How good is your reputation?
New Scientist. Well, that’s their claim anyway. But I disagree. They report that a group of computer scientists have claimed to develop an “effectively perfect” method for blocking spam. YAWN. Same story. Different writer. Different day. Fact is by the time I started researching this “new” method, Amir Lev, CTO at Commtouch had already blogged it and effectively said, “kudos guys…you invented what we’ve been doing all along.”
The magic behind Commtouch is RPD. RPD stands for Recurrent Pattern Detection. In layman’s terms: the technology identifies and classifies message patterns. It analyzes massive amounts of traffic in real time; searches for patterns that will classify a message as spam and then using that information it identifies malicious messages and blocks them from your inbox, all within minutes of an outbreak. RPD blocks 98% of spam and maintains a tiny false positive level.
In a nutshell, it all boils down to your reputation. If you send relevant mail from your server you maintain a good reputation. You start sending irrelevant mail and you develop a bad reputation. Once that bad reputation is in place you get blacklisted and now you have extra work on your hands.
I remember when I was in college. I had the reputation of being an outdoorsy guy who spent more time on his mountain bike in the woods than in the classroom. When people wanted a great place to hike or ride…they would call me for advice. If they needed advice on physics or molecular biology they called…well…anyone but me. Why? Because I had ZERO credibility in that area. Your reputation attracts a specific niche audience. Commtouch’s reputation speaks for itself and that is part of the reason we’re a satisfied business partner with them. The New Scientist? Well…I’ll just leave that there.
As for spam? We don’t like it. We don’t ask for it. It’s effectively a pain and a nuisance. But there are some solid anti-spam solutions available. We chose Commtouch because of the reputation of their technology, its ease-of-use, and affordability. The solution you choose needs to meet your specific needs as well as provide you with rock-solid protection. I am interested though…what solutions are you using? How are you using them? How effective are they? How much maintenance is required on your part? Leave your comments below.
Make a difference with Ipswitch and CARE
Social responsibility is core to the values of Ipswitch and its employees. In response to the devastating crisis in Haiti last week, Ipswitch has activated an online donation center through CARE, one of the world’s largest private international humanitarian organizations. As Haiti continues to experience powerful aftershocks, the need for support continues to grow.
Please join us in supporting the Haitian relief efforts by making a $10 donation to CARE through our online donation center. Donating is quick, easy and secure. And no purchase of an Ipswitch product is necessary to donate.
To learn more about CARE and their efforts in Haiti, please visit their website: http://www.care.org/emergency/haitiearthquake/index.asp.
To learn more about iCare@IPSWITCH and our philanthropy efforts, please visit the iCare@IPSWITCH website: http://icare.ipswitch.com/index.asp
It’s been a mere 10 years since the famed Y2K bug threatened to end the world. It seems like just yesterday that we all waited with baited breath to see how computer systems would shift from 1999 to 2000. Gas was $1.26 per gallon, a U.S. stamp cost 33 cents and AOL combined with Time Warner. We all felt relief that year as the millennium bug scare, that was thought to cause computer systems all over the world to fail, ended with minimal glitches. Crisis averted.
Here we are 10 years later….gas is up to $2.60 per gallon, a U.S. stamp costs 44 cents and AOL and Time Warner are through. And once again, news of the next Y2K bug spreads…this time dubbed the Y2K10 bug. While this bug didn’t get anywhere near the attention that its predecessor did, it still caused significant damage. The following Commtouch blog post goes into more detail about the bug but basically what happened is this….SpamAssassin, an open source mail filter has a rule in place that checks to see if a message is sent from the “far future.” Now, it may be difficult for you and I to remember back when 2010 was considered the “far future” but it was and based on this rule, all messages with 2010 in the date header were given an increased spam weight which has now resulted in false positives and the rejection of legitimate emails. This is major issue considering how critical email is to all of us, particularly in business. Commtouch reports that the bug had a significant impact on the ratio of false positives, topping almost 20%.
SpamAssassin has issued an update to fix the bug but as Commtouch notes, the rule was changed to flag messages after 2020 so this bug could rear its ugly head once more for SpamAssassin users in the “far future” if they aren’t careful.
For a real-time spam outbreak monitor from Commtouch, check out http://www.imailserver.com/resources/spam-stats.asp
In August 2008 I wrote a very brief blog post entitled, “What does your email address say about you?” You can go there and read (if you like)…but the quick and dirty on it is this: 3 researchers from the University of Leipzig conducted some research to determine any correlations between an individual’s personality and their email address. Well, not their entire email address…just the first part of it (AKA: the local-part). Now, almost a year and a half later, here I am talking about the “other” part of the email address – the hostname. And, I am asking the same question, “What does your email address say about you?”
First and foremost, I am a marketer and I am looking at this topic from a marketing perspective. So, maybe a better question to ask is, “What does your email address say about your business?”
The fact of the matter is that the typical email user does not care about the technical aspects of mail delivery. Most do not even commit your email address to memory. And why should they? Our email clients auto-fill addresses, we all have digital address books, and we reply to more email than we generate. So, other than ensuring proper delivery to the intended recipient, does an email address have any significance at all? I would say that it does, especially for those of us in business. read more…
Who doesn’t want the big dog in their corner? The big dog is a safe bet. Safer than backing the little guy, that’s for sure. Let’s face it….not many of us would have put our money on David over Goliath. Backing the “little guy” is risky on any level but particularly in business when there are financial and personnel investments at stake. But the fact that you have so much invested in your business is the reason why it is so important to question whether or not the “big dog” option is the right one for you.
When choosing a mail server, reputation can be an important factor in the purchase process. But it’s not the only factor, particularly for small to medium size businesses, where IT investments of any size have a major impact on the bottom line. In the current economy, even larger companies are starting to take a closer look at their software solutions and finding that enterprise solutions are not right for every organization.
Companies of all sizes use Microsoft as their predominant vendor for IT solutions (Windows, Office, etc.). And many just assume that they should follow suit with their email server, believing that Exchange is the obvious, if not only choice. While it is without question that Microsoft Exchange is the industry standard for mail servers, it may not be the right solution for your small to medium size business.
Exchange is an enterprise solution which means that it is designed specifically for large organizations. And the mindset that most people have about smaller mail servers is that read more…
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