Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications
    • Cybersecurity

    Carroll College Relies on Appliance to Fight Spam

    By
    Cameron Sturdevant
    -
    November 29, 2004
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Carroll College, a private institution in Waukesha, Wis., services 7,000 e-mail accounts that receive approximately 1 million messages per month. The colleges commitment to freedom of expression and to privacy precludes the use of an outside anti-spam service to filter all this mail, as does the cost of such a service, which is why Carrolls IT department chose to go with an appliance-based anti-spam solution.

      Carroll College students, faculty and staff use a wide range of e-mail clients, including Pine, Qualcomm Inc.s Eudora and Microsoft Corp.s Outlook. E-mail at the school is run on Windows, Unix and Linux systems.

      John Arechavala, Carroll Colleges network and systems manager, said he will spend just under $1 per e-mail box per year to provide anti-spam services using Solinus Inc.s MailFoundry appliance, which he installed in October 2003. And he expects the price to drop to 20 cents per mailbox per year when he can count just the license and maintenance fees.

      Arechavala didnt factor in staff time when figuring costs, but it was clear during an interview with eWEEK Labs that he didnt consider the approximately 90 minutes per week that he spends working with the system to be a problem.

      “Mostly, were just checking mail queues to see if there is a slowdown,” he said.

      Arechavala is an administrator who likes statistics, and he gets plenty of them from the MailFoundry anti-spam appliance, which is based on a Sun Microsystems Inc. Sun Fire V100 rack-mountable system.

      Junk mail captured by the MailFoundry appliance is automatically purged after five days in the system—one of the most aggressive spam-junking policies eWEEK Labs has encountered. End-users do not have access to quarantined e-mail. Arechavala shares the philosophy that looking at filtered spam is just a waste of time. “Any cost savings from junking spam in the first place are lost if users just spend that time looking over their junk box,” he said.

      Carroll College has just two IT staffers whose responsibility is e-mail, among other things, so the colleges policy limits requests for e-mail exceptions to faculty and staff. Carroll College mail is blocked by rule sets provided by MailFoundry, in addition to 53 custom filters that Arechavala has written.

      Indeed, the MailFoundry appliance requires more administration time than an outsourced service would. But the trade-off for Arechavala is privacy and security.

      /zimages/3/28571.gifClick here to read about how other schools are fighting spam.

      Although eWEEK Labs has never heard of a security breach at a managed anti-spam company, the risk is there. Organizations that cannot tolerate the chance of having sensitive e-mail scanned by an outside company should consider either an appliance-based system such as MailFoundry or a software-based tool that integrates directly with the mail server, such as Sunbelt Software Inc.s iHateSpam.

      When a spam message makes it through MailFoundry, the recipient of the e-mail gets instructions from the IT department about how to gather e-mail header information so that a filter can be adjusted to catch the junk. This happens rarely, said Arechavala.

      However, during the year that the MailFoundry appliance has been in place, Carroll College experienced a couple of spam spikes when changes to the product caused it to miss some Korean-language spam.

      Despite this hiccup, Arechavala is committed to using the product because it allows him to control every aspect of the spam battle while also accommodating the wide-ranging needs of his users. In addition, he said, MailFoundrys low operating costs and ease of administration make it a bargain anti-spam tool—an important consideration given tight IT budgets.

      The icing on the cake for Carroll College is that MailFoundry uses a Sophos plc. anti-virus tool that augments the Symantec Corp. Norton AntiVirus system that the college provides to all staff and students. By filtering both inbound and outbound e-mail with anti-spam and anti-virus tools, Carroll College has avoided many malicious code outbreaks that have seen the light of day at other organizations.

      Technical Director Cameron Sturdevant can be reached at cameron_sturdevant@ziffdavis.com.

      /zimages/3/28571.gifCheck out eWEEK.coms for the latest security news, reviews and analysis. And for insights on security coverage around the Web, take a look at eWEEK.com Security Center Editor Larry Seltzers Weblog.

      Cameron Sturdevant
      Cameron Sturdevant is the executive editor of Enterprise Networking Planet. Prior to ENP, Cameron was technical analyst at PCWeek Labs, starting in 1997. Cameron finished up as the eWEEK Labs Technical Director in 2012. Before his extensive labs tenure Cameron paid his IT dues working in technical support and sales engineering at a software publishing firm . Cameron also spent two years with a database development firm, integrating applications with mainframe legacy programs. Cameron's areas of expertise include virtual and physical IT infrastructure, cloud computing, enterprise networking and mobility. In addition to reviews, Cameron has covered monolithic enterprise management systems throughout their lifecycles, providing the eWEEK reader with all-important history and context. Cameron takes special care in cultivating his IT manager contacts, to ensure that his analysis is grounded in real-world concern. Follow Cameron on Twitter at csturdevant, or reach him by email at cameron.sturdevant@quinstreet.com.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Big Data and Analytics

      Alteryx’s Suresh Vittal on the Democratization of...

      James Maguire - May 31, 2022 0
      I spoke with Suresh Vittal, Chief Product Officer at Alteryx, about the industry mega-shift toward making data analytics tools accessible to a company’s complete...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Applications

      Cisco’s Thimaya Subaiya on Customer Experience in...

      James Maguire - May 10, 2022 0
      I spoke with Thimaya Subaiya, SVP and GM of Global Customer Experience at Cisco, about the factors that create good customer experience – and...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      GoodData CEO Roman Stanek on Business Intelligence...

      James Maguire - May 4, 2022 0
      I spoke with Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData, about business intelligence, data as a service, and the frustration that many executives have with data...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Yotascale CEO Asim Razzaq on Controlling Multicloud...

      James Maguire - May 5, 2022 0
      Asim Razzaq, CEO of Yotascale, provides guidance on understanding—and containing—the complex cost structure of multicloud computing. Among the topics we covered:  As you survey the...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×