McAfee SMEFCE-AI-DA Administration Guide - Page 11

Email Protection Administrator Guide Email Filtering Policies Types of Inbound Email Filtering Email Protection can filter both inbound and outbound email. Inbound filtering that is available to be configured is as follows: • Anti-Spam Filtering • Real-time Blackhole List • Anti-Virus Filter • Content Filtering and ClickProtect • Attachment Filtering • Multi-Level Allow and Deny Lists Anti-Spam Filtering Spam is usually defined as unsolicited (and usually unwanted) and commercial email sent to a large number of addresses. However, what one recipient may consider as spam, another recipient would consider as legitimate email. In addition, spam has become a tool of hackers and electronic terrorists who deliberately attempt to gather proprietary information from computer systems and/or attempt to cause harm to a company's email system. Typically, these types of spammers deliberately use naming standards, hijacked From: addresses, scrambled content, etc., to bypass spam filters such as blacklists and keyword lists. Using Stacked Classification Framework®, Email Protection provides the most comprehensive and effective spam-blocking product on the market today-blocking 98% of spam and providing an industry-leading low false positive rate (legitimate email marked as spam). The Stacked Classification Framework aggregates the most effective spam filters and techniques in the industry into a spam likelihood. As appropriate, email is assigned a high or medium likelihood of being spam. A separate email action can be assigned to each likelihood. The spam classification techniques include the following: Spam FilterType IP Reputation Connection Manager Description This filter operates at the front of the Stacked Classification Framework. It rates the reputation of every incoming email, based on IP reputation data collected by your Email Protection provider on an on-going basis. Connections are dropped for all messages which originate from IP addresses that are determined to carry a reputation for sending spam. Bayesian Statistical Filtering Statistical algorithms built by your Email Protection provider identify and quantify the possibility that an email is spam based on how often elements in that email have appeared in identified spam emails. November 2012 Proprietary: Not for use or disclosure outside McAfee without written permission 3