Better filters are the answer in the fight against spam

Richard Broeke

"Spam is a bigger problem now that it was 10 years ago. That's because there is always a market for spam. Email is a cheap-and-easy way to target mass audiences and, sadly, there are still millions of people out there who fall for spammers' tricks, whether it is responding to a phishing email and giving up their personal details, clicking through to unsafe website links and downloading malware to their computers, or purchasing dodgy products.

"To get a handle on spam and stop it from affecting business, companies need to employ better spam filters. The typical, run-of-the-mill on-site anti-spam is all good and well for a period of time. But, spammers' tactics change, messages become harder to identify as spam, and an outdated, poorly maintained spam solution eventually starts letting spam through.

"Despite having an anti-spam solution in place, companies are beginning to find it becoming a drain on business productivity again; and a costly waste of time and resources that blocks up the network and compromises data security and systems health. For unsuspecting users who fall for spam, the risks include compromise of personal information, fraud, identity theft and harassment," said Richard Broeke of Securicom, a managed IT security services vendor.

A multi-tiered platform

What he proposes for more effectively tackling spam is a multi-tiered platform that uses a number of technologies.

"Where one technology fails, the other picks up the slack," he commented.

"Ideally," he said, "spam should be stopped, using multiple technologies, before it is even able to enter the network. A comprehensive cloud-based solution utilising best-of-breed technologies will be able to interrogate email messages, sift out the spam and block it from entering the corporate network.

"From the perspective of malware, it is significant if spam can be identified and stopped before it crosses the company line. In addition, it affords companies a way of protecting naïve employees against spam lures."

According to him, companies using Securicom's email security solution, e-Purifier, are guaranteed an effectiveness in terms of a spam catch rate of 99.8%. "More importantly we boast the lowest false positive rate in the industry of less than one in one million identified messages," he said.

The solution is hosted in the cloud, off-site, by Securicom and utilises best-of-breed technologies, and encompasses complete email content management with DLP functionality, as well as anti-virus to provide proactive and effective management of email at ISP level. It is a fully hosted solution that is offered on a subscription basis, making it cost-effective and accessible for smaller businesses that don't have the budget or resources to purchase and maintain a best-of-breed on-premises solution.

Although the solution is managed and hosted by Securicom, offering the assurance that it is appropriately monitored, managed and kept up to date, companies still have control of their email. From the dashboard, they have full visibility into the company message system and message flow, as well as access to a range of tools.