Fingerprint database analysis, lexical analysis, artificial intelligence, statistical analysis, and heuristics are what SurfControl calls the five top ways to spot and sock spam, in a just-released white paper report.
"(M)ore and more people agree that it will take a combination of advanced technology and a new legal infrastructure to effectively fight spam," SurfControl said in announcing "Major Techniques For Fighting Spam," written by a group of the company's filtering experts.
"E-mail filtering and advanced anti-spam technology are now a business imperative for every organization," said white paper co-author Paris Trudeau.
The key, she said, is to get maximum spam-identifying accuracy with the minimum human intervention, though that can be very expensive. "To do this, organizations need to use multiple spam detection and classification technologies that analyze and filter actual e-mail content automatically and in real time to stop spam at the network edge," she said."Customization is also important. One company's spam is another's legitimate business e-mail."
Fingerprint database analysis regarding spam compares to fingerprint-based identification common to anti-virus software, SurfControl says, adding the technique is "very effective" in spotting known spam strains and trails "and is unlikely to identify an inocuous message as spam."
Lexical analysis aims at words and phrases in message text in the entire e-mail's context, necessary, the authors of the paper said, "because spam messages are constantly mutating to avoid detection."
Artificial intelligence uses neural networks that can be trained to learn what an organization or user defines as spam, the white paper said, while statistical analysis - similar enough to AI - "can be trained to weight the overall probability that a message is spam."
And heuristics? Derived from the Greek for "to find," in the spam fighting context it refers to a framework combining results of spam-identifying tests, determining an overall score of message content, and ultimately nailing down that a message is or isn't spam, the white paper says.
Focus on the transport of spam is also important, according to co-author Dr. Richard Cullen, a senior SurfControl filtering developer. "It is important to completely disable the open relay functionality of any Internet mail server," he said. "External users -- including spammers -- must never be allowed to send messages through the mail server without verifying user authentication to that server's users."
The white paper conjoins with a spam seminar series, "Blocking Spam: Stop Unwanted Content Enterprise Wide," co-hosted by SurfControl and Network World, beginning May 15 and running during May and June in Boston, Dallas, Washington, and Los Angeles, SurfControl said. The audience will include chief information and technology officers, information technology managers, and information on tools, tactics, and techniques to can the spam, the company added.
SurfControl's E-mail Filter - blending multiple layers of spam detection and content filtering, with a deep signature database to spot and classify spam, as well as cleaning out e-mail viruses - is now used by an estimated 1.4 million business enterprises. communication without having to reconfigure their current network settings. E-mail Audit provides organizations with insight into exposure to potential risks and can help them develop effective acceptable use policies.
