Increase Efficiency with Intelligent Email Traffic Control

Increase Efficiency with Intelligent Email Traffic Control
Author: CipherTrust

Work Smarter, Not Harder

CipherTrust’s IronMail has helped some of the largest enterprises in the world stem the flood of spam to their end users, as well as address a host of other e-mail threats. IronMail’s unique Spam Profiler tool provides maximum effectiveness by scrutinizing thousands of characteristics of every message to determine a spam score. But the challenges for enterprises today do not stop at identifying and blocking spam. With spam volumes continuing to increase at an incredible rate, the new challenge is to more efficiently handle the huge volumes of mail, without increasing costs.

The massive growth in spam in recent years is expected to continue exponentially well into the future. According to Radicati Group research, the average corporate e-mail user sends 34 e-mails and receives 99 e-mails every day, a 53% increase over numbers from just one year ago. E-Marketer expects the total volume of e-mail sent in 2004 to exceed two trillion messages, with steady growth rates of 13 to 15 percent annually through 2007. With this sort of massive e-mail volume traveling across the Internet and the reality that a vast majority is undesired, the need for accurate and thorough spam protection has never been greater.

To handle the additional traffic, you could add more mail servers, or you could become smarter about how you utilize the equipment you already have, and double your return on investment. IronMail’s Connection Control is the first and only offering to combine network-based traffic shaping and reputation services to elegantly block e-mail from senders who consistently send spam. Reputation servers and traffic shaping are both emerging technologies in the fight against spam, and IronMail is the first product to effectively integrate them to fight spam and stop e-mail threats. And, Connection Control even offers an opportunity for a little payback against spammers.

Slam the Spammer

Connection Control takes the fight to the spammers by forcing them to spend extra time and money to send spam. By removing the financial incentive of sending spam, IronMail forces spammers to rethink their approach or halt operations altogether. When dealing with spam assaults on their servers, network administrators can choose whether to take an offensive or defensive approach:

• Tough Defense – In defense mode, Connection Control will simply not accept messages from IP addresses flagged as violators for the designated time interval. This vastly reduces the number of messages requiring scanning, which lowers the cost of spam defense for the customer.
  
• Aggressive Offense – In offense mode, Connection Control turns the tables on spammers by accepting a connection, but slowing the flow of e-mail to a handful of messages per hour. This forces the spammer to expend resources despite the message having no chance of success. In this mode, Connection Control makes domains protected by IronMail very unprofitable targets for spammers.
  

Innovation from the Leader in Messaging Security

Connection Control features several proprietary technologies working together to help IronMail provide the fastest throughput in the industry:

• Dynamic Connection Rejection – Limits the number of messages that reach IronMail and rejects the resources available to the offending IP address.
  
• Rejection Intervals – By relying on data gathered by the IronMail Global Network, CipherTrust research has determined the optimal intervals to reject and allow connections.
  
• Anomaly Detection Engine – Examines and controls overall traffic flow for IronMail to identify threats.
  
• Threat Response Updates – the IronMail Global Network comprises over 2500 IronMail units in the field. The system provides data and updates to IronMail units as needed.
  
• TrustedSource™ - CipherTrust’s reputation service maintains data on millions of e-mail senders globally and provides real-time information to IronMail appliances about a sender’s e-mail sending behavior.
  

Proven in the Field

Currently in use at enterprises such as Cox Communications, Inc. (NYSE: COX), Connection Control dynamically rejects upwards of 50 percent of connection attempts from known spammers with dramatic results. But don’t just take our word for it. Franklin Warlick, Cox Communications’ messaging systems administrator, saw instant results when he installed Connection Control on Cox’s IronMail units, which protect approximately 60,000 inboxes. “CipherTrust’s Connection Control saved us valuable time and resources when we really needed them. This new technology in IronMail allows us to laser in on the worst offenders, and reject their spamming attempts at the network edge. With Connection Control, Cox Communications was able to reject 90,000 spam messages an hour immediately, giving us great bang for the buck from a product that already paid for itself many times over.”

Take the Next Step

Learn more about how IronMail helps organizations stop the spam flood and fight back against spammers by visiting www.ciphertrust.com or requesting CipherTrust’s free whitepaper, “Stopping the Spam Flood with IronMail Connection Control.”

About the Author

CipherTrust is the leader in anti-spam and email security. Learn more by downloading our free whitepaper, “Stopping the Spam Flood with IronMail Connection Control” or by visiting www.ciphertrust.com.