Spam is not the only e-mail-borne menace that companies face, says IT security consulting company, Securicom.
There are other potential security breaches, such as the use of corporate e-mail to steal confidential and sensitive information, and employee e-mail abuse. This can have a devastating effect on an organisation's reputation, along with spam and non-business related e-mails, the company notes.
Dries Morris, director of Securicom, says content filtering is imperative today, but a lack of appropriate support staff is one of the main reasons why companies are still not getting content filtering right.
The strength of content filtering protection is directly proportional to the strength of the corporate e-mail policy, says Morris, and whether or not the solution has been properly configured to strictly adhere to and enforce e-mail usage rules.
The challenge of implementing e-mail content filtering is that solutions differ in their deployment architectures and user-friendliness, so companies can grapple with getting the filtering right because of installation, deployment and configuration issues.
“Unless you have someone in-house who understands your e-mail system, knows how to implement it within your existing security architecture, has a sound understanding of appropriate e-mail usage rules, and who has time to monitor the solution, it is worthwhile outsourcing the function to competent consultants,” advises Morris.
E-Purifier, a solution from Securicom, is a possible answer, according to Morris. It is hosted upstream, by Securicom, at the Verizon data centre. All mails transferred by the service are monitored and scanned before they reach client networks. Clients will, however, still have full control of customising and configuring their e-mail rule-set, he adds.
“Companies subscribe to the service, which includes hardware, software, support, maintenance and training of staff, so there is no capital outlay and no need to employ dedicated resources to support and maintain it,” Morris concludes.
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