There are many types of anti-spam products available. These are special programs designed to prevent malicious emails and potential viruses from entering a computer system. The products available either filter the harmful emails from access or place them into a quarantine file for further security review. These programs act as a firewall between the computer system and the emails sent from external sites.
Anti-spam products are available in both commercial and free versions. The commercial products are typically the best solution for companies because the virus detection algorithms are updated more frequently. This provides better overall security for the email systems.
Most anti-spam products are available in standard virus protection software. This additional security feature is built into the security software. The anti-spam filters are added to the email server, which automatically removes unwanted emails before they can enter the company email system.
Spam is an example of junk mail sent over an email system. This unsolicited mail typically clogs up email servers. One of the of anti-spam products available is an anti-spam proxy filter. This filter checks the mail address for legitimacy before the email is allowed to pass into a company's email server.
Another anti-spam product is the email gateway solution. This anti-spam gateway blocks incoming spam messages at the company's Internet gateway. This can save processing time because the messages never enter the computer system.
Unsolicited emails cost a company considerable resources and money. This unwanted email takes up storage space and network resources, which can impact the system performance of the company. Using anti-spam products is a proven cost-effective security measure for a company.
Many criminals use email phishing as a method of obtaining sensitive information from an organization. This is accomplished by sending fake emails to employees asking for passwords and user credentials. Once the data is obtained, the intruder has the access codes necessary to obtain sensitive information. Most anti-spam products can filter out malicious phishing emails.
A computer virus can intrude an organization by infiltrating the email system. This is an example of a Trojan horse technique because the virus only becomes active if the email is opened. Anti-spam products are used as the primary security measure to search emails for viruses and malicious code. These products have special searching algorithms that read transmitted emails looking for specific virus identifiers.