Backscatter Spam

One of the areas where spam detection and filtering has always been difficult is with bounce backs - AKA backscatter. It's very difficult to scan these as they sometimes don't include all of the original message rendering heuristics ineffective (where AI reads and understands the message), and always include a header specific to the mail server it was sent from so that signature based scanning doesn't work. Every type and version of mail server attaches a different header making it difficult to detect what is and isn't a bounce.

Fundamentally, this is only a problem because some mail servers are badly configured and accept mail when they shouldn't. I can't change that.

Our solution:
The RocketUK mail servers now have the ability to detect and score and bounces. For the reasons above this is not infallable but has proved effective in testing.

378 out of 439 bounces received between midnight and 9:30am were marked or blocked as spam.
Previously, most of those would have been passed as clean.

The benefits:
This will markedly reduce the amount of junk bounce backs our customers receive.
I am unaware of any other ISPs having implemented this type of scanning.

Mail Server Quotas

We've always said that we have a mail quota but this has never been enforced.
We're now introducing quotas on mailboxes of 100MB. This affects almost no customers - 95% use POP3 and never leave more an a couple of MB on the server before downloading.

What is does mean is that we're able to provide more IMAP/WebMail services - where the users leave their mail on our servers rather than downloading to their own computers.
This is ideal for people who are more often mobile and don't have an office server looking after email.

Another mail filter

To reduce spam: in testing is a new filter ('policyd') which will analyse the patterns of other computers on the net sending us email. If the patterns match spam behavoir or they are caught sending spam we can automatically blacklist them for long periods of time.
Currently, hosts can't be automatically blacklisted.

For the first time in a while, a fairly large virus outbreak is in progress. Take a look at our statistics for mid-January 2007 and you can see the big spikes as trojan containing emails are spammed out en-masse. Our anti-spam service seems to have done an excellent job stopping them coming in.

This is a good time to double check you anti-virus subscriptions are up to date - whatever these files might be installing on your computers, it'll not be friendly...

We're currently evaluating a new product to replace the current http://webmail.rocketuk.net system.

The RoundCube project offers a far improved user interface over the current SquirrelMail system allowing you to use you email as easily as a traditional webmail client.

Feel free to trial it using your usual POP3 email login at :
http://webmailbeta.rocketuk.net

We've been working hard on a several new products including an Online File Storage System, a new Object Oriented Shopping Cart Engine and Remote Backup Facility.

Online File Storage System
This is a secure method of sharing and hosting any type of file that you'd like to share with customers, suppliers or other offices within your company. It features a self administration system allowing you to administer users and deployments with ease.
Availability: Jan 2007. Ask your account handler for further information.

Object Oriented Shopping Cart Engine
Our programmers have been working very hard developing a new bespoke fully featured ecommerce package. This system has been designed to create world class online shopping environment which is easy to administer and most importantly easy to buy things from.
Several ground breaking features make this product unique. For example, advert tracking through to order (reports to effectively measure your marketing spend and the actual returns), cash vouchers (automatically issued on birthdays!), special offer coupons, advanced multiple picture presentation, integration with ListMessenger email marketing tool plus many more features.
Availability: Feb 2007. Ask your account handler for further information.

Remote Backup Facility
Store your critical business files off site via our secure and reliable Remote Backup Facility. After installation of our synchronisation tools your data will automatically replicate onto our servers nightly giving you the peace of mind that your business is safe in the event of complete data loss.
Availability: NOW.

Welcome to the Internet departments first blog entry. This is where we intend to keep our customers informed of all the goings on within the Internet department.