SPAM FILTERING is a piece of software that exists either on one of your Organisation’s servers or in the cloud.  It’s a centrally configured tool to reduce or even prevent spam email and other junk email from arriving in your staff’s email inboxes.  There are basic filters, that catch the most well-known and easy to spot spam emails and there are more advanced filters that have been further developed to spot more complex attempts to send you bad emails. Obviously, these cost more than the basic filters, but they do offer more protection.

How does Spam Filtering Software work?

A Spam Filter is programmed with rules by the Vendor (maker of the software) that decide whether to deliver an email as normal to your inbox, or to block it – either into quarantine (an area where it can be reviewed) or delete it entirely.  These rules are updated regularly and have various rule categories such as keyword filters or blocklist filters.  The Software Vendors have many years of experience in delivering the spam filtering products and their databases of what constitutes a spam email and what constitutes a normal email have been ‘learning’ over all those years to make sure that the decision making is the best it can be.

What are the business benefits of Spam Filtering?

Security

Without Spam filtering software, your users would receive emails into their inbox that could redirect them to malicious websites or infect their computers with malicious software or viruses.  These websites and malicious software may attempt to extract data from your staff or cause data destruction.

Time Saved

Without Spam filtering software, your inbox would be flooded with emails that you didn’t want to receive.  Filtering through these manually takes a lot of time.  The time that it takes you to sort these emails every day is multiplied by the number of staff in your organisation/business, which needs to be taken into account in terms of the cost to your business.

Cost Effective

Spam filtering software needn’t be expensive, a few pounds per user, per month would get a relatively advanced spam filter that would be adequate for most businesses.  It’s very cheap versus the fallout of dealing with a situation arising from a user clicking a malicious link.

Is Spam Filtering all I need to protect my business?

The simple answer to this is No – plain old No!  You can find out more about the layers of IT security in this other blogpost – IT Security

Summary

This article is one of a series of blog posts about IT Security related products.  If you have any queries about how your business should deal with Spam Filtering, or you have questions about IT Security more generally that need to be cleared up, we can talk more via our Contact page.

ESP provides IT Support packages, mainly to Sheffield-based businesses, but also to other organisations (including charities) across the region, and the UK.  Those organisations wishing to better protect themselves against the various threats that exist in today’s world should get in touch today.