Anti spam and anti virus email filtering solutions are one of the best ways to reduce your business’s exposure to threats such as phishing, malware and ransomware. Even if you have implemented anti virus software and network monitoring tools, anti spam and anti virus email filtering solutions are still very important as anti virus software will only detect known viruses and malware based on their signatures. Zero day threats are unlikely to be detected. Hackers are also good at obfuscating their activities to avoid being detected by network monitoring tools. Anti spam and anti virus email filtering solutions stop known and zero-day threats at source and prevent them from entering your network.
Advanced anti spam and anti virus email filtering solutions achieve spam detection rates in excess of 99.9% and identify 100% of inbound malware. The solutions can also be used to scan outbound emails in order to keep your IP reputation healthy and avoid your IP address being blacklisted by a global block list agency – which could also have consequences for the accessibility of your website(s).
How Advanced Anti Spam and Anti Virus Solutions Work
Advanced anti spam and anti virus solutions use additional mechanisms to those you will find in a “standard” email filtering solution in order to accurately and efficiently detect threats. Whereas a standard email filtering solution will include features such as a real-time block lists, Sender Policy Frameworks and Recipient Verification Protocols, plus tools allowing you to set your own acceptable spam thresholds, an advanced anti spam and anti virus solution includes:
Greylisting
Greylisting is a process in which all incoming emails are returned to their originating mail servers with a request for the email to be resent. Typically this process delays the receipt of emails by a minute or two; but, due to spammers´ mail servers being too busy to respond to the request, spam emails are never returned at all.
SUBRL Filtering
When a greylisted email has been returned, it goes through a series of secondary processes. One of these processes – SUBRL filtering – checks any URLs contained within the body of the email to ensure they do not appear on a list of URLs registered in previous spam emails. This process significantly reduces the likelihood an employee will fall victim to a phishing attack.
DMARC Authentication
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) is an email authentication protocol that is used to verify that the sender of an email message is authorized to use a particular domain. It allows domain owners to protect their domain against abuse, and is used by advanced anti spam and anti virus solutions to detect and block email impersonation attacks.
Dual Anti Virus Software Engines
Dual anti virus software engines means software from two different providers are used to maximize the probability of malware and viruses being identified. Provided the dual anti virus engines are complimentary (i.e. not both proprietary software), you will get a higher malware detection rate than just using a single engine. Advanced anti spam and anti virus solutions typically use proprietary software and open source software in unison, or in the case of SpamTitan, two leading AV engines from Bitdefender and Clam AV.
Sandboxing
Antivirus software uses signature-based detection. When a virus or malware variant is identified, its unique signature is added to a detection list. When that variant is encountered again it will be blocked. AV software is not as good as protecting zero-day threats – New malware and viruses that have not been seen before. This is where sandboxing is required. Sandboxing provides an isolated environment where malicious attachments can be subjected to deep analysis to identify malicious actions, such as command and call server callbacks. Sandboxing allows new threats to be identified and provides protection until AV lists are updated to include the signatures for new threats.
Getting Advanced Protect does not Require Advanced Skills
In most cases, implementing an advanced anti spam and anti virus solution does not mean you need to acquire an advanced skill set. Most vendors understand businesses want set and forget online security solutions, and make the configuration and management of their anti spam and anti virus email filtering solutions as straightforward as possible.
Furthermore, the trend in recent years has been to move away from high maintenance solutions that protect each device individually. The majority of advanced anti spam and anti virus email filtering solutions are administered from a centralized web-based portal through which the filtering parameters can be synchronized with directory tools in order to set flexible user policies.
Try an Advanced Anti Spam and Anti Virus Solution from SpamTitan
If you are concerned about the volume of spam evading detection in your business, and would like to enhance your network security with a low maintenance solution, why not try an advanced anti spam and anti virus solution from SpamTitan for free? We offer all businesses the opportunity to try our online security solutions free of charge in order you can evaluate them in your own environment.
In order to take advantage of this opportunity, please speak with our Sales Technicians. They will answer any questions you have about advanced anti spam and anti virus solutions and discuss your current security mechanisms to determine which would be the most effective deployment option – the choice exists of a cloud-based solution or an on-premises anti spam software solution.
During the trial you will have the full support of our Sales Technicians to help you find the optimum settings for your SpamTitan filter. Then, once the trial has ended, should you agree the benefits of our anti spam and anti virus solution is worth keeping, no further configuration of SpamTitan will be necessary.
FAQ
Is it possible to switch off the greylisting process when you expecting an important email?
It is never recommended to switch off the greylisting process as this is one of the most effective measures to prevent spam emails from previously unknown sources evading detection. A safer solution is to add the sender of the important email to an approved sender´s whitelist so, when the important email arrives, it is not automatically returned by the greylisting process.
Why might my outbound emails contain spam or viruses?
Emails can incorrectly be classified as spam when spam-like words frequently appear in their content. SpamTitan solutions can be configured to check for this issue, but more importantly they check that users´ email accounts have not been compromised by a third party and are being used to distribute spam, phishing emails, or viruses from a “trusted source” (i.e. the corporate email account).
How are spam emails and infected emails treated by the filtering solutions?
How spam emails and infected emails are treated by the filtering solutions is determined by the organizations the solutions are protecting. While infected emails should be blocked, deleted, or quarantined by default, the option exists to relax spam confidence levels in order to permit the flagged delivery of spam-like emails in certain circumstances.
What is an example of a spam-like email that an organization would allow?
Many organizations have websites with contact forms that potential leads are invited to complete and submit. Enquiries from online contact forms are delivered to the organization in the form of an email; but, if the spam confidence level is set too high, the email could be rejected due to misspellings, the incorrect use of English, or other spam-like factor.
Doesn't this expose the organization to more spam and malware?
Not necessarily. SpamTitan´s anti spam and anti virus email filtering solutions have granular controls that can be applied by user, team, department, etc. This means an organization can relax spam confidence levels for sales and marketing departments, and maintain higher standards elsewhere to protect the organization from spam and malware.
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