SPAM FILTERING

Filtering Methods:

The system decides whether a message is spam based on several evaluations. Filtering is deterministic for efficiency reasons: if a message fails certain tests along the way, it is rejected immediately and not subjected to the entire testing regimen. After two primary go / no-go steps, each message that hasn't already been rejected as spam is evaluated using message scoring methodology. The fate of the message is then controlled based settings managed by the client.

Settings & Control:

Settings you control include domain level and personal blacklisting, domain and personal whitelisting, vulgarity filtering, quarantine score and delete score. The last two rely on the number of "points" assigned to the message by the scoring system. If a message gets enough points, you can determine it to be spam and it can be discarded or quarantined. You have control over the Delete Value, the Quarantine Value and the Number of Days a message is held in quarantine. at both the domain and individual levels. Several methods we currently use for assigning points are as follows:

• A Rules Based Approach that analyzes headers and message text for certain specific characteristics. Both positive and negative points are assigned based on what is found in the message.
• A Learning Component that builds a database of tokens from known spam and known ham (wanted messages). These tokens add extra positive or negative point assignments to messages that have the tokens, thereby increasing the certainty that they are or are not spam. The token database is continually updated based on the content of incoming messages so it keeps "learning" what the spammers are doing.
• Collaborative Spam-tracking Databases are used. The system reads a signature of each incoming message and compares it to known spam from several databases. Since spam is typically sent to many people, the first people to receive a spam message can add it to a database -- at which point everyone else will automatically block it.

Besides quarantine or delete score, you also have control of the following:

• Vulgarity Filtering can be turned on or off for each personal profile.
• Whitelists are a lists of addresses known to be non-spam. You can make your own whitelist entries on a domain or individual profile basis.
• Blacklists are a lists of addresses known to be used for spam. You can make your own blacklist entries on a domain or individual profile basis.
• A Quarantine Digest can be sent to you so you don't have to log into the system to see what's in the quarantine.
• Personal POP Mailboxes may be added to the filter. If you add your personal mailbox, the system will check that mailbox, filter the mail and deliver it into your regular mailbox along with the rest of your mail. You will no longer have to check that mailbox because spam111 will do it for you.

Custom Interface: The interface to the system allows you to set your own parameters for filtering. You have the ability to set limits on whether to totally discard messages or just quarantine them for some fixed time period. Additionally, you get statistics and graphs showing the amount of spam the system has processed for you and what happened to it. The following options are available:
Global Settings: As you can see from the options below, if the delete score you set is lower than or equal to the quarantine score, no messages will be quarantined. Delete Score: set from 4 to 11 Quarantine Score: set from 4 to 11 Quarantine Days: set from 1 to 14 Blacklist Action: Quarantine or Delete Vulgarity Filter: On or Off Quarantine Digest: Schedule for receipt of the digest	(click image for larger view)
My Settings: These override the global settings. Username: for example jsmith@somewhere.com Full Name: for example Joe Smith Delete Score: 4 to 11 Quarantine Score: 4 to 11 Quarantine Days: 1 to 14 Blacklist Action: Quarantine or Delete Vulgarity Filter: On or Off Quarantine Digest: Schedule for receipt of the digest Mail Forward: email address to forward all incoming mail to. Remote POP Accounts: external mail accounts that you would like to download to your spam111.com mailbox for filtering.	(click image for larger view)
White/Blacklist: Whitelist addresses and domains here Blacklist addresses and domains here	(click image for larger view)
Quarantine: Sort by sender, subject, date or score Delete messages permanently from quarantine. Send messages from your quarantine on to your mailbox. View quarantined messages. Add message senders to White/Blacklists.	(click image for larger view)
Usage: Provides statistics and daily & monthly graphs of deleted, quarantined and sent mail.	(click image for larger view)

HARDWARE SYSTEMS:

There are several levels of hardware comprising the system all of which are redundant. On the front end are the Firewalls where the first round of basic filtering takes place. Behind that are the MX Servers where mail is received, checked against a valid users list and evaluated with a spam score. Behind those are the Filtering Servers where the decision is made about what to do with the message based on its score and the user's settings. Next are the Delivery Servers where the messages are either forwarded to a customer's SMTP server, forwarded to an alias or delivered to a mailbox on our system. Lastly are the Mail File Servers where mail is stored for our customers. The system is designed in a modular fashion such that machines can be added to compensate for growth. There is always at least one more machine than is necessary to handle the load for redundancy and reliability purposes.

VIRUS SCANNING AND VIRUS INFORMATION

SPAM FILTERING AND SPAM INFORMATION

HOW THE POP SYSTEM WORKS