k_Street Consulting, LLC Blog
Your Inbox Needs a Sheriff with a Strike Plan
Spam emails often contain viruses leading to any number of potentially threatening situations for your company’s network. Therefore, it’s essential that your network has a security solution in place that acts as a sort of virtual sheriff, blocking malicious messages from accessing your network, while granting passage to the good guys.
For your company’s spam filtering needs, a Unified Threat Management solution is useful. A UTM is the sheriff your network needs; able to spot and eliminate harmful spam emails with black-belt proficiency. Like any good sheriff, a UTM solution has a strike plan in place to get your sensitive data out of any potentially threatening situations. One helpful way to understand this is to think of this approach as an A-B-C strike plan.
A: Take an Assessment of the Situation
Your email inbox is constantly being bombarded by spam messages. In fact, did you know that more than 60 percent of all the email traffic over the Internet is spam? A good spam filtering solution takes a thorough assessment of your company's email situation and is ready for anything; in a similar way to how a sheriff would give a potential criminal an ocular patdown, looking for any hidden weapons. With a UTM, every single message (no exceptions) gets stopped, assessed, and its security situation broken down.
B: Garner if the Email is a Security Risk
When an email is given a “patdown,” the UTM sheriff looks for a security risk. What’s that email hiding? It could be something sinister like a virus-filled attachment tucked underneath its pant leg. Or maybe an email is disguised to look like a legitimate message in the same way a criminal tries to conceal their identity. This kind of email trickery is known as spear phishing, and imposter messages like these can easily get past a standard-grade spam solution. As long as your enterprise-level UTM network sheriff is around, your business will be safe.
C: Clear the Message for Passage
After garnering that the message is safe, then, and only then, will it be cleared for passage to your inbox. Otherwise, the malicious message will go straight to your spam folder, and possibly even deleted automatically if that’s the setting you choose.
Ultimately, an end result like this is the highest goal for every spam filtering solution. In addition to a UTM protecting your company’s network security situation, it will also protect your wallet. For example, did you know that it cost the average office worker $712 per year in salaried hours to sort through all the spam themselves that hit their inbox? Therefore, as far as productivity goes, it’s like your UTM is providing your network with a gym partner to spot you, as well as a sheriff to keep you safe.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re using a PC or a MAC, with a UTM solution protecting your network, you’ll gain a sunny disposition regarding your network’s security. Call us at (202) 640-2737, we’re always available to take your call!
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