Spam Filters save precious time and energy by keeping inboxes safe from constant bombardment by unwanted e-mail. Chances are that you are already using some kind of spam filter software—but is it doing its job? According to Nucleus Research, the average cost of spam per employee per year in May 2004 was $1,934. An up-front investment in a high quality spam filter could end up saving your company a lot of money. As anti-spam vendors continue to consolidate and competition is fierce, you can expect increasingly sophisticated products for roughly the same price.

Features

Vendors offer a myriad of different features that promise to stay one step ahead of the increasingly savvy spammer. The programs block and filter e-mail according to your stipulations to keep junk e-mails from finding their way into your inbox, and some have other helpful capabilities. Because there are so many products out there that offer various levels of service, IT buyers need to be intimately aware of their company’s needs in order to gage what security product would be the most efficient.

Some products offer multi-layered protection that stop phishing attacks, viruses, and other threats along with filtering spam. Companies also offer spam filters as part of a comprehensive security suite. These programs provide integrated web security against spyware and keylogging transmissions back to the host sites. They also monitor employees’ instant messaging and provide information on vulnerability to malicious code and on user access to fraudulent websites.

There are products better suited for larger companies whose administrators need helping handling large volumes of email. These programs capture and analyze spam in order to generate powerful spam DNA. They help administrators take different actions on messages depending on their confidence that the message is spam. Very often they don’t require additional hardware and they operate within the corporate firewall. Most programs provide user access to quarantined messages while giving the administrator control over user preferences.

Most vendors are boasting a 95-98 percent detection rate as well as flexibility for both administrators and individual users. Programs are getting more self-sufficient and are requiring far less administrative attention then they did in the past. However, there is no product that can offer complete spam control, so companies and vendors alike must struggle to stay a head of the issue.

What’s Available

There are many different spam filtering programs available. Below you’ll find a cross section of products for both the individual user and those for company wide protection.

• Mirapoint’s RazorGate e-mail security appliances offer industrial-strength multi-layered protection to stop spam, fraud, phishing attacks, viruses, and other security threats. Mirapoint has a proven 98% catch-rate with zero false positives. The Full-Spectrum technology includes heuristic rules-based and signature-based scanning with automatic updates, RBLs, SMTP-based authentication, controls for blocking messages based on sender, originating domain or IP address, as well as black and white lists to further reduce incoming unwanted traffic.

• Websense Web Security Suite offers spyware protection, blocks malicious mobile code (MMC), and other web-based threats, as well as spyware and keylogging transmissions back to their host sites. It protects employees from phishing and controls the sending and receiving of instant messaging (IM) clients. Websense Web Security Suite - Lockdown Edition provides an important layer of desktop security to address the critical zero-day security loophole that is not effectively or practically addressed elsewhere in the industry.

• Iron Mail combines leading-edge technology with Cipher Trust's anti-spam and e-mail threat research has helped respected corporations solve the spam problem. Iron Mail utilizes Cipher Trust's patented correlation engine to examine 14 different aspects of each e-mail to determine whether it is legitimate.

• Cloudmark Authority captures, analyzes, and predicts spam to generate powerful spam DNA. Designed to handle high volumes of e-mail, Cloudmark Authority is able to handle message flow for the largest enterprises, service providers, or carriers. It installs into the existing network infrastructure, requires no investment in additional hardware or constant administrative attention, operates inside the corporate firewall, and preserves e-mail and network security. Cloudmark's adaptive Genetic Classification spamGene technology accurately identifies and removes more than 98% of spam while reducing false positive occurrences to almost zero.

• Sybari Advanced Spam Defense offers a comprehensive, feature-rich, stand-alone, anti-spam solution that can be tailored to seamlessly support its needs and infrastructure. Features include a 95% detection rate with low false positives, the ability to have central control, minimal IT maintenance requirements, ability to block spam in languages other than English, option to activate spam filtering through corporate directory, ability for end users to review their own quarantined data and modify their own anti-spam rules, and the ability to set flexible spam-filtering rules for the individual user.

• Inboxer Outlook Spam Filter is an easy to use add-on that can be used on top of other corporate spam filters to keep Outlook even cleaner, and also works great for individual users. This product costs $29.95

• Symantec Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition includes Norton Anti-Virus, Norton Spyware Protection, Norton Personal Firewall, Norton Privacy Control, Norton Parental Control, and Norton AntiSpam. This product costs $72.99.

• Microsoft Windows Small Business Server Standard 2003 (5 Client) includes Windows Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2003 technology, a preconfigured internal Web site based on Windows SharePoint Services, and it accommodate a mobile work force through the Remote Web Workplace. This product costs $524.99.

• Qurb 3.0 integrates directly with Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express and protects inboxs from phishing, unwanted messages, and other security threats. Messages from approved senders are delivered directly to your inbox. All other messages are quarantined for review at a convenient time, improving productivity and reducing communication costs. This product costs $29.95.

How To Choose

There are many factors that should be weighed when you are deciding what spam filter to use. If you are buying for a large company, you must be very clear on what features you need and why. If you are looking to purchase software for your own machine, make sure to read the fine print and verify that the software you buy is appropriate for your computer.

• Number of Employees. Vendors will examine how many users will need to be covered before they can quote an accurate price. Obviously, the more employees there are, the more emails will need to be contained and examined. Administrators are often kept very busy monitoring this process, so it’s important to select a program that is self-sufficient and has all the features you need to control the online environment.

• Level of Security. This is an important thing to consider. Many of the vendors listed above offer more than spam filtering—they are a complete internet security package. They keep a close watch on what’s received from the outside, and also have the capability to monitor what’s going on inside (employees Instant Messaging for example). Every individual and every company faces a unique situation when it comes to internet security. If your company is involved with a lot of research and development using the Internet, it’s important to safeguard against viruses, worms, and other risks that can severely damage networked computers. So, consider which functions you’ll actually need and which will be superfluous.

• Catch Rate. You want to make sure there is a high catch rate for your spam filter. As was mentioned above, most high quality filters have a 95-98 percent catch rate. Spam that is allowed to slip by adds up quickly, wastes precious time, and can also be a security threat.

• Additional Hardware. Sometimes additional hardware needs to be purchased and installed, and this will increase the price of any system you choose. Make sure to ask if the software can be incorporated into your company’s existing firewall.