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About that damn spam…
View
a FREE copy of “A strongly enforced internet usage policy”
Spam
costs companies a lot of money. Therefore, firms are implementing “Spam Defense”
solutions. In addition to being a consistent nuisance, Spam creates a lot of
needless expense. Spam also:
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Directly impacts
network performance
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Compromises the
security of you confidential business data
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Exposes your
organization open to litigation
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Reduces employee
productivity.
The
statistics, pertaining to lost productivity, amount to at least an hour per week
per employee. In order to prevent this needless drain on human capital, more and
more firms are taking advantage of cost effective technology solutions. These
solutions eliminate the costs and administrative overhead associated with
controlling the effects of spam.
An
effective spam defense must implement a layered security strategy.
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Spam filters compare
incoming e-mails against a database of known spam sites. E-mail content is
then examined against dictionaries of keywords and phrases.
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Attachments should
be filtered for movie, picture and audio files. Many workplaces are inundated
with unnecessary personal e-mails with large attachments. These include family
photos, home videos, cartoons, jokes, electronic greetings and a host of other
electronic files. This burden can jump when employees forward personal
electronic files to large groups of coworkers.
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Advanced filtering
systems allow for a numerical grading of spam probability. Email formats such
as HTML (a popular format for jokes and chain letters) can be prevented from
entering your network.
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Spam Filters trap
junk email as it arrives. Therefore, your inbox doesn't overflow with messages
you don't want to see.
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Real Time Black Hole
Lists can be used to identify and quarantines over 98% of spam, through the
use of heuristics, known spamming site directories, and spam signatures
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Pattern Matching
examines layout and organization, to identify the common characteristics of
spam.
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Spam definitions are
used to identify specific instances of spam. They detect multiple instances of
material considered sufficiently similar to be the same message
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Some E-mail Filters
use Reverse DNS lookup to verify that the sender domain matches the DNS domain
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Custom Deny List
allow users the ability to create their own deny list of know spammers IP,
e-mail and/or domains. Custom list can be used in conjunction with Real Time
Black Hole Lists.
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Advanced spam
filters can evaluate email messages with a high degree of accuracy. Those it
suspects to be spams are categorized accordingly. There is still overhead
involved with the advanced filters. Most keep the stored suspected spam for 7
days. You must still sort thought the quarantined files in that time to ensure
real mail is not discarded
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Foiling Spam with an
Email Password System is an effective way to stop spam since it bounces a
simple question back to the sender if that person is not on your trusted list.
Legal Risks
Spam
can create enormous legal risks for both employers and employees. Despite
warnings and policies, some employees continue to exchange offensive material
using the company’s computer network. A strongly enforced internet usage policy
in conjunction with adequate filtering may help in avoiding costly litigation.
Security Risks
Viruses and malicious code hidden in spam email attachments are an additional
network security risk to an organization. This can originate inside AND outside
of firm’s email program. Many virus attacks originate from web based email like
Hotmail. This can often be the first step in a very costly virus outbreak and
also compromise remote security.
Implementation options and costs.
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In-house spam
filtering server and software is the most common. This process involves a
dedicated system running a spam filtering software system. This system will
reside between you gateway to the internet and your email server. You will
have control of threshold evaluation criteria, list subscription and
modification and customizable dictionaries
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