Electronic Communication Policy - Threat Prevention
Spamming
Spamming is the practice of sending unwanted communications, particularly commercial ones, to a large number of recipients over an electronic messaging system. Unsolicited communications are ones that were sent without the recipient's consent.
Anti-spam
Any program, device, or procedure used to prevent spam from entering a system is referred to as anti-spam. A user's inbox is kept free of unwanted and unsolicited communications thanks to the anti-spam software, which employs a series of protocols to identify them.
Advantages of Anti-Spam Software
- Blocking Spam
- Quarantining Spam
- Automatic Filter Updates
- Monitoring Multiple Accounts
- Your Personal Whitelist
- Reporting Spam
Blocking Spam
Certain anti-spam solutions not only block specific email addresses but also search for subject lines and text in the email messages. You can customize it to block incoming emails based on senders, even if your email address is not in the recipient field.
Quarantining Spam
Antispam filters automatically quarantine the spam emails, ensuring your inbox is spam-free. Such quarantined emails are held for a fixed number of days, say 30 days or so, and then dumped. During that period, you can check and recover any legitimate email that may have been quarantined.
Automatic Filter Updates
Most anti-virus software comes with an automatic filter update feature for timely detection of new types of Malware threats. Automatic updates not only help the anti-spam software to stay up-to-date, but it also helps secure your system from new kinds of Malware.
Monitoring Multiple Accounts
With this feature, you can monitor and filter spam from multiple accounts. You can filter your home email from work email, and vice versa.
Your Personal Whitelist
Some anti-spam software allows you to maintain a ‘friendly’ list of people whose emails you wish to accept. These emails will never be mistaken for spam as against the blacklist of spammers. You can also update the list in the future.
Reporting Spam
Some anti-spam programs allow you to report spam back to the company supplying the program. It helps the company to develop a new type of filter based on the analysis of the reported spam.