Re: Recommendations on Email Filtering System

[Vuong Phung <vphung () SCIENCE SJSU EDU>]

Tony, I used to use Tiger on PowerMac G5. Tiger (now Leopard) comes with a lot of services that you can turn on and 
configure to what you need and two of them are SpamAssissin and ClamAV for spam and virus filtering. It also uses 
Postfix where you can easily tweak it to block file attachment and so fore. For about $2,500 for a Mac Pro machine you 
have more than just anti-spam and virus but a lot of other features that you can take advantage of later 
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse 
<http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse&mco=7B72365D&node=home/shop_mac/family/mac_pro>
 &mco=7B72365D&node=home/shop_mac/family/mac_pro
 
You can look here for configuration http://www.angeltech.us/?RESOURCES:Technical_How_To:Apple
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vuong Phung
Systems Administrator
College of Science - Dean's Office

San Jose State University
One Washington Square
San Jose, CA 95192-0099
Duncan Hall 33

Tel 1.408.924.5056
Fax 1.408.924.5033
Web https://ncs.science.sjsu.edu/helpdesk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-----Original Message-----
From: Childs, Aaron [mailto:aaron () WSC MA EDU]
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 7:40 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Recommendations on Email Filtering System



Hi Tony,

  We are in the process of replacing our spam filter as well.  We are currently beta-testing SpamAssassin combined with 
grey-listing.  So far the test only includes individuals within our department and few select individuals outside of 
our department who typically receive a large amount of spam.  We anticipate rolling this out to the rest of our campus 
during Winter break.

  Surprisingly SpamAssassin & greylisting is catching almost all spam (Efficiency 99.41% False Positive 0.15% False 
Negative 0.43%, as reported through the Maia web interface), unlike our anti-spam appliance which is only catching 50% 
at best.  It doesn't report the name of the virus but it does give the count in the quarantine.

  This solution is relatively cheap to implement, all you need is a beefy server (lots of memory, fast drives, fast 
processor, etc) and the software is free.  We spent about $10k on the server and this will eventually handle roughly 
5500 users.

 

Have a good day,

  Aaron

-------------
Aaron Childs
Assistant Director, Networking
Westfield State College
http://www.wsc.ma.edu/it/

 

"I would rather write 10,000 notes than one letter of the alphabet."  
                -- Beethoven

 

From: Anthony "Tony" Quigg [mailto:quiggt () TAMUG EDU] 
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 9:50 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: [SECURITY] Recommendations on Email Filtering System

 

We are currently looking to replace our email spam/virus filter and would like to hear what systems other people are 
using. After initial investigation the price range for appliances and managed services varies greatly so it is hard to 
determine what you are getting for your money. We have around 500 desktops on campus.

 

One of the important factors (apart from stopping the spam and viruses) is to be able to get decent reporting 
information such as the number and name of quarantined viruses on a monthly basis. I have found that most manufacturers 
do not have a lot of information about what reports are available. 

 

Feel free to email me directly if you don't want to inundate the list.

 

Any recommendations, good or bad experiences greatly appreciated.

 

Regards,

Tony Quigg
Computer Systems Manager
Texas A&M University at Galveston
200 Seawolf Parkway
Galveston, Texas 77553
(409) 740-4961