Symantec 10744983 Administration Guide - Page 61

Configuring email settings 61 Understanding spam settings Configuring suspected spam Note: This feature is only available if you are running Symantec Premium AntiSpam (SPA). If you would like to know more about this feature, contact your Symantec representative. When evaluating whether messages are spam, Symantec Mail Security calculates a spam score from 1 to 100 for each message, based on techniques such as pattern matching and heuristic analysis. If an email scores in the range of 90 to 100 after being filtered, it is defined as spam. For more aggressive filtering, you can optionally define a discrete range of scores from 25 to 89. The messages that score within this range will be considered "suspected spam." Unlike spam, which is determined by Symantec and not subject to adjustment by administrators, you can adjust the trigger for suspected spam. Using policies, you can specify different actions for messages identified as suspected spam and messages identified as spam by Symantec. For example, assume that you have configured your suspected spam scoring range to encompass scores from 80 through 89. If an incoming message receives a spam score of 83, Symantec Mail Security will consider this message to be suspected spam, and will apply the action you have in place for suspected spam messages, such as Modify the Message (tagging the subject line). Messages that score 90 or above will not be affected by the suspected spam scoring setting, and will be subject to the action you have in place for spam messages, such as Quarantine the Message. Note: Symantec recommends that you not adjust the spam threshold until you have some exposure into the filtering patterns at your site. Then, gradually move the threshold setting down 1 to 5 points per week until the number of false positives is at the highest level acceptable to you. A great way to test the effects of spam scoring is to set up a designated mailbox or user to receive false positive notifications to monitor the effects of changing the spam score threshold. Choosing language identification type Language identification is the ability to block or allow messages written in a specified language. For example, you can choose to only allow English and Spanish messages, or block messages in English and Spanish and allow messages in all other languages. You can use one of the following two types of language identification: ■ Language identification offered by Symantec Mail Security