Security Featured Article

Do these statements sound familiar?

“Card Transaction Received.”

 “Asbestos Alert: You May be Entitled to Millions.”

“Mail Blocked: No Space.”

“Transmit Quality Sound Through Your Car Speakers.”

“Group Training Tomorrow.”

Every day, all day long, organizations of all sizes are annoyed, frustrated and overwhelmed by the increasing volume of spam and email threats that flood employee inboxes. For small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs), these unsolicited emails are especially challenging, as they reduce productivity, increase IT expenses and threaten company security.

Ferris Research estimates that spam is costing U.S. businesses nearly $42 billion annually. Worldwide, spam represents a $130 billion problem. According to a recent report issued by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG), 12 percent of Internet users admitted that they have responded, both accidentally and unknowingly, to a spam advertisement or product listing.

The average email user recognizes spoofed mail, chain letters and phishing, and knows enough to ignore suspicious emails or links. But, viruses, time vampires, Trojan horses and social media viruses are harder to recognize, uncover and eliminate. At the same time, experienced spam operators are constantly developing new techniques to bypass existing filters, infiltrate emails and leverage these resources for unlimited use. A single “modern spam” botnet can issue hundreds of millions of messages an hour from thousands of different sources.

So, while the majority of email users believe that their computers are safe, and that security software and/or their company’s IT department will catch any incoming spam, the reality is that most commonly used spam filtering offerings do not provide adequate protection for today’s corporate environments.

If your organization is using a traditional on-premise filtering solution, it’s important to note that these offerings do not address all contemporary email security issues. They are updated only periodically and simply cannot combat or defend the global 7x24 cycle of email attacks. The other reality is that the total cost of owning and operating a multi-vendor email defense system can be greater than the cost of the email system itself. As a result, it is no longer cost effective for SMBs to assemble, operate, and maintain on-premise email protection systems.

Traditional on-premise filtering solutions are cost-prohibitive and inadequate.

Heuristics: Crafted rules and watches for specific characteristics of spam

Blacklists: Tracks “known spam sources” to mark them against individual servers and providers

Gray-listing: Attempts to slow and reject mail from untrusted sources

Sender Validation: Requires human acknowledgement of emails from untrusted sources

Bayesian: Uses statistical analysis of message platform patterns to determine spam

The good news is that Concentric (News - Alert) offers a new, cloud-based approach to email filtering that significantly reduces the risks and financial burdens associated with email security. Concentric Perimeter Email Protection (PEP), for companies with their own on premise email servers, operates on a much larger scale than traditional on-premise solutions. By blocking the rapidly increasing global number of email attacks, successfully predicting which messages represent new threats, and removing spam and other email threats at the service provider level, PEP ensures that only clean, valid and properly addressed email is sent to company email servers for final delivery. For additional benefits, Concentric Hosted Exchange, uses our same filtering technology while providing Microsoft (News - Alert)® Exchange email in an outsourced model.

Clearly, spam is a global issue that is only increasing in scope and impact. As part of Concentric’s mission to help SMBs reduce IT expenses, increase security and reliability and enhance productivity, I encourage you to analyze your existing email security solution in light of “modern spam” and other threats. As you review alternate solutions, I invite you to consider the many benefits of cloud-based email filtering. It’s a cost-effective way to protect your employees against chain letters and empty promises for hefty jackpots and other dubious “prizes.”