What is email spam filtering?
Email spam filtering protects email and employees from spam that can deliver malware, zero-day attacks and other advanced threats, and spread throughout the enterprise. Incorporating an email spam filter not only helps to protect against advanced cyberattacks, but will prevent inboxes from filling up with unproductive junk mail.
How do email spam filters work?
Spam filters block spam – Mimecast’s email spam filter SLA stops 99% of spam with 0.0001% false positives. Spam filters also stop malware and viruses that can be delivered via spam, thereby minimizing disruption to the enterprise.
What do spam filters look for?
To be truly effective, spam filters must scan every incoming email in real time and block many forms of malware such as suspicious URLs, suspicious attachments, and social engineering attacks such as phishing.
Types of email spam filters
There are several types of email spam filters, each designed to catch unwanted emails using different methods and technologies. These include:
- Content-Based Filters: analyze the content of an email, looking for specific keywords or phrases that are commonly associated with spam.
- Blocklist Filters: block emails from known spammer IP addresses or domains, which are maintained on a blocklist.
- Heuristic Filters: algorithms to identify spam based on known spam characteristics and patterns.
- Bayesian Filters: use statistical techniques to learn what characteristics are common in spam emails based on previously identified spam and legitimate emails.
- Challenge-Response Filters: send a verification request back to the sender, asking them to confirm they are a real person, not an automated spam sender.
- Rule-Based Filters: allow administrators to set up specific rules or policies that emails must meet in order to be delivered to the recipient’s inbox.
Features of effective spam filters
Effective spam filters have several key features that help them protect against unwanted and malicious emails:
- High Accuracy: An effective spam filter must be highly accurate, blocking a high percentage of spam while maintaining a very low false positive rate.
- Real-Time Scanning: To keep up with the constant influx of email, spam filters must be able to scan and analyze emails in real-time.
- Multi-Layered Detection: Combining different types of filters (content-based, heuristic, Bayesian, etc.) can provide more comprehensive protection.
- Automatic Updates: Effective spam filters receive automatic updates to stay ahead of new spam techniques and threats.
- User Control: Allowing users to manage their own safe and blocked lists can enhance the filter’s effectiveness and user satisfaction.
- Quarantine Management: Providing a quarantine area where suspected spam can be reviewed before being deleted ensures legitimate emails are not lost.
Why is spam filtering important?
Email spam is one of the oldest and most prevalent methods of attack against organizations. Cybercriminals can deliver spam quickly and inexpensively at huge volumes, making it difficult to block without spam filtering. And since spam can deliver malicious activity like zero-day attacks, phishing, and malware, it’s critical to use spam filtering to protect organizations.
Stop email-borne threats with an email spam filter
An exceptional email spam filter is a must for IT security today. Email spam continues to be a significant threat to productivity, performance, and security. Spam lowers productivity by clogging employee mailboxes, impacts network performance by consuming bandwidth, and increases the cost of your mail management system.
But the most dangerous threat that spam poses is in its content. Ninety-one percent of hacking attacks today begin phishing or spear-phishing – email-borne threats that are wreaking havoc with corporate security around the world.
When you’re seeking a superior email spam filter to mitigate threats posed by spam, Mimecast provides an all-in-one cloud-based service offering superior email spam protection.
Protect your organization with a spam email blocker
A superior email spam blocker protects your organization in many ways. Spam is an ever-present and costly annoyance, clogging up mailboxes, servers, and bandwidth with unwanted messages and traffic. The right email spam blocker improves productivity by keeping unnecessary mail out of employee mailboxes. It reduces costs by eliminating spam before it has a chance to reach your network. Most importantly, an email spam blocker protects your employees and your organization from advanced email-borne threats that are the top source of security breaches today.
Mimecast provides a highly effective email spam blocker as part of the Mimecast Secure Email Gateway, a sophisticated email security solution combining virus, malware and email spam protection with defenses against new and emerging threats as well.
Email spam blocker with central control
Mimecast Secure Email Gateway simplifies email security with a single cloud platform enabling easy control of all aspects of email management systems. With Mimecast, administrators can:
- Set global and finely-tuned policies from a single console.
- Handle challenges like flexible inbound routing and traffic-splitting without adding infrastructure.
- Apply policies at the organization, group or mailbox level.
- Route email using Active Directory group membership or attributes for ultimate flexibility.
- Rewrite addresses inbound and outbound for complex, multi-domain environments.
Learn more about Mimecast’s email spam blocker and about Microsoft Exchange email archiving solutions from Mimecast.
