Hardware Spam Filters You Can Use

If you are looking to purchase a hardware based spam filter, and you are not sure how to judge capabilities against price, then you have come to the right place. There are a lot of hardware spam filters out there, and they are based on many factors. One of these is the system that you are using, depending on whether you run Windows, Linux or Apple's Macintosh OS, there are hardware spam filters which are either bespoke to these systems.

Some of the hardware spam filters you can use also include features like virus filtering, and anyone in the know should know that spam and viruses come together, especially when a lot of hackers use worms and Trojans to harvest email lists and re distribute them to other sources or spam operators.

So the best advice is that when you do look at hardware spam filters, you should look at the strength of the features and top of the list should be how customisable the spam options are and how strong the virus filtration and protection system is. Also, it should also be a question of price.

Systems like the Barracuda are one of the used systems out there and its specs make it a very good hardware spam filter. Other spam filters like SpamTitan are also good in the sense that it allows alot of customisation and options when it comes to your filtering needs, meaning that you can set things like prompting, storage of junk mail and spam, listing of origin I.P's and a whole host of other security options.

Another brand name that comes to mind is the PineApp mail-Secure system, which is a dedicated mail based spam filtering hardware, managed but their own security networks and all the hassle is taken out. All you need to do is to tell the company what you need and it will set the options down for you. The good thing about hardware spam filters is the fact that they add another level of capacity and since the emails are being handled by the dedicated server, this means that your own email servers are not being stressed by their operations.

They do everything in real time, which means that your 'allow' list will be immediately forwarded to you while dubious sources and generic mails will be scanned before being given the go ahead to go to your inbox.

For many, it is a question of control, because while you do want to filter out the useless and junk emails, you also need to do that there is nothing that was missed out. Also, it depends on what you do, and from business owner to casual home user of the internet, there are different sorts of hardware spam filters that are bespoke for your own needs.

Don't make the mistake of buying the first one you see, or being impressed by features that you don't need. Make the right decision and one that matches you needs, and you will soon see more than 90% of your spam problems disappear.http://biggestwebshop.com/barracudaspam/

The Spam Index - A Birds' Eye View of a Shifting Challenge

Brockmann & Company's introduction of The Spam Index nailed down quantitative measures for several things that e-mail users intuitively know: E-mail is useful (82 percent of respondents to the online poll on which the index is based said that e-mail is very important to their jobs) but the experience is less than fulfilling (21 percent are satisfied with how their e-mail works).

Putting numbers to formerly fuzzy feelings extended to the relative importance of e-mail compared to other modes of business communications, as well. Questions on this topic led to "astounding" answers, said President Peter Brockmann:

[Fifty] percent more people rated e-mail very important than those who rated mobile voice very important. Two times more people rated e-mail very important than those who rated desktop phones very important. Five times rated e-mail as more important than IM, and e-mail was 12 times more important than fax.

E-mail, in other words, is vital but not necessarily working well. The survey asked four basic questions on spam and e-mail. The company performed some statistical legerdemain on the results and produced an index that it says provides actionable intelligence about anti spam techniques.The fast-paced changes in spam approaches - and the technology used to deliver them - are keeping organizations and vendors off balance. In the UK, for instance, research performed by PineApp and reported in SC Magazine reveals that though 97 percent of companies have spam technology in place, 50 percent aren't adequately dealing with image-based spam. About the same amount - 48 percent - said that this form of spam, which is more demanding on antispam technology because of the size of the files, is causing problems. There are many antispam approaches. (A good buyers' guide can be found at Baseline magazine.) The Spam Index identified challenge/response - in which the sender has to click on a link for the message to be delivered - as the favored approach by users. Said Brockmann:

The result is that challenge/response technology is the best at dealing with spam. The lowest average spam index is the best. Challenge/response is twice as good as next best, which is hosted processors. Third are the filter appliances. So challenge/response - from companies like SpamArrest and Sendio - got the lowest average score. They also got the most consistent score by a wide margin.

The index can also be used to assess the productivity of those satisfied with their antispam systems compared to those who aren't, and to track reaction in companies that switch antispam techniques or even change settings on existing platforms. The real-world cost of spam can be great. A Washington Post story describes the experience of Franklin D. Azar & Associates PC, a law firm in Aurora, Colo. The firm was under siege from pornographic spam. IT's response was to adjust the Barracuda firewall gear. The result was, in 20-20 hindsight, predictable: A notice of a hearing before the United States District Court for the District of Colorado ended up in the junk mail folder (a "false positive") and the appearance was missed. The penalty - that firm was required to pay the other side's legal fees - seems to be relatively minor. It's easy to see how such a situation could evolve into more serious penalties and clients angry enough to lodge a complaint. The platforms used by spammers shift at a fast clip. A few weeks ago, spams hidden in .pdf files were all the rage. Now, according a story in PCWorld.com, Excel spreadsheets are delivering more than profit and loss statements. The CTO of Commtouch Software suggests that Excel is the natural progression for "pump and dump" schemes, in which fraudsters buy positions in companies and run massive spam campaigns to raise the value of the shares, which are then sold. The bottom line is that spam will keep evolving and the challenges will keep shifting. That, however, is no justification for poor antispam performance. Indeed, Brockmann seems like a man who isn't satisfied with the state of antispam technology.

