subject: Utilities Of Spam Filters And Vulnerability Assessment [print this page] Ever come across an e-mail with a subject as Get Rich or Find the man of your dreams? These mails are better known as spam, which are created to misguide the receiver of the e-mail. The content of these mails contain commercial advertising generally, for fake products or schemes to get rich. Most spam cannot be even counted as legal. Moreover, these unwanted and forced mails take up a lot of disk space and are nothing but a nuisance. To keep a check on spam, you can install spam filters, which are basically programs that stops spam from entering your mailbox. Business organizations rely on the communication systems. One such prime communication system is the internet. By vulnerability assessment the IP addresses are assessed and potential risks in your systems are evaluated.
Spam filters like any other basic filter looks for certain criterions according to which they can exclude suspicious mails from reaching your mailbox. By close scrutiny of the subject of the mail or by looking for repetitive words, spam mails can be stopped. Spam filters are of many types such as the language, content, header and permission spam filter.
A language spam filter is very easy to use as it discards all mails, which are not in your native language. Many a times you may have received mails in a language unknown to you. Obviously these mails are of no use to your. As internet is available globally, a spam mail can be generated anywhere in the world.
A content spam filter is much more sophisticated than the language spam filter. It uses programming rules to test the text of the mail to decide if it is spam or not. Though most of the times it shows positive results but at times it may confuse requested promotional offers and newsletters as spam.
A header spam filter checks if the header of the e-mail is forged. Forged mails are in most cases spam but then again there are some exceptions. This type of filter works the best in association with other e-mail tools.
A permission spam filter prevents all mails whose source is not known from entering the mailbox. If a new sender sends mails to you, a reply in the form of a validation form shall be sent. Only after successfully filling the form, the mail shall be accepted in the mailbox else it is blocked. If you are keen on using spam filters, always use good ones else even your important mails could get blocked.
Spam is not our only security concern. There are other threats as well that affects our network adversely. Hackers are always on the look out for confidential information. Their intrusion techniques are getting more sophisticated by the day. In such a situation if you wish to save your network from an intruder, a vulnerability assessment is what you need. A vulnerability assessment identifies the vulnerabilities in your system, prioritizes and optimizes them. Get the vulnerability assessment of your system done regularly to reduce external attacks substantially. You will be alerted about any prospective threats with such an assessment. Stop all forms of security intrusion with spam filters and a vulnerability assessment.
