Please read below for the measures
AMS is taking to help reduce the amount of unwanted email
messages being delivered to pagers on our network.
SPAM is a very difficult and continuously evolving issue
that our engineers dedicate a tremendous amount of time and
effort towards filtering. We have put several programs in
place to help reduce the impact. I have listed a few below:
- Blocking of email for international IP addresses. Historically
about 80% of SPAM is originated from IP addresses not in
the continental U.S.
- Apply third party SPAM filters. There are several vendors
that are 100% dedicated to identifying originators of SPAM
and producing lists that can be used to block messages originating
from severs on this list. This is called “black listing”.
AMS subscribes to these lists and receives updated lists
automatically 24 hours a day.
Most Internet Service Providers (ISP) use these same methods
for detecting SPAM. The difference between methods AMS uses
and those of the ISP providers is that the ISPs will put messages
that appear to be SPAM into a junk folder. The customer can
then review the folder and decide if the message is SPAM.
In the paging environment there is no junk folder to place
these SPAM-like messages in. A message is either sent to the
device or discarded.
While these methods are very effective at detecting and reducing
SPAM there are cases where wanted emails can be inadvertently
detected as SPAM and deleted; with email outsourcing becoming
more common, many larger companies are utilizing off-shore
servers for their corporate email. These off-shore servers
have IP addresses in our blocked international ranges. When
this situation is encountered the specific IP addresses can
be added to a list that will not be subject to our international
IP blocking. This is called “white listing”. When
a given IP address is “white listed”, all messages
will be accepted and passed on to the next level.
The second level of SPAM filters is a list of non-international
IP addresses that have been deemed SPAM originators by one
or more of the third party SPAM filter vendors. Some times
companies and ISP servers may be placed on this list because
of an internet hacker hijacking the hardware or incorrect
email settings such as being identified as an open relay.
The final level of SPAM filtering is “content filtering”.
This is by far a more complex filtering than the other levels
mentioned previously. SPAM detection engines use very complex
algorithms in an attempt to identify SPAM messages. In the
ISP world, these filters normally assign a numeric value to
every word, phrase, sentence, and paragraph in the message.
When the message total reaches a defined point, the message
is considered SPAM and discarded. For AMS’ paging application
we have chosen to set the number higher than an ISP would
and error on the side of sending a little unwanted email as
opposed to discarding wanted email.
We continue to strive towards reducing the impact of SPAM
on our network. If you feel that your server(s) may have inadvertently
been blocked as a source of SPAM, please contact AMS’
Technical Support at 800-643-6482 and provide the IP addresses
for the affected server(s).
As a reference, nearly 60% of the SMTP (email) messages sent
to our gateways are categorized as SPAM and discarded.
|