An email spam filter for advanced threats
To stop threats like phishing and spear-phishing, Mimecast bolsters its email spam filter with Targeted Threat Protection to scan every incoming email in real time and block suspicious URLs and attachments. Capabilities for dynamic user awareness help underscore security policies with employees and engage them in assessing risks as part of their workflow. By preventing employees from inadvertently clicking on links or revealing sensitive information, Mimecast improves frontline security protection against the most common email-borne threats today.
Learn more about Mimecast’s email spam blocker and about Mimecast solutions for email continuity, email archiving and email search.
An email spam filtering service from Mimecast
Mimecast’s security, archiving and continuity solutions are unified on a single cloud platform to provide comprehensive email risk management in one fully-integrated subscription service. With Mimecast, you can easily reduce the risk, complexity and cost typically associated with email management solutions.
Mimecast provides a best-of-breed email spam filter as part of Mimecast Secure Email Gateway. Deploying the latest threat intelligence and sophisticated multi-layer detection engines, this Mimecast email security solution protects email and employees from spam, malware, zero-day attacks and other advanced threats.
With Mimecast’s email spam filter, you can:
- Block spam – Mimecast’s email spam filter SLA stops 99% of spam with 0.0001% false positives.
- Minimize disruption with an email spam filter and security solution that also protects against attacks.
- Enhance productivity by enabling users to manage their own lists of blocked and permitted senders, reducing calls to the help desk.
- Support mail validation technology including DKIM and DMARC.
We're here to help you stop email spam!
Email Spam Filter FAQs
How can I stop receiving spam emails?
To stop receiving spam emails, you can use the following strategies:
- Use a Reliable Spam Filter: Implementing a robust spam filter, such as Mimecast’s Secure Email Gateway, can significantly reduce the amount of spam reaching your inbox.
- Do Not Share Your Email Address Publicly: Avoid posting your email address on public forums, social media, or websites where it can be harvested by spammers.
- Unsubscribe from Unwanted Newsletters: Use the unsubscribe link in unwanted emails to stop receiving newsletters and promotional content.
- Report Spam: Use your email client’s spam reporting feature to help improve the accuracy of your spam filter.
- Create Email Rules: Set up rules in your email client to automatically move suspected spam emails to a separate folder.
- Use Disposable Email Addresses: For online sign-ups or one-time use, consider using a disposable email address to prevent spam in your main inbox.
Is it better to block or delete spam?
It depends on the context and your email management preferences:/p>
- Blocking Spam: Blocking spam is more proactive, as it prevents future emails from the same sender or domain from reaching your inbox. This can be especially useful if you receive repeated spam from the same sources.
- Deleting Spam: Deleting spam removes unwanted emails from your inbox, but it does not prevent future spam from the same sender. It’s a reactive approach that keeps your inbox clean but may require ongoing maintenance.
- Combined Approach: Using a combination of both blocking and deleting can provide comprehensive spam management. Implementing a spam filter that automatically blocks known spam sources and deletes identified spam emails can be the most effective strategy.
Do spam filters block all emails?
No, spam filters do not block all emails. Effective spam filters are designed to:
- Block Spam: Identify and block emails that are considered spam based on various criteria and filtering techniques.
- Allow Legitimate Emails: Ensure that legitimate emails from trusted sources reach the re-cipient’s inbox without unnecessary delays.
- Minimize False Positives: Strive to minimize false positives, where legitimate emails are in-correctly marked as spam. High-quality spam filters, like Mimecast’s, have a very low false positive rate to ensure important communications are not lost.
- Provide Quarantine Options: Suspected spam emails can be quarantined for review, allow-ing users or administrators to release any emails that were mistakenly flagged.
How do I stop spam emails permanently?
To permanently reduce spam emails, consider the following strategies:
- Use a Strong Spam Filter: Implement a powerful spam filter that continuously updates to recognize new spam techniques and threats.
- Protect Your Email Address: Avoid sharing your primary email address publicly and use sec-ondary or disposable email addresses for online registrations.
- Unsubscribe and Report: Regularly unsubscribe from unwanted email lists and report spam to your email provider to help improve spam filtering systems.
- Educate Users: Train employees and users on best practices for email security, such as rec-ognizing phishing attempts and avoiding suspicious links or attachments.
- Implement DMARC, DKIM, and SPF: Use email authentication methods like DMARC, DKIM, and SPF to help prevent spammers from spoofing your email domain and to improve the overall security of your email communications.
- Regularly Review and Update: Keep your spam filter settings and email security protocols up-to-date to adapt to new spam tactics and emerging threats.
