The Internet has always been a dangerous place for the inexperienced and gullible. People everywhere can fall victim to millions of different unsolicited, unwanted, and virus rich spams. These come in various shapes and sizes, but most notably, people dislike them when they are in the form of emails.
Email spam has an infamous reputation online, and anything that the users receive in their emails without their will, or more accurately, without ever dealing with the source before, is considered spam. Since they first started appearing decades ago, Internet users have been asking about some kind of help with this. Luckily, there is something you can do.
The so-called spam filters can help you deal with these annoying messages you get on a daily basis. Actually, they can almost completely stop you from getting them inside of your email inboxes. For example, some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have their own spam filters that are there to make sure the users are not getting any distributing spams. In addition, many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) use spam filters to protect the information of their business, as well as their employees, partners, and networks.
Spam filters can be introduced to look after inbound email, which are all mails that are trying to enter the network, and outbound email, the emails trying to leave the network in question. Generally, most ISPs use inbound and outbound spam filters to protect the customers, while SMBs usually only focus on the inbound filters.
Many spam-filtering solutions are there available for you so that you never have to deal with the annoying spam messages in your inbox. Some can be hosted on clouds, others on computer servers, or you can integrate them into email software. For example, you can check out duocircle.com. For more information, read the rest of the article.
How do spam filters work?
Spam filters work on a rather simple mechanic. They use the “heuristics” methods. This means that each email message is treated to thousands of different predefined rules, also known as algorithms. Each of these algorithms assigns a numerical score that tells the accurate probability of the message actually being spam.
If these scores pass a certain determined total threshold, an email in question is determined to be spam. It is immediately blocked from going any further and it does not land into your inbox.
Different spam filters exist for different criteria
- Content filters – These go through the content of messages and scan for words that commonly show up in other spam emails. If they locate enough, the email is considered spam.
- Header filters – This type examines the email header source in order to look for suspicious information, like email addresses of known spammer sources.
- Blacklist filters – This spam filter stops emails that might come from a list of infamous and suspicious IP addresses. If they appear on such lists, they are automatically blocked. Some filters even check the IP reputations of IP address in questions.
- Rule-based filters – Here we have filters that use customized rules that an organization that uses it makes to exclude emails from some specific senders, or those than containing a specific type of content, or some undesired language in either the subject line or the body.
- Last but not least, there are spam filters through which you can run your messages and check if they contain something considered to be spam.
Keep in mind that none of these single methods is enough to have been a complete solution to the spam problems in your life. Some can even make mistakes and block real emails while letting spam pass through their filters. Find the one best suited for your case, or several of them, just to be safe.
Is spam filtering necessary?
In the modern world of IT at every corner, it is crucial to be protected online as much as you can. Therefore, yes, spam filtering is a must if you wish to protect your business. Spam will never go away, and all you can do is protect yourself as best as possible.
It is generally thought that around 70% of all emails sent around the world is spam. In addition, with more and more computers and IP addresses, the volume of spam will continue to grow. In addition, spam is a lucrative business and the people behind it are also becoming more and more sophisticated and creative in how they invade inboxes and fill them with nonsense. Because of this, spam filters must also evolve over the years.
Why is spam filtering important?
As everything else online, you cannot be 100% safe whatever you do. However, business email systems that lack spam filtering are incredibly vulnerable.
It is crucial to stop as much spam as you possibly can, and remember that spam emails may contain dangerous links, viruses, phishing attacks, and much other malicious content that can harm your business or personal computer or network. Preventing spam emails from reaching the inboxes of your employees and customers can save your business and give an additional layer of protection to everyone involved.
Do you need a spam filter and does it actually help?
Even if you do not have something big to protect online, at the very least, spam emails will be a nuisance that can trouble your personal computers at home.
Spam is dangerous and unwanted in any number, shape, or form. Therefore, even if it seems like they are harmless, you are always better off without them in your life. They do nothing but help you so give them a chance and see the benefits you were missing!
Look for these things when choosing a spam filter
Block spam should be the minimum you go for. Not all of the spam filter software does the job well, as we mentioned earlier, so those that keep up to date with evolving spam types and update their services frequently are the best choice.
Basically, get something that protects what you have the right way. Do not overdo it or underdo it. Admins should be able to edit and create rules and have all the necessary settings that can help them organize their spam filters.
