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THREE MODELS ANTI SPAM SOLUTIONS But spam is growing into a corporate problem, and consequently many new products coming to market are server- or gateway- level programs that let you protect entire email systems. Another enterprise option is he service/outsourcing vendor who handles your spam problems for you. The desktop model lets users select and edit filtering lists that rejects unwanted email at the client. The nice part of this strategy is that users have a say in what gets through to their email inbox, rather than having to follow a company wide blanket policy. The assumption is that your users have a better knowledge of what should get through to them, and by letting them control filtering , you have a more customised, granular filtering system. Also, many individuals are wary of handing over control of such a personal tool as email. The disadvantage of this approach is that by the time spam gets to the desktop, the cost of downloading it to your email server and through your network has already been shifted to your organisation.In addition, there's the traditional administrative burden of installing and supporting products at the client level, which can also affect the scalability of the solution. Finally, the filtering system is only as good as its filtering lists. So you'll have to judge whether updated filtering information is implemented fast enough at the client level to combat new forms of spam effectively. The server/gateway model filters spam at either the mail server or between your Internet router and your mail server. Obviously, gateway filters let you avoid transporting and housing spam in your internal network, while the server products stop spam from entering your network further. Both types of products let you set corporate policies on what information gets into your email system. also, such products are easier to install, manage, and update because you have a more centralised point of administration. A disadvantage with this model is that users lose some control over their incoming email, although some packages offer features that let users turn certain filters on or off. Also, with a blanket filtering policy, there's a better chance that legitimate email might be filtered out because of keyword used in the headers or body. Such an event is known in the industry as a false positive. (I should mention that this is a danger inherent to filtering in general, regardless of where it takes place.) Service and outsourcing solutions require you to contract with a third party vendor who filters your organisation's incoming email for spam. these vendors have full-time spam staff that usually operate 24-by-7. The benefit of this approach is that the vendors are spam specialists with expertise in spam tricks, keywords and phrases, and identifiable behavior patterns and text blocks. In addition to being more knowledgeable about ways to identify spam, third party "spam bureau" can provide administrative relief by maintaining and updating your spam defense for you. Much like virus developers, spammers are constantly changing and evolving their tactics to avoid the latest defenses. Third party spam specialists are charged with identifying these new tactics and entering them into your filtering system as quickly as possible. When considering the outsourcing option, however, keep in mind that control over email is even further removed from end users. Again, some companies let users deactivate specific filters. Overall, however, whenever you start with a blanket filtering policy, there is the danger that the blanket will not fit all your users equally. All of these solutions are predicated on the effectiveness of filtering as a means to stop spam. But filtering, by nature, is a reactive mechanism, and spamming products and services mature, a more accurate analysis of the success of these solutions should develop. Most vendors suggest a 90% success rate as the standard that solutions should meet. More ideas on how to stamp out spam click here |
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EMAIL FILTERING SPAMMERS The program runs as a plug-in to Windows 95 and NT mail clients, as well as to Microsoft Outlook, Eudora Pro 3.05.5 and 4.0 and Eudora Light 5.0.5. The company also offers an online site from which you can download monthly updates on new filtering rules. As mail is delivered to a client email application, MailJail checks it against its rules, as well as those provided by the user. The program can perform header-and body-content filtering , and can be configured to delete flagged messages or to send them to a MailJail folder. In addition, MailJail comes with a Teach By Example feature, in which users can send messages to the MailJail program to point out what they consider to be legitimate and junk email. The program generates new filtering rules based on the contents of the messages. Users can also exempt specific addresses from filtering by using the Address Book Matching feature.