I'm appalled ... that vendors are comfortable issuing press releases that say their products have 95 success rates with 0.5 false positives. I think that's deplorable. We shouldn't accept that for automobiles or software. The goal should not be to sell more software. The goal should be to protect the integrity of e-mail systems.

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Fry Up Some Spam - Tips to Alleviate the Nightmare That is Your Inbox

I'm sure you've read that Spam accounts for roughly 90-95% of all email. If you haven't read this, read the previous sentence again because it's a fact according to Barracuda Networks. Only 5-10% of the email that reaches the average inbox is supposed to be there. This isn't good from an identity theft perspective considering spammers aren't the most ethical bunch.

Sure, email has its upsides. How did we ever live without the occasional crude joke from a well-meaning brother-in-law or "friendly reminders" from the phone company that our bill is twelve seconds passed due? Unfortunately, those upsides come with the aforementioned bad sides: Spammers love clogging your inbox with offers to increase certain parts of your anatomy and decrease others. It's just so darn cost-effective for them compared to buying stamps and annoying you the old-fashioned way.

Just What Exactly Counts as Spam Anyway?

There are two basic types of spam:

(1) nuisance emails - these are the most abundant, your typical run-of-the-mill offers for cheap blue pills, sultry ladies of the night waiting just for you, and various other things that are just too good to be true.

(2) malicious emails - As a writer of an identity theft blog, these are of most concern to me. These spamtastic little devils are out for one thing and one thing only: to deceive you out of your money or your personal information. One common malicious email type is know as a phishing attack. This is when a spammer disguises his email as though it came from a credible source, such as a common store, website, or financial institution.

Not only can spam be dangerous, but it can cause you to miss emails you actually wanted to read. How many times have you accidentally deleted an email only to realize later that it was from a trusted source? How many times have you not received a wanted email because your spam filter acted liked an overprotective mother?

How Did Those Unscrupulous Yahoos Find My Email Address Anyway?

Honestly? You gave it to them. Well, maybe not directly. Did you fill out a form online? Did you post to a forum? Did you sign up for a mailing list of some sort? Spammers search the Internet for such address, typically using harvesting software to do it form them (spammers are tremendously lazy...that's why they are spammers).

Of course, some websites sell your information to third parties who, in turn, sell your information to fourth parties and so on until it gets into the hands of a spammer.

I Pay My Taxes! Why Hasn't Uncle Sam Put an End to These Shenanigans?!

Easy there, big fella. The Federal Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM, clever, no?) requires unsolicited commercial e-mail messages to be labeled and to provide instructions on how the recipient can opt-out. The law also requires the spammer to provide its physical address and discontinue the use of deceptive subject lines and false headers on the messages.

Here's something nifty: if you receive a piece of spam that doesn't comply with the laws, just forward it to spam@uce.gov to unleash the full, unbridled fury of the Federal government upon the poor, unsuspecting spammer. Well, "unbridled fury" might be a bit of an overstatement, but the email will at least be logged and used to help track down spammers. I setup a folder in my inbox to automatically forward any email placed in it to the government email address. That way it's just as easy to report spam as it is to delete it.

That's Great, but What Can I Do?

Your ISP or email host is already working behind the scenes to screen out a great deal of spam sent your way. Further, a properly setup spam filter is keeping another layer of spam from hitting your inbox. Of course, if this was enough you would have to clean out your inbox every morning.

Here are a few ideas to clean up the clutter:

1. Don't open it. Don't you dare open an email unless you know the sender. There could be malicious code in there. There could also be a graphic that contains a script that alerts the spammer that you opened the email. This tells them that the address is good. You are now about to get hit with a spamvalanche (if you didn't catch my poor attempt at humor, that's an avalanche of spam).

2. Don't click the link! That link could call some seriously nasty code or alert the spammer of the validity of your address. Neither are good. (This won't be an issue if you heed #1.)

3. Don't Automatically Delete Your Junk Folder. If you use filtering software, be sure the rejected messages are sent to a special folder other than your email "trash" basket. Your overprotective spam filter might mistake Uncle Bill's chili recipe email for spam. You know you're dying to know what the secret ingredient is. (It's chocolate, by the way.)

