An email spam filter is a service that helps identify and prevent unwanted or unsolicited emails, commonly known as spam, from reaching a user's inbox.
Email spam filters typically use a combination of techniques such as content analysis, sender reputation, and machine learning algorithms to detect and block spam emails. Some email providers also allow users to customize their spam filters, so they can specify which emails they consider spam and which ones they want to receive.
Having an email spam filter is important for several reasons. Firstly, spam emails can be annoying and time-consuming to deal with, especially if you receive a large volume of them. Spam emails can also be dangerous as they may contain phishing scams, malware, or links to malicious websites that can compromise your computer or steal your personal information. By using a spam filter, you can reduce the risk of falling victim to these scams and protect yourself and your computer from harm.
Moreover, email spam filters help to increase productivity by ensuring that legitimate emails get to your inbox, so you can focus on the important messages and avoid wasting time sifting through irrelevant or unwanted emails. Additionally, many email service providers use spam filters to keep their networks clean and to prevent their users from receiving unwanted messages, which helps to maintain the integrity and reliability of their services.
Secure Email Gateway
Many email clients such as Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, and others include a built-in set of email filters which can detect rudimentary or blatant forms of spam. Normally your mailbox will contain a Junk Mail, or Spam folder where the built-in spam filters direct these messages to.
Emails offers such as credit cards, personal solicitations, and automated messages tend to get filtered into your Junk Folder, but even some of the biggest players in the Email hosting industry like Microsoft can be susceptible to technical outages, and wide spread bugs that can in-affect render these built-in spam filters useless.
According to recent reports from an increasing number of Microsoft customers, Outlook inboxes were flooded with spam emails for several hours on February 20th, 2023. This was a result of Outlook’s built-in spam filters being broken. The issue was confirmed by Outlook users who reported the issues to Microsoft’s Community website that all the emails typically flagged as Junk were landing in user’s normal inbox.
Some users reported that even after checking the option that “Only trust email from addresses in my Safe Senders and domains list and safe mailing lists” was selected in Junk Mail, these filters still did not fix the issue. This indicated that the webmail service’s filtering had been completely broken.
Although the issue had subsided according to Microsoft a few hours later, it highlights the need for something more than just a standard built-in spam filter included with your email client or provider service. An Email Security Gateway provides that next level of filtering that can prevent spam, malicious emails, ransomware, phishing emails, and so much more from reaching your inbox.
A separate Spam Filter can ensure that even when the spam filters that are included with services like Outlook, Apple Mail, Gmail, and others fail, your still protected from unwanted email spam and junk messages.
Natural Networks is a leading partner for many large companies who rely on an Email Security Gateway for the best email protection and spam filtering for their entire organization. If you want to learn more about how Natural Networks can help stop Spam and Junk Mail from overwhelming your team, give us a call today!