READING email THROUGH A BROWSER Q: I have been following your column for quite sometime. A few issues back there was a question regarding whether or not there was a way for a user to read their Jaring or TMNet (Pop3) electronic mail (email) account via a browser , instead of the ordinary email clients such as OutLook Express, Eudora or whatever. A: Well the answer is yes, there are a few sites that actually do this kind of service for free. My favorites are http://www.mailreader.com http://www.earthlink.net/webmail/mmstdol.cgi or http://www.pop3now.com (very secure)
EMAIL SPAM FILTERING The price includes a year's subscription to the company's weekly update of known spammers, which the company actively researches. The product operates with a variety of mail servers, including CSM's Mail Server, Microsoft Exchange, Sendmail, Netscape Mail Server, Software.com's Post.Office, Microsoft NT Mail, Lotus Notes/Domino, and Alta Vista Mail. Internet Mail Scanner can run either on the mail server or on a separate machine. The program receives all incoming email, filters it, and passes the accepted mail to the mail server. According to Mark Smith, president of CSM-USA, Internet Mail Scanner blocks mail with a variety of filters, including Subject and domain - name filters. These filters are editable. You can also limit the amount of email coming from one person, as well as the size of the incoming messages. The program also notifies network administrators if someone tries to spam the email server or use it as a relay. E-Scrub Technologies' Deadbolt is a server-level product and service. The company wouldn't give out details of its pricing for this article, but it did say that pricing depends on the number of users. The product works with Send mail, and the company is working with propriety mail system vendors to expand its support. Deadbolt allows for central management of the filtering system , while allowing end users some control over what gets through to their email inboxes. In addition, it hooks into the spam center at E-Scrub for real-time spam update information. To use the product, you must install amodified Message Transfer Agent (MTA) on your mail server, A CGI script on your organisation's intranet, and an end user configuration server. Using the CGI script, you can set a variety of personal filters for your email inbox. This configuration information is housed in a database on the user configuration server. When your modified mail server receives incoming email, it checks the messages against a spam library, and against personal configuration information in the end-user database. The filtering is focused on information in the mail headers. According to Ron Guilmette, chief technical officer at E-Scrub, the company is hesitant to do any filtering on message bodies. "Our position is that it's only reliable to filter on headers. The danger in filtering on the body, and the most obvious and critical issue for end users in any kind of filtering , is losing legitimate email." After being filtered, email is designated with one or more flags. Messages are given black flags if they contain email addresses, IP addresses or domain names of know spammers; these messages are rejected outright. A white flag means that an individual configuration setting deems this From email address is acceptable. A gray flag indicates that the message falls into one of Deadbolt's filtered categories. In this case, Deadbolt informs the sender that the email has been rejected, and it gives the sender another means to send the message . By doing so, legitimate senders can still get their messages across, but spammers, who rarely waste time with rejected messages on an individual level, will most likely not receive or not respond to the rejection message . (Users can turn on or turn off specific items in the gray flag filters provided by Dead Bolt.) A clear flag indicates that the message has not met any filtering matches and will be let through as regular email. Also, the prevent the loss of legitimate email (in other words, to reduce false positives), the program provides a virtual \filtering mode. In this setting, Deadbolt performs its filtering and flag setting , but still lets all email through; you can analyse the results of Deadbolt's filtering to identify when legitimate email was given a filtered flag. And you can modify the filtered flag settings to let messages with these types of headers through in the future. Deadbolt can work with multiple Web servers and MTA servers. The configuration server can connect in real time to the E. Scrub spam server via TCP/IP. E-Scrub maintains an updated blacklist of spammers and spam tactics, so your email filter can be updated automatically as E-Scrub updates its spam data. Lyris Technologies' Mailshield costs US$995 for a one-server licence. The price is a one-time expense and entitles you to a lifetime licence, including free version upgrades, there are no additional annual fees. MailShield is an email proxy server that takes in email , runs it through a set of filters, and passes legitimate email to the mail server. If a message gets marked as spam, you can configure MailShield to either delete the message outright, or pass it on to an administrator for anlaysis. The product comes with more than 50 types of filtering techniques. The filters concentrate mostly on header information , including data in the Subject and From headers and information provided in the mail relay portion of the headers. MailShield can also use Ping to check IP addresses and look up sender domains to identify forged information. Each of these filters is configurable, and you have the option to add your own. According to the company, MailShield works with all mail servers when it's run as a separate server. On a single machine, you can also run the program as a plug-in with the following mail servers (among others) : SendMail. Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes/ Domino, Netscape Mail Server, Post.Office, Windows NT Mail, and QMail. It's all available for Windows NT, Windows 95, Sun Solaris/SPARC, and Intel. The company is presently updating the program to support other versions of Inix. Berkeley Software Design offers a hardware-based filter called MailFilter. The box sits in front of yourmail server and checks messages against its spam database, which can be updated from BSDI's central spam database. MailFilter comes in three models; Model 10, which costs US$2,395; Model 100, which costs US$4,995; and Model 1000, which costs US$8,995. There's an annual service charge of US$1,400,US$4,900, and US$12,500, respectively. The models vary mostly in processing power and the amount of email they can store for analysis. The annual service fee buys real-time updates from BSDI. MailFilter is attractive because it's a simple drop-in solution; you don't need to modify your email server, switch to a new mail server, or upgrade any platforms. The product performs intelligent filtering, such as checking the viability of mail relay paths and the legitimacy of From addresses, and analysing headers for fraudulent information. The MailFilter database also contains lists of spam keywords and phrases filters. MailFilters also stops mail-relaying from outside domains. Once email has been identified as spam, MailFilter either deletes it or flags it for inspection. The program is customisable, and you can set it to allow passage of certain types of messages that normally would be identified as spam. More ideas on how to stamp out spam click here |
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ANTI SPAM SOLUTIONS The company's strategy centers on a team of spam researchers who will keep spam out of your email system. The service costs US$10,000 for 2,000 users and a one-year license, and it includes software and real-time updates. The price per seat drops as the volume increases. Bright Light plans on formally announcing availability by the end of 1998. Sunyil Paul, CEO of Bright Light , explains the service: "Our approach is similar to McAfee's (now Network Associates') approach to viruses, except we've updated that model for the Internet. We don't use monthly updates. Instead, we move at the speed of spam and are able to react in real time to spammers. Also, our approach scales with spam. As spam gets more sophisticated, we can stay ahead of (spammers) with our 24-by-7 shop filled with spam masters." Similar to the server products, Bright Light equips you with a server-based program that checks incoming email and filters out those messages that match information provided by the Bright Light Operations Center (BLOC). ISPs or corporations using this service can let users opt in to the system via a Web browser, or turn specific filters on or off. Also, suspicious email messages that do not exactly match a spam pattern are kept for users to review on an individual basis. To keep abreast of spam attacks, Bright Light has established an array of email addresses across the Internet to receive spam. Also, the company encourages any company or individual to send in spam they receive. the team will analyse the spam, create new rules, based on the spam, and update customers. Bright Light works with SendMail, and according to Paul, the next version of SendMail will have BrightMail bundled with it. The company is also working with Software.com to include the product with the latter's InterMail. You can also run BrightMail on a separate machine in front of your email server. BrightMail's selling point is the work of its BLOC. The software side of the product is similar to other server-based products, some of which also provide spam updates (some in real time). So, when evaluating Bright Mail and other high-level products, you should look at the effectiveness and breadth of information found in the updates. More ideas on how to stamp out spam click here
THE REAL email MESSAGE Remember: When shopping for a solution, you must weigh how much responsibility you want in configuring and updating filters against leaving it in end users' hands, or in the hands of a third party. Also, when narrowing your list of products, test them to evaluate how effective they are at stopping spam without causing a lot of false positives. The ultimate goal, of course, is to filter out unwanted email while allowing the passage of legitimate email. With a solid technological solution and a strong stance by either the US Congress or the courts, you'll be able to relieve users- and yourself-of the need to deal with unwanted email Lee Chae is a business and technology writer in the US. He can be reached at lchae @pacbell.net
