Anti-Spam and E-mail Content

The anti-spam and E-Mail content filters integrated in the IMP help customers identify and remove more than 98 percent of spam. They also minimize false positives and detect virus outbreaks as soon as they occur, thereby reducing the impact on the E-mail infrastructure and the end users. The filters classify received E-mail, allowing customers to prioritize messages by the type of message or E-mail.

Cloudmark

Cloudmark Authority Anti-Spam, tightly integrated with the IMP, delivers one of the industry's most effective and highest performing anti-spam, anti-phishing and anti-virus protection. Cloudmark's solution consistently blocks over 98 percent of inbound and outbound messaging attacks in real time with almost zero false positives.

The Cloudmark Global Threat Network forms the basis of Cloudmark's security platform. The network consists of millions of judicious reporters with associated trust ratings in 163 countries together with a worldwide coalition of service providers. The Cloudmark method is language agnostic due to the global nature of this network, which analyzes messages for anomalies rather than for specific text.

Cloudmark's patents-pending fingerprinting algorithms mark messages classified by the Cloudmark Global Threat Network as spam or malware. The company maintains a cache of all bad fingerprints, continuously updated with data from the Cloudmark Global Threat Network.

The lightweight fingerprinting algorithms specifically target spammer-operated techniques and constraints. They identify viruses that have undergone polymorphic mutations (for example, changes in URL, text, image and sender).

Product: Cloudmark Authority Anti-Spam
Availability: Chargeable add-on
Supported Platform: IMP
Supported Releases: 2.3 and above

More information on Cloudmark.

Commtouch

Commtouch approaches E-mail security from a unique perspective. Rather than addressing individual messages, Commtouch's Recurrent Pattern Detection Technology (RPD) technology detects the outbreaks themselves - and blocks all messages associated with them. To do this, it analyzes large volumes of real-time Internet traffic. Commtouch identifies new spam and malware outbreaks as soon as they emerge, and records them in the Signatures Repository.

The faster an outbreak multiplies, the faster Commtouch spots it and immediately blocks messages associated with mass outbreaks without the need to analyze each message. This approach protects users in real-time, all the time - independent of time-consuming new signatures.

The Commtouch engine effectively prevents customers from receiving any mass-distributed Internet mailing: Malware, fraud, and spam in any language or format. Advantages include:

Industry-leading detection/accuracy performance
Automatic proactive protection
Blocking new malware outbreaks within minutes
Proven effectiveness hours before new anti-virus signatures are distributed
Immune to spammers' evolving foiling attempts
Efficient in preventing phishing and frauds so users don't deal with them
Content and language agnostic

Leading messaging and security vendors license or embed Commtouch's RPD technology, which protects over 35 million users worldwide.

Product: Commtouch RPD / Zero-Hour Virus Detection
Availability: Chargeable add-on
Supported Platform: IMP
Supported Releases: 2.4 and above

More information on Commtouch.

eleven

eleven develops and operates expurgate, a state-of-the-art Spam-recognition and E-mail-categorization technology. Alongside other checks, eXpurgate inspects E-mails for the most definitive Spam characteristic - a mass mailing. A major component of this inspection known as the "bulkcheck" breaks down an E-mail's textual content to a few bytes of code and then compares it with a centralized data repository. It identifies Spam and other E-mail types solely based on this short checksum.

When combined with other proprietary testing procedures, eXpurgate definitively categorizes an E-mail as spam or as a different type of mass mailing such as a newsletter. In doing so, eXpurgate not only filters out spam, but also supports the appropriate sorting of other mass mailings and verifies that "false positives" are out of the question.

Product: eleven eXpurgate
Availability: Chargeable add-on
Supported Platform: IMP
Supported Releases: 2.4 and above

More information on Eleven

Symantec

Symantec's award-winning Brightmail Anti-Spam solution leverages multiple effective technologies, globally distributed operations centers, a patented spam detection network, and a real-time filter delivery mechanism. Protecting over 300 million users, it filters over 15 percent of worldwide E-mails and handles over 100 billion E-mails per month.

Offering one of the industry's highest accuracy rate, Symantec Brightmail AntiSpam makes sure that users receive every important E-mail. Spam analysis done at global operations centers in the United States, Ireland, Australia and Taiwan use the patented Probe Network, an extensive array of over two million decoy E-mail addresses and domains also known as spamtraps or honeypots. Automated processes and expert technicians analyze incoming spam from the Probe Network and junk mail submissions from customers and develop effective countermeasures.

The real-time spam traffic that flows through the Probe Network drives Symantec's responsive and accurate filters, such as BrightSig2^TM. Probe Network also provides valuable source and spam URL information for the Brightmail Reputation Service and URL filters, respectively. Overall, Symantec Brightmail relies on over 17 different filtering technologies, including proprietary signatures and heuristics. It also has integrated antifraud filters to protect against phishing and E-mail fraud.

Chosen by 9 of the top 12 U.S. ISPs, Bizanga works closely with Symantec to ensure a tight and effective integration of Brightmail with the IMP.

Product: Symantec Brightmail
Availability: Chargeable add-on
Supported Platform: IMP
Supported Releases: 3.0 and above

More information on Symantec.

Vade Retro from GOTO Software

GOTO Software in France designed the Vade Retro antispam application, which is built on an original filtering system. Developed as a black box, the filtering module provides the calling environment with a spam score for each filtered message. Furthermore, the autonomous analyzing module computes spam scores on an algorithmic basis without accessing a database or any external reference server.

Its embedded knowledgebase detects new types of spam without any user training or learning process. One of the guiding design principles is its high processing speed as the filter's primary purpose is targeting high volume E-mail processing applications.

GOTO Software's R&D team keeps improving the filter so it finds new spam patterns. Spamtraps and Vade Retro's antispam service users also contribute messages to help grow the collection of legitimate and unwanted E-mail messages. As a result and through its periodical updates, the service provides customers with continuous efficiency.

Product: GOTO Software's Vade Retro
Availability: Chargeable add-on
Supported Platform: IMP
Supported Releases: 2.3 and above