How To Get Serious About Fighting Spam

Many companies rely on crude tools, such as blacklists, which automate the filtering of messages known to be spam. But David Ferris, principal analyst for messaging research firm Ferris Research, says companies serious about solving the spam problem need the following elements in addition to blacklists:

User-defined whitelists, which automatically let specified E-mails through the filters;

Some sort of challenge-response technology (for verifying that the sender is not an automated system);

Detailed reporting, at both the user and enterprise levels; and

Filters located at the messaging gateway, not on user desktops or within the corporate network.

One other piece of advice Ferris has: Don't turn up the filters so high that they tag too much, blocking legitimate E-mail. "The more spam you catch," he says, "the higher the probability of false positives."

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