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Known Spam/Suspected Spam
To intelligently apply resources, Policy Patrol Spam Filter pre-classifies spam as known spam or suspected spam. This allows you to delete known spam and concentrate only on the suspected spam. In this way, users can simply review the suspected spam in their quarantine reports or junk mail folders, instead of sifting through a daunting list of daily spam messages that can easily exceed one hundred emails per user per day.
Spam Quarantine Reports
With the daily (or hourly) quarantine report, users will never miss a legitimate email again. Users can quickly skim through the list of newly quarantined spam messages from within Outlook and deliver emails and/or white list addresses. The advantage of using the quarantine report instead of forwarding spam to the user’s junk mail folder is that the user is reminded to check the quarantined messages and will quickly be able to detect and deliver any wrongly quarantined emails.
Web Manager
For users: Users can view their quarantined emails from the Policy Patrol Web Manager. They can deliver and delete messages and add entries to the black list and white list. By allowing users to manually add an address to the white list, users can white list an email address before the email is received, which can be useful when signing up for a newsletter or new service, and the user is asked to white list an email address.
For Administrators: Administrators can view, release, and delete messages, and update white lists and black lists via the web console as well as the Administration console.
Quarantine, Delete, Add Tag or Header
Policy Patrol Spam Filter can reject (i.e. not download messages that are listed on real-time black lists or do not have valid recipients), quarantine (i.e. place spam messages on hold on the server), delay, delete, add a custom header or add a tag to the subject of spam messages.
Forward to Junk Mail Folder
Policy Patrol Spam Filter can automatically forward spam to the individual user’s junk mail folder. Policy Patrol can also forward spam messages to a public folder.
Anti-Spam Reports
Policy Patrol Spam Filter includes several anti-spam reports providing an overview of the number of spam messages received, the top spam domains, spam senders and spam receivers, DNSBL and SURBL lists results and much more. Anti-spam reports can be automatically generated and emailed to specified users.
Detailed Tracking
For every message, Policy Patrol Spam Filter displays an anti-spam report that shows the results of each anti-spam check performed (including words and their score if appropriate). This allows you to adjust your filters and conditions according to your specific requirements.
Anti-Spam Techniques
Policy Patrol Spam Filter uses a multi-layered approach to block and filter spam messages, utilizing a combination of different anti-spam techniques:
Greylisting
Policy Patrol Spam Filter uses greylisting to effectively block spam and viruses by rejecting initial emails from new (non white-listed) senders for one minute. Legitimate emails will still get through, but spam messages will not. This is because unlike spam engines and zombie machines, regular mail servers resend their messages upon initial rejection.
Bayesian Filtering
Policy Patrol Spam Filter uses Bayesian filtering to statistically analyze email content in order to determine whether the message is legitimate or spam. By comparing the contents of an email message with words in a legitimate and spam database, Policy Patrol Spam Filter calculates the probability that a message is spam. Policy Patrol Spam Filter includes automatic email learning to keep the filters up to date.
Real-Time Blacklists (RBL)
By checking sender IP addresses on real-time blacklists, Policy Patrol Spam Filter can stop spam from entering your mail server, thus saving the bandwidth used to download the messages.
Spam URL Realtime Block Lists (SURBL)
As opposed to RBL lists that include sender IP addresses and domains, SURBL lists are used to check URLs contained in the body of email messages. Even if spammers try to bypass existing heuristic and Bayesian filters by replacing text with images or including minimal text, they will still need to include a URL to be contacted on. Therefore checking the URLs against a list of known spam domains provides an important additional layer of protection and can be successful where other filtering methods fail. SURBL lists require zero administration, are constantly updated and fine-tuned and most of them are free to use. SURBL Lists also provide specific protection against the growing problem of phishing since they include URLs of known phishing sources.
IP Country Blocking
Policy Patrol Spam Filter can be configured to block emails from certain countries using a Country IP Blocking list.
Address Verification
Policy Patrol Spam Filter uses recipient verification to block any incoming email that does not contain a valid recipient. If the recipient is not found in the Active Directory or Lotus Domino directory, the message is rejected (i.e. not downloaded), therefore saving bandwidth. Policy Patrol Spam Filter can also block address harvesting attempts by dropping a connection when more than x number of invalid recipients are detected.
Header Checking
Policy Patrol Spam Filter analyzes message headers for spam characteristics using a sophisticated weighting system. Each spam characteristic is given a score according to the certainty with which it indicates spam. When the total score reaches the message threshold, the message is considered spam.
Keyword Filtering
Policy Patrol Spam Filter offers sophisticated keyword filtering using case sensitivity and word scores to detect spam. Furthermore Policy Patrol Spam Filter includes word pattern matching enabling the program to find variations of words with one single regular expression. The product ships with frequently used spam words and phrases (including regular expressions) which can be used to block unwanted messages. Since Policy Patrol Spam Filter removes all HTML tags before checking the email text, the product is capable of successfully stopping spammers who try to circumvent spam filters by placing HTML comment tags within the text.
White Lists and Black Lists
Policy Patrol Spam Filter allows you to manually add email addresses or domains to white lists and black lists and can also automatically add entries to these lists. For instance with Policy Patrol Spam Filter you can import recipients from Sent Items as well as automatically add any recipients of new outgoing emails to your white list. Users and Administrators can also update white lists and black lists from the quarantine report or via the Web interface.
Challenge & Response
Policy Patrol Spam Filter includes an advanced anti-spam challenge/response system, allowing you to configure when a challenge/response request should be sent. For instance you can configure Policy Patrol Spam Filter to only send a challenge/response message if there is reason to suspect spam. The sender will be able to verify the message through a website, upon which the message will automatically be delivered.
Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
The Sender Policy Framework (SPF) allows you to verify whether the sender is actually who they say they are. This means that by using SPF, Policy Patrol Spam Filter can block spoofed emails and thwart phishing attempts.
POP3 Downloader
Policy Patrol Spam Filter includes a POP3 downloader that allows you to download POP3 emails and forward these to Exchange Server. Policy Patrol Spam Filter will also check these emails for spam.
Regular anti-spam updates
Policy Patrol Spam Filter includes a default configuration that stops spam right out of the box. Regular anti-spam updates are automatically applied.
System Requirements
Windows Server 2003, 2008 or 2012.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2010, Exchange Server 2013 (or Windows Small Business Server 2003, 2008, 2011), Lotus Domino or other mail server.
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 (if you do not have this installed the Policy Patrol installation will download this for you).