FAQ
How does it work?
Basically you redirect your emails to our profilter mail gateway by changing your MX record or we can pop them from your mailbox. When we receive your message we pass it through the following passes.
- Black List
- White List
- Header analysis
- Body of the message analysis
- Attachment analysis
- Attachment Virus Scan
- Threat Analysis
After your message has gone through the above process it is either tagged as 'spam' or genuine email ('ham'). Genuine email is then forwarded onto your own mail gateway. Any email recognised as spam will be quarantined, and wait for you to action it using the online management portal.
Is profilter right for me?
If you receive unsolicited junk emails and viruses by email then the answer is yes. All you need to use the profilter service is to own your own Internet domain name (e.g. mydomain.co.uk).
How do I use the profilter service?
That depends on the type of mail service you have.
For SMTP; after you have registered for the service you will need to change the MX record on your Internet domain name to point to profilter.prolateral.com when a message is received for your domain name it will go through the profilter and then be delivered to your original mail gateway.
For POP3; profilter will pull the messages from your existing mailbox and leave the washed email in a prolateral secure mailbox. You then simply change your POP3 settings on your email client to receive your messages from profilter.prolateral.com instead of your Internet Service Provider.
Are Virus Hoax emails detected by profilter?
Although hoax virus email doesn't contain a real virus, an anti-virus gateway will not spot it. profilter's analysis recognises it as spam, and therefore blocks these type of messages.
What percentage of emails traffic is classed as spam?
This figure is rising dramatically back in 2000 it was estimated that spam made up 10% of all email messages, in 2002 spam had more than doubled to 25% and in 2004 the figure had risen to 60%. Today the percentage of spam is now 90% of all email traffic.
How much time is lost through staff dealing with spam?
To really understand the cost of spam to your business use our ROI calculator.
What happens to a spam email?
Any spam email will automatically be quarantined and wait for you to access it via the profilter portal; either to confirm it as spam or, more rarely, rescue it. If you confirm it as spam email, profilter uses that information to improve its recognition of spam in the future.
What are public spam lists?
Public lists contain email (IP) addresses from known spam offenders: companies and individuals who have demonstrated patterns representative of junk emailing or mass-mailing. These lists are made commercially available to companies. Examples of public lists include ORDB and MAPS RBL.
Is there a limit on the number of IP addresses that customers can imput in their own white and black lists?
No. There is no limit for the configurable whitelists and blacklists.
How big a problem is unsolicited email (spam) in the workplace?
A recent survey by Gartner found that 57% of internal business mail is useless - they dubbed this "occupational spam". The same study revealed that employees spend an average of 47 minutes per day managing email. This in turn leads to loss in productivity. Spam also put unnecessary demond on Internet bandwidth and the email servers.
What happens if profilter blocks a non-spam email?
The message would be in the quarantined area waiting for you to action it. So in this case you would use the profilter portal and select the message as 'ham'.
How do I know if a message has been scanned by profilter?
Every message that goes through the profilter service will have additional information added to the messages header .
What is the real cost of spam?
To really understand the cost to your business of receiving spam use our ROI calculator.
Is spam in the work place a greater risk than viruses?
Unsoliticited junk emails is a big nusiance to any business. Every unwanted message causes wasted time dealing with the message incurring costs and wasting company resources. Being able to remove both spam and viruses before they ever reach your network allows email to be used as it was intended.
What is the technology behind the anti-spam service?
profilter uses continually monitored heuristic rules, self learning Bayesian analysis of content and public collaborative relay & blacklist databases. Emails are scanned using these rules (some 5000 plus and rising) which build a view of the probability of the email being spam. If the email achieves more than a trigger score it is classified as spam and action is taken as chosen by the customer.
We use an SMTP solution, isn't this the same as your product?
Compared with standalone gateway solutions such as Mimesweeper our service offers several key advantages:
- We use a number of virus scanners.
- The system is continuously updating the anti-virus signatures.
- There is no hardware, software or management required by the customer - we do everything.
- Scalability - our system is completely scalable avoiding the limitations and single point of failure inherent in single machine/LAN solutions.
- Through our customers portal, we provide real time service statistics and reports.
How often do you update the signatures for your virus scanners?
We use commercial and open source anti-virus scanners. All anti-virus signatures are continuously updated. We also monitor the key anti-virus web sites and hack centres for breaking news and trend analysis .
Do you measure volumes of email passing through our network and virus activity levels?
Yes, every customer is given access to their activity information; this is a private customer portal providing comprehensive service statistics and reports in real time.
How much would a computer virus cost my company?
The key cost is in lost productivity but there is also the time your IT staff spend disinfecting all your machines and the cost of lost files and data. Additionally there may be a need to shutdown all external email until the problem is resolved - essentially "cutting-off" a business-critical communication tool. Loss of customer loyalty and potential loss of precious brand equity are also hidden costs of virus infection.
Does the profilter email security system slow the delivery of email down?
profilter maintains comprehensive statistics on all email passing through our system. It takes 12 seconds to process an average email.
We already have an anti-virus solution - why would we need more?
The profilter anti-virus solution should be seen as an additional layer of defence that supports what you already have in place. Although desktop anti-virus products are an essential part of any anti-virus policy, it's difficult to ensure that the virus signature files are maintained especially where mobile users are concerned. With the huge increase in Internet and email use, intercepting viruses closer to the source is logical and will add a new layer of defence and protection.
What happens if profilter detects a virus but the document contained important information which the customer needed urgently?
Infected email is kept in the secure area for 14 days. Emails can also be released by the customer to the intended address through the secure customer portal.
|
+44 (0)8450 763 760 
+44 (0)8450 763 761
