Antispam Software And Its Mechanisms

2007-03-08 10:33:40

( Computers )



Spams are considered by most people as those unwanted or unsolicited e-mails which are usually received from entities tagged as spammers. Spams are commonly chain letters, political advocacies, and letters selling something or any other messages trying to get some attention.

Anyone is a possible recipient of spam. Employers, students, consumers and even company e-mail could receive a daily dose of them.

Eliminating spam is such a hard-work but still needs to be done. You should discourage spam by discontinuing them. Refuse passing chain e-mails. Validating attachments is also a helpful measure since there are spams which carry software that could allow the distribution of the spam and the software to anybody on your address book.

Individuals and companies alike should employ the use of antispam software. Because companies are seen to be the ones bearing the heaviest burden of combating them, using antispam software should be insisted. Having clear antispam policies would also create an impact that you are serious in eliminating spams. Be an advocate of preventing spams by joining associations that fight them.

There are several antispam softwares available, each offering different levels of protection. Have your antispam research team evaluate them to select the most appropriate for your use.

Although, antispam softwares differ in brand names, they have general antispam approaches. The accept and block list is one of them. An accept list determines addresses and domains to be trusted while the block list determines those which are possible spammers. Challenge-response is also one feature of antispam software. This is done by sending e-mail to the one who sent you an e-mail. The sender is asked to answer a question or type a sequence of characters embedded in an image. Antispam filter mechanisms such as keyword search and image processing are also identifying features of antispam softwares. Keyword search looks for words or combination of words from the subject or the body of the e-mail. Usually, words pertaining to sex and related topics should be filtered. Image processing on the other hand is performed by running a keyword search on images embedded to an e-mail and then blocking them based on the results.

One of the most clever and most effective antispam filter techniques of antispam software the mechanism which enables the antispam software to learn about spam heuristics. Through time,the software itself becomes familiar with them and employs its blocking ability through a weighted list of keywords.

To top it all, spam is truly an annoyance for many companies and individuals and as such you should take all the necessary measures to prevent them from flooding your inboxes everyday. Using products such as antispam software with advanced antispam filter mechanisms is one great measure you could undertake. Reject e-mails which you yourself suspect as a spam, in this way you somehow prevent the spam and be an antispammer in your own little way.


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