Opinions on the effectiveness of the Exchange 2010 spam filter vary depending on who you are speaking with. Smaller businesses with fewer mail boxes to protect tend to say the filter is “okay”, but labor-intensive to administer. Larger enterprises overcome some of the administration issues by paying for Forefront Protection automatic updates, but still find plenty of spam emails avoiding detection.
The reason why the Exchange 2010 spam filter is no better than “okay” at detecting spam emails is due to the way in which Microsoft retrospectively updates its “real-time block lists” (RBLs). These are the filters than block, quarantine, or delete emails from known sources of spam; and, once a spammer´s IP address is added to the list, the spammer simply starts sending spam emails from another IP address.
With regard to administering the Exchange 2010 spam filter, there are a lot of variables in the Exchange Admin Center. Get one wrong, or set your Spam Confidence settings incorrectly, and you could either be flooded with spam or receive no email sat all. Nonetheless, even at the optimal settings for most business, the Exchange 2010 spam filter only detects 99% of spam (according to Microsoft).
How to Improve Exchange 2010 Spam Filter Detection Rates
The solution to improving Exchange 2010 spam filter detection rates is a SpamTitan email filter. SpamTitan email filters use a process known as “Greylisting” to increase Exchange 2010 spam filter detection rates up to 99.97%. For a business currently receiving a hundred spam emails a week, a SpamTitan email filter can reduce the number of spam emails avoiding detection to just three.
Greylisting works by returning every incoming email (except those from whitelisted sources) to its server of origin with a request the email is resent. Spammers´ mail servers are usually too busy sending out fresh spam to respond to the request, and consequently the spam email never gets returned. This overcomes the issue of retrospectively updating RBLs from only known sources of spam.
By eliminating up to 99.97% of spam emails, the Greylisting process significantly reduces the threat from email-borne malware, ransomware, and phishing. Furthermore, users spend less time identifying, reporting, and deleting spam emails that avoid detection – thus increasing productivity. As far as improving Exchange 2010 spam filter detection rates, there is no better solution.
Other Features of SpamTitan that can Enhance Security
In our comparison of Office 365 and SpamTitan (below) we list ten areas in which the Exchange 2010 spam filter can leave gaps for spammers to exploit with malware and ransomware. Three of these areas – malicious URL blocking, threat intelligence, and double anti-virus engines – can enhance users´ online security in ways that Office 365 and the Exchange 2010 spam filter can´t:
- Malicious URL blocking prevents users clicking on links identified in historic spam emails.
- Threat intelligence uses machine learning technology to auto-adjust Spam Confidence settings.
- Double anti-virus engines scan outbound mail as well as inbound mail to identify compromised accounts.
Try the SpamTitan Email Filter for Exchange 2010 for Free
SpamTitan email filters are designed to be easy to deploy and administer. Business have the choice of an on-premises solution or cloud-based solution – both of which synchronize seamlessly with Active Directory and other management solutions for flexible policy application. However, rather than take our word for it, why not try a SpamTitan email filter for Exchange 2010 for free?
Speak with our Customer Services team today, and you could be experiencing virtually spam free emails within minutes. Our friendly team will explain the process for getting started with your SpamTitan email filter, and offer helpful advice about its configuration and operation. Naturally, throughout your free trial, out team will be on hand should you experience any problems or have further questions.