6 Reasons You Should Consider an Additional Spam Filter for Your Email

As more and more organizations become reliant on their email to conduct business, cyber criminals are putting in overtime trying to access databases and find additional email addresses to exploit.

So, with cyberattacks and social engineering on the rise, you can bet that spam emails, malware and phishing messages aren’t going away any time soon. 

I know what you might be thinking…

My Microsoft Office 365 suite already has a built-in spam
filter for these things, so why do I need another?

The real question is, though, how reliable is it?

Yes, Office 365, and many other email suites, have an
anti-virus solution built into the system. However, most are designed with minimal
filter requirements. Additionally, it’s important to note that, once
configured, these out-of-the-box spam filters must take time to learn what is
and isn’t spam, which could potentially leave your organization at risk for an
attack.

The more you know, the more likely you are to consider using third-party spam filtering solution in addition to the out-of-the-box protection you already have. Below, we’ve compiled a list of six reasons why a third-party spam filter can save you and your organization time, money and peace of mind…

1. They can be implemented quickly. They don’t need time to adapt or learn to differentiate between what is spam and what isn’t. They’re able to detect more complex attacks and immediately quarantine them using multi-layered threat protection.
2. They provide accurate spam and unwanted email protection. A third-party solution vets incoming emails before they reach your inbox. Only the emails that are deemed acceptable will travel to your email server.
3. They recognize and filter emails that go unopened. If you have emails that you receive regularly, but never open (for various reasons), a third-party spam filter typically will recognize this and start filtering the unwanted content for you, so the nuisance never makes it to your inbox. This can ultimately save you time from deleting and unsubscribing to certain emails.
4. They provide business continuity when email servers are offline. If your mail server goes down, many third-party email solutions allow you to access your email from their server. This can have tremendous upside, should you have an unexpected or lengthy server interruption.
5. They provide dynamic protection from new threats. While most out-of-the-box spam coverage remains static, third-party spam solutions typically use machine learning, or dynamic analysis, to detect new threats and quarantine them before they ever reach your inbox. 
6. They protect you from a denial-of-service (DoS) attack. A DoS attack attempts to overload your systems with an overwhelming volume of requests. The objective is to bring your operation down and make you lose money. Since a third-party service vets your email before it ever arrives at your server, the attack is detected and thwarted.

What filter works best for email security and protection?

Now that you have a better understanding of the benefits of
an email filter, the question becomes: which one is best?

Besides Gartner naming Proofpoint as a leading vendor for email security, our experienced IT services team has also found that Proofpoint provides the most extensive protection for our clients and even ourselves.

MainSpring partners with Proofpoint Essentials to provide next generation email security to clients to keep their proprietary information safe.

Could your organization benefit from third-party email security?

If you’re interested in exploring what additional email
security could do for your organization, we encourage you to speak to your IT
department or your vCIO to assess the benefits!