the company e-mails me this unsolicited selfserving promo ad message, can I call this spam.? Just like the unwanted text?

Either way, virus attacks and spams are bound to take place. The good news is it is controllable.

Spam is a serious problem. Lysander Salcedo, Philippine CA country manager, said it is no longer a nuisance and that it is a potential legal liability. Futhermore, it is a major productivity drain for corporate IT departments and corporate users alike.

Thus, the further good news is that software company Computer Associates International Inc, (CA) is aware of this nuisance. It is advocating to companies and organizations to move beyond tactical anti-virus and anti-spam point products and towards a more consolidated security approach.

CA recently launched eTrust Secure Content Manager (eSCM), a flexible comprehensive and aggressively-priced solution for protecting organizations from the diverse dangers of Internet – including viruses, span, and inappropriate use of the Web by employees.

eSCM helps organizations address emerging risks associated with widespread misuse of the Web, instant messaging, peer-to-peer networks, and email applications, CA officials said.

"The corporate network is no longer contained within the walls of the company. Clients are now highly mobile," said an IDC White Paper on "Secure Content Management" sponsored by CA. "Mobile phones and smart handheld devices are also becoming more tempting targets of virus writers."

So far majority of such viruses have been harmless, "but they have laid the ‘proof of concept’ groundwork for others to follow," it noted.

It continued, "Attacks on corporate computer systems, both wired and wireless, will continue to become more sophisticated and will target multiple vulnerabilities in the network."

The paper concluded that a unified approach is needed to deal with this situation. "Anti-virus software works well to block viruses. However, the increased complexity of threats, including hybrid viruses and spam, requieres a new security approach. Content security is much more complex, focusing on’what’ information is being sent to ‘which’ Web site/e-mail address."

"Piecemeal approach to information security are ineffective, expensive and difficult to manage," said Salcedo. "The increasing complexity of content security requires a more comprehensive approach. With IT staffing always a limited resource, organizations look to make management of security products as simple as possible."

Priced 50 to 70 percent less than multiple point products needed to perform the same functions eSCM, among many, provides:

1. integrated content security policy management for HTTP, SMTP and FTP

2. policy-based scanning of e-mail and Web traffic to detect and block malicious and/or inappropriate usage, such as music-sharing and pronography

3. a user self-management feature that empowers users to help filter spam and block URLs while reducing false positives

4. customize word/phrase search and alerting to prevent sensitive corporate information from leaving the enterprise.