email: TOO HOT TO HANDLE But customers today are frustrated with companies that fail to promptly respond to online inquiries. Intelligent Enterprise speaks to five companies in highly competitive industries to find out how they're satisfying customers--By Isabelle Chan And Gigi Onag CUSTOMER satisfaction has always been the goal companies work hard to attain. Now that the level of personal and physical interaction is taken out of the loop with the proliferation of Web storefronts, companies must learn to address the issue of customer service in new ways. Today, email is one communication channel many Web sites use as their point-of-contact to their customers. However, pull the Web covers off and there lies a sad state of affairs; Companies fail to respond to email inquiries. At least 50% of email inquiries are left unanswered, according to senior analyst Drew Ianni of Jupiter Communications. When a company states: "We'll get back to you as soon as possible", what they should really be saying is "Thank you for the feedback, but we won't be getting back to you." Today, Web sites are getting more colourful, attractive and informative. Unfortunately, not enough importance is being put on customer service. Several companies have underestimated the popularity and power of the 'Feedback' facility available over the Internet. They remember to give customers or prospects the ability to submit their questions or mail electronically but forget that the feedback often requires a response. And not just any response but a prompt response with the right answers. "I remember when I forgot my password for my Hotmail account two years ago, I wrote to them asking for information so that I could access my account , but I didn't get much help. They only told me that I would have to wait for three months for the new password, or something ridiculous," recalled Faith Sarmienta, an expatriate working in Hong Kong. She has been a regular Internet surfer for more than four years and and occasional online consumer who buys multivitamins from US based Web sites because they are 50% cheaper than in Hong Kong. "I shop at http://www.vitamins.com For overseas purchases, the only way to find out the total amount to be debited to my credit card is to inquire via their feedback @vitamins.com. If I make an inquiry today, I get an answer the next day. Considering the time difference, I think it is a reasonable response time." Sarmienta has also found that the speed of response to email inquiry varies, depending on whether one is a paying customer in an e-commerce Web site or just a surfer availing of a free service over the Internet. "I have fooled around and written letters to 'experts' in one of my favourite sites like http://www.ivillage.com which is targeted at women, just to test if they would reply and often they do. I ask questions mostly mostly about health and sometimes I get detailed answers. In other times, I just receive brief messages saying that there are simply too many letter so I have to wait in line," recalled Sarmienta. Sarmienta's experience is not uncommon. IE picked different Web sites at random and tested to see how quickly companies would revert with a reply to a sales inquiry. The speed and nature of the response varied. Some gave an automated email reply acknowledging receipt of the email , but followed up with a phone call after 48 hours. Others simply send brochures via traditional mail to the address given- they never followed up or responded via email .And, not surprisingly, others failed to reply at all. Industry consultants confirmed that this 'no response' is a common experience. Few companies have seriously considered the need to give customers prompt email responses. "This is a big problem because a lot of companies give customers an option to ask questions, but fail to build the right back-end support infrastructure to handle email inquiries," said Walter Lee, country manager, e-business ,IBM Singapore. "Often, companies assign staff to look at email inquiries but do not have a way of tracking them. And if the Web site is successful, i.e. it attracts a lot of people, the company receives a lot of email inquiries which they have no ability to adequately respond to and handle." This is not a new problem that just cropped up yesterday. And it is a problem, said Lee, because "people treat the Web site as a separate infrastructure from the internal messaging system". Craig Ower, an associate director for Arthur Andersen's Integrated Customer Solutions practice, too regards this as a big problem which few companies have realised. "Many organisations take at least 24 hours to turnaround a response which could take two forms: an acknowledgement to the email inquiry and a response to the question," said Ower. "Many companies, however, do not even acknowledge receipt. And the reality is that most organisations haven't placed importance on it. Only those in highly competitive industries, such as utilities and telecommunications, are starting to address this issue," he added. According to Jensen Koo, business development consultant , Magnus Management Consultants, this problem is not only an issue in Asia. "This is a big problem not only on Asian Web sites but also on more established Web sites in the US. The main problem is the lack of integration between the front-end and back-end software," said Koo.
"Firms typically have a generic email address, such as This could be potentially damaging to the firm , as this could cost them potential customers in the near future and damage their reputation as online retailers."
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