4. Have a backup e-mail account(s). Use throw-away email accounts from Hotmail, Yahoo or Inbox.com (great free email account!) for everything other than family, friends and your most trusted consumer and business contacts. You'll still get spam, but it won't be in your primary account.

5. Make your email address unique. Again, spammers are lazy. They will bombard servers with combinations of common words and names. Numbers and symbols trip them up.

6. Don't email the spammer to give him a piece of your mind. Again, this just tells him you exist. Further, don't give out any of your information in any way in any medium to a spammer. Don't call a phone number in the email, nor leave information on a website linked in the email.

7. Consider using disposable online addresses. This goes a step further than #4. Setup separate email addresses for each individual newsletter or service and forward all mail from those addresses to your main account. Just suspend the use of any address that starts receiving spam and abandon it. Better yet, try out http://www.gishpuppy.com. (A free service which I am in no way related.)

8. Remove e-mail addresses from your Web site. If you list or link to your email address, you are likely to be spammed by address-harvesting robots. If you must include your e-mail address on the site, try posting it written out in words ("example at domain dot com") instead of example@domain.com. That way a human user can understand the correct address, but a robot may not recognize it as such.

9. Report spammers to their domain. Most e-mail accounts have an anti-spam requirement in their terms of service. For example, here is Yahoo's Anti-Spam Policy: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/guidelines/spam.html

Completely defeating spam is a difficult task without breaching the freedom allowed by the Internet. Policing spam too drastically could make it increasingly difficult to receive non-spam email. Realistically it is up to the individual to take responsibility. Spam would die a quick death if it wasn't profitable. Don't allow yourself to be a part of the problem by instigating spammers with uninformed actions.http://biggestwebshop.com/barracudaspam/

Ever Heard Of A Spam Firewall?

Most computer users are now familiar with what a firewall does but have you ever seen or used a spam firewall?

This article will take a beginners look at this interesting subject. It will give you the information that you need to know most.

The Webopedia definition of a firewall is - "A practice planned to preclude unauthorized access to or from a personal system." A firewall can come in both hardware and software versions and even a combination of both. Home computer users cultivate to use software based firewalls like Zone bell while corporate IT departments rely on the hardware based router/firewall combination policy.

Both home and corporate computer users are now accustomed to running with firewalls to guarantee that their numbers is reserved safe. What surprises most people are that there are firewalls specifically planned to finish spam. Yup that means a hardware spam filter.

One of the main players in deceitful firewalls to finish spam is Barracuda. Their products are planned to be implemented on systems of 10 - 20,000 employees the spam firewall. The beauty of a hardware spam filtering liquid is that it takes some of the workload off the attendant which means better system reply period. An added bonus to impeding spam is that the Barracuda products also impedes any viruses limited inside those spam emails - everything from bogus attachments to VB scripts can be detected and certainly impeded.

We hope that the first part of this article as brought you a lot of much needed information on the subject at hand.

So when you think about firewalls in prospect don't just think in provisos of numbers sanctuary. See the Barracuda firewall for what it is - an all encompassing sanctuary liquid for all systems.

If you type in the main word from the subject of this article into any reliable search engine, you will pull up a variety of resources.http://biggestwebshop.com/barracudaspam/

Barracuda Vs SonicWALL

As far as Barracuda anti spam and virus firewall program is concerned, this is an effective program that can be used for blocking the spam for any organization. This has been termed as the most advanced and well accepted anti spam program that can offer more security and networking options for your organization. Barracuda anti spam and virus firewall program has been designed on the basis of a high-end algorithm. This program can too bring you more advantage due to the addition of Bayesian analysis method. This analysis method can block the spam effectively. There are twelve high-end defense lawyers that have been added for the Barracuda anti spam program in order to make it more efficient.

Well, it the SonicWALL that too seems to be loaded with enough supportive, quality and efficient features that can bring in right kind of security and network management options for you. This program is having super spam blocking options that can be used to add more security factor for your organization. When you are looking for more protection against phishing attacks, it's the SonicWALL anti spam program that can bring in more good results for you. It can also gather important details with the help of its expanded network, which is also, known as the GRDI or the Global Response Intelligent Defense Network. Unlike some other solution suppliers who limit the definition of effectiveness to stopping threats, and SonicWALL expands definition of the effectiveness to stopping the threats, speed to the response as well as protection of the SonicWALL gives unique protection against the spam as well as other email threats, such as phishing attacks, by gathering important learning from the expansive network & sources named SonicWALL Global Response Intelligent Defense Network.

With one million of users, GRID Network gives collaborative intelligence, allowing SonicWALL to deliver the fast & accurate response to latest spam threats - and SonicWALL delivers the new threat protection each 5 minutes. Barracuda just delivers the new threat protection on every hour - SonicWALL delivers the new threat protection twelve times more frequently than the Barracuda1.http://biggestwebshop.com/barracudaspam/