Companies may recognise the importance of filtering email content to protect their networks against spam, viruses, spyware and other email borne threats, but greater awareness is needed around content filtering as protection against breaches of confidentiality and reputational damage that can result from inappropriate email use and, how to do it properly.

“Some companies still consider virus, anti-spam and spyware protection as the highest priority, assuming that content filtering will happen as a matter of course if they’re protected on these fronts.

“But this is not true. Anti-spam, anti-virus and anti-spyware solutions are not designed to perform content filtering tasks and can by no means be used for scanning inbound or outbound messages for content that breaks email usage rules.

“Controlling the use of company email is increasingly pertinent in today’s highly regulated business environment but companies must realise that it’s an issue that can only be addressed by content management systems.

Content filtering by any other name is not content filtering,” says Dries Morris, director at Securicom, a South Africa-based specialist IT security management company.

He explains that content filtering is a mechanism used by companies to ensure that the type of information entering and exiting company networks via email adheres to the organisation’s internal corporate mail usage policies.

Content filtering is performed using a steadfast set of rules which are specifically configured according to the user’s requirements and the company’s internal corporate email usage policy.

Anti-spam solutions on the other hand use a dynamic set of inbuilt matching criteria to individually interrogate mail messages and detect spam. Upon matching a specified number of these criteria, a message will then be identified as spam and removed from the system.

“Content filtering applications are used for an entirely different purpose to anti-spam solutions, which are only there to block and remove unsolicited commercial mail messages. Because they are designed to perform different tasks, they work in very different ways,” explains Morris.

While the most sophisticated piece of anti-spam software cannot perform content filtering tasks, there are integrated content management solutions that can be used for both content management and spam filtering.

In fact, content filtering solutions have evolved considerably, with some encompassing a range of capabilities from spam filtering, anti-virus and anti-phishing to the centralised management of email security.

Securicom’s robust mail content filtering solution, e-Purifier combines best-of-breed anti-spam, anti-virus and content security products to protect companies against a host of e-mail threats. Securicom is one of only a handful of IT security providers to offer a one-stop solution and support, and the only company to offer three layers of anti-virus protection.

The solution, hosted upstream by Securicom, is a managed service to which companies can subscribe. This means that there is no capital outlay and no need to employ dedicated resources to support and maintain it.

Companies subscribing to the e-Purifier service still have full control of customizing and configuring their email rule-set. This means that IT managers can define, refine and re-define the rule-set as necessary in accordance with the company’s specific email usage criteria, making it easier to properly enforce a corporate email policy.

“Content filters like e-Purifier have become a powerful tool that should be part of an organisation’s IT security arsenal. The integrated, all-in-one type tool offering a centralised approach to identifying and managing email security threats,” says Morris.

He concludes: “Companies need to have a comprehensive email policy in place to guide the responsible and appropriate use of email. Just one offensive email message can have a detrimental effect on a company’s reputation and just one small leak of confidential information relating to the business or one of its clients can land an organisation in hot water.

“Content filters make the enforcement of an email usage policy much easier and less time and admin intensive. An effective content filtering solution must be capable of implementing and managing the restrictions imposed by an organisation’s corporate email usage policy".

"By virtue of this, it’s clear to see why an anti-spam solution could never live up to a company’s content filtering expectations in respect of enforcing a corporate email policy.”

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