Spam is simply unsolicited email. Some surveys show that as much as 80 percent of the mail that circulates the Internet is spam. Spammers go to great lengths to get this mail into the recipient’s inbox. One major task for the security professional is to decrease spam and filter as much as possible.
One easy way to reduce the amount of spam you must deal with is to increase Outlook’s junk mail settings to a higher level. There are five options for dealing with junk mail:
Safe Senders List This option allows you to receive messages from email addresses in your address book and contact list.
Safe Recipients List This is a list of mailing lists or other subscription domain names and email addresses that you belong to and want to receive messages from.
Blocked Senders List This is a list of domain names and email addresses that you want to be blocked.
Blocked Encodings List This list allows you to block a language encoding or character you do not want to receive.
Blocked Top-Level Domains List This list allows you to block top-level domain names.
Scenario
You have been asked to configure the Windows systems to reduce spam.
Scope of Task
Duration
This task should take about 15 minutes.
Setup
For this task, you’ll need a Windows computer, access to the Administrator account, and an Internet connection.
Caveat
Spammers typically stay at the front of the technology curve. This means that stopping spam is hard work as each time a defensive technique is implemented, spammers find new techniques to bypass those defenses.
Procedure
In this task, you will learn how to reduce the amount of spam that an end user must deal with.
Equipment Used
For this task, you must have:
- A Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 computer
- Access to the Administrator account
- Microsoft Outlook
- An Internet connection
Details
This task will teach you how to lock down Microsoft Outlook to more effectively handle spam and how to install the Outlook spam filter.
Tweaking Outlook to Reduce Spam
1. To configure Outlook to filter a greater amount of spam, select Actions ⇒ Junk E-mail ⇒ Junk E-mail Options. Outlook provides its users with four levels of junk- mail protection:
No Automatic Filtering This option doesn’t filter mail but does send blocked-sender emails to the junk mail folder.
Low Only the most obvious junk mail is moved to the junk mail folder. This is the default setting.
High Most junk mail is detected, but so is some legitimate email.
Safe Lists Only Filters mail so that you receive email from only individuals who are on a Safe Senders List.
Choose the High setting.
2. Select the International tab and click the Blocked Top-Level Domain List button. The resulting dialog box will allow you to block email from specific countries.
3. In the Blocked Top-Level Domain List dialog box, select the following countries to block email from: China, South Korea, Russia, and Brazil.
Surveys have shown the top five spam-producing countries are China, South Korea, Russia, Brazil, and the United States.
If your company has a legitimate need to communicate with individuals in one of these countries, you would not want to block that particular country.
4. Click OK to close the Blocked Top-Level Domain List dialog box. Then close the Junk E-mail Options dialog box.
Installing the Outlook Spam Filter
1. Go to www.spamaid.com/download.shtml and download the Office spam filter. Once the program has been downloaded, install it and accept the default install settings. The program can be used for 30 days as a trial application.
2. After the installation, the spam filter will add a set of tools to the Outlook menu bar. These settings include Mark As Good, Mark As Spam, and Settings.
3. Click the Settings option. In the resulting dialog box, select the Advanced tab. Under Treat Messages As Spam, notice that three boxes are already checked. Select If Message’s Character Set Is Different From English.
4. Select the Phrase Filter tab, and then click the Spam Recognition Keywords button. The resulting dialog box will allow you to block messages based on keywords. (Several good spam keywords lists can be found on the Internet. One is at www.activewebhosting.com/faq/email-filterlist.html.) Use the Spam Recognition Keywords List dialog box to add to your keywords list. For example, you may want to add lottery. To do so, click the Add button, enter the word lottery, and click OK.
5. Once you have added all the words in the list, you can close the Spam Recognition Keywords List dialog box and save your Outlook spam filter settings.
Criteria for Completion
You have completed this task when you have configured Outlook’s junk email settings and installed the spam filter.