How does SFUs email system fight spam?
In the constant battle to protect our users and our system resources against spam – unsolicited commercial email – we employ a number of measures. All mail coming in from outside SFU is scanned by a Barracuda spam filter. The Barracuda is a specialised piece of hardware that tests each message against a complex set of rules. It then: • silently discards messages that contain viruses or have the characteristics of a message containing one • assigns a “spam score” to other messages • silently discards messages with a spam score above a certain threshold • passes remaining messages through to the user The Barracuda is frequently updated with the latest virus detection and spam detection rules. Spammers and virus writers are frequently updating their techniques as well, of course, so when a new virus emerges or a new style of spamming comes out there may be a period of time when we are unprotected. On-campus spammers are fairly easy for us to spot and they are shut down and dealt with prom
