Messaging Gateway

Hello All

We are using Brightmail Gateway 8360 and 8380 firmware version 7.7.0-17.

Recently i have noticed we are receving more SPAM than usual, i have played around with the spam threshold and set this to 40% but we are still receving similar amount. I know there is a new firmware version available which I will update to this week, will this make a difference?

Thanks
Jun1or

Hello,

Have you changed the spam scanning from 72 to 40. plz let us know exactly.


Regards,
Laeek

Yes initially it was set to 72 then i set this to 60/50 and now 40

Hi,

I would recommand you to upgrade it to 8.0.1-7 where all these bad reputation mails will be dropped at connection level.


Regards,
Laeek

Thanks for your prompt response Laeek.

By moving the slider from 72 to 40 should this had made a difference? If i move this further down to say 30 will this cause issues with our mail?

When i upgrade to this will i need to make any other changes for the drop outs to take place at connection level?

Hello,

Just change the spam scoring from 40 to 72. Let us know if in case have any further query.

Regards,
Laeek

You're changing the confidence level of the anti-spam technologies using this slider.
The lower the number, the more messages will be treated as suspected spam.
Depending on what your policies mandate for treatment of suspected spam, you might just be delivering spam to the end user.

I'd suggest putting the slider up to 72 or above or even turn off suspected spam (so long as you are confident that there are no false positives being hit).

Also, upgrading to 8.x should drop the amount of spam coming in dramatically (will be blocked at connection and marked as Bad Reputation).


//ian

Hi,

If you have noticed an unexpected decrease in the percentage of "Total Threat Messsages", then firstly check out the "Steps to Follow if Seeing Increased Missed Spam" section of this KB: http://service1.symantec.com/support/ent-gate.nsf/854fa02b4f5013678825731a007d06af/018a291024f07777882574db0055586b?OpenDocument, in particular ensuring the rules are updating and messages are not by-passing Symantec Brightmail. Contact Technical Support if it is believed the product is not functioning correctly.

With version 8 of Symantec Brightmail Gateway there have been a number of developments to improve anti-spam effectiveness, most notably:
1) a major investment to the Symantec Global Bad Senders list now including access to information on tens of millions of IP addresses.
2) SMTP Traffic Shaping has been replaced with some proven technology from the Symantec Brightmail Traffic Shaper, called Adaptive Reputation Management. Connecting IP addresses are tracked locally and used in the new Connection Classification system to provide a granular Quality of Service style system to inbound senders, depending on what YOUR site knows about their spamming history. Typically many of our SBG 8 customers see up to 90% of their incoming mail identified as being from a spam source and blocked at connection time, having the added benefit of improving performance.

Check out this excellent blog for more details: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/increasing-antispam-effectiveness-symantec-brightmail-gateway-80

Best regards,
Amanda

Thanks for the prompt response guys. Will update and see results.