Why you need to implement an anti-spam filter

Why you need to implement an anti-spam filter

Spam is defined as unwanted communication sent in bulk to multiple recipients and, most often, with some commercial or fraudulent purpose in mind. Spam most commonly reaches your network through the inbox.

While it is just an annoyance for the home user, an organization that doesn't have some form of anti-spam filter will quickly become inundated with unwanted electronic communication. This does not only clog up email inboxes, it also poses a security threat to both the employees and the company they work for.

The need to manage and control spam

Among the reasons to employ an anti-spam filter within the organization are:

Productivity - Time is money, and when employees are required to filter out junk email manually, this affects their level of productivity and increases the risk that genuine email may be lost in the process. Without an effective anti-spam filter, the amount of unsolicited email they are dealing with could be high.

Malicious Software - The possibility of malware infection should not be underestimated either. Many spam emails come with malicious payloads or poisoned links to infected websites and the last thing your organization needs is a malware infection - Trojans, keyloggers are among the nasty things circulating in email. The risk that malware picked up from spam email could cause problems on the company network, leading to data corruption and/or data loss, should be a good enough reason to deploy an anti-spam filter.

Fraud - This is another strong issue with spam as some unwanted email messages will attempt to phish personal or private information about you, other employees or you're the organization itself. Not only can this result in data loss and confidential data leaks, but it may also lead to company credit card fraud and the like.

Choosing the right anti spam-filter

Before investing in an anti-spam filter, it is good to know what's available so as to be sure your organization is benefiting from the latest anti-spam technologies. Below are some of the anti-spam filter solutions you might want to consider:

Hosted anti-spam - A hosted anti-spam filter offers several benefits, such as saving bandwidth due to spam mail never even being delivered to the organization's network. There is also no need to purchase server hardware or pay for software licenses or support as these will be included in the monthly plan. Hosted anti-spam filters also offer scalability and compatibility with different operating systems.

On-premise anti-spam - Some of the most popular anti-spam filtering products are server-based. Such a solution will often be found on the same hardware as the email server and its main advantage is the level of control it gives your organization in terms of configurability and integration with your email server.

Reclaim your inbox

Spam is inevitable, and organizations should understand that not doing anything about the problem will affect the server's performance, impact on employee productivity, as well as expose the business to some serious security threats. This can be prevented through user education on what spam is and how to identify it, not responding to or opening links in spam emails and, most importantly, using a robust anti-spam filter.

This guest post was provided by Lee Munson on behalf of GFI Software, a leading software developer that produces network and messaging security solutions for SMBs. More information about GFI anti-spam solution can be found at http://www.gfi.com/mes

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