Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives
Re: Extremely High Spam Statistics
From: Brady McClenon <mcclenbw () ONEONTA EDU>
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:03:07 -0500
As I read this thread it seems like we are comparing apples and oranges of sorts. Since probably no two anti-spam implementations are the same, even if using the same product, I don't think anyone can say what percentage anyone should see. Especially since different solutions even keep the statistics differently. For Example, our Barracuda counts each connection attempt from an IP address on a DNSBL as 1 blocked spam message. I've seen some products that do not count them at all. Also, some places choose to perform DNSBL lookup after accepting the message. So if that one connection contained 10 messages it's counted as 10 pieces of spam instead of just one. The key to spam filter is to filter as many as possible while keeping the number of false positives to a bare minimum or better yet none at all. So if you are blocking 98-99% without seeing or being told of false-positives, great. If you're only blocking 20% and your users are happy, then that's great too. Either you receive less spam as a whole, you receive a lot more legitimate messages bring down the spam percentage, or your institution is more conservative with what they consider spam. In short, I don't believe our 95% block rate reflects we are doing something wrong, just because other institutions have lower numbers. Our false positives have been few and far between. I actually see room for improvement on our 95%. Yes, it's neat to compare numbers, just don't judge your, or anyone else's, implementation by them. Brady McClenon Administrative Computer Services State University College at Oneonta Oneonta, NY 13820 (607) 436-3203 ________________________________ From: Tim Lane [mailto:tlane () SCU EDU AU] Sent: Monday, February 12, 2007 7:51 PM To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU Subject: [SECURITY] Extremely High Spam Statistics Hello, I would be interested in comparing our spam stats with other institutions. We are currently sent around around 450 000 emails per day, of which 98-99% are spam leaving around 5000 valid email messages passed through. This is transparent to our uses who only receive valid email. Are other institution's spam levels this high? I would be very interested in hearing stats as I thought global rates were only around 90-95%. Thanks, Tim Tim Lane Information Security Program Manager Information Technology and Telecommunication Services Southern Cross University PO Box 157 Lismore NSW 2480 (02 6620 3290 7 02 6620 3033 - tlane () scu edu au 8 http://www.scu.edu.au <http://www.scu.edu.au>
Current thread:
- Re: Extremely High Spam Statistics, (continued)
- Re: Extremely High Spam Statistics HALL, NATHANIEL D. (Feb 13)
- Re: Extremely High Spam Statistics Ken Connelly (Feb 13)
- Re: Extremely High Spam Statistics Roger Safian (Feb 13)
- Re: Extremely High Spam Statistics Mark Bruhn (Feb 13)
- Re: Extremely High Spam Statistics Br. Kenneth Arnold (Feb 13)
- Re: Extremely High Spam Statistics Daniel J. Cody (Feb 13)
- Re: Extremely High Spam Statistics Joel Rosenblatt (Feb 13)
- Re: Extremely High Spam Statistics Mclaughlin, Kevin L (mclaugkl) (Feb 13)
- Re: Extremely High Spam Statistics Bristol, Gary L. (Feb 13)
- Re: Extremely High Spam Statistics Chris Steele (Feb 13)
- Re: Extremely High Spam Statistics Brady McClenon (Feb 13)
- Re: Extremely High Spam Statistics Mark Poepping (Feb 13)
- Re: Extremely High Spam Statistics Tim Lane (Feb 13)