On March 25th, 2009, our Proofpoint SPAM filter service received a major upgrade. While the upgrade serves a number of positive purposes, here's how you will immediately benefit from our enhanced services:
- Drastically reduced number of SPAM messages sent to you courtesy of a newly installed Dynamic Reputation Mode
- Improved email send/receive response time due to the drastic reduction of SPAM traffic
- User friendly email interface allowing you to quickly identify and safelist legitimate messages
About the Spam Digest
A Spam Digest notice will be delivered to your email inbox each morning. If Proofpoint does not block or find any spam messages for your inbox within a 24 hour period, you will not receive a Digest. The digest will come from spam-digest@brown.edu and you can request a new Digest at any time by clicking the link for Request New End User Digest within a current Digest email. The new digest will be sent to your email address, showing any new messages that have been quarantined since the last Digest was sent.
How do I release or a message that isn't Spam?
When you receive a copy of your Spam Digest, and find that there is a message marked as spam that you would like to release, you can do so by using the tools listed beside each message.
- Release link - The Release link releases the email from the Proofpoint quarantine and delivers it to your inbox. Entourage users may need to copy and paste the link into their web browser to release a Digest message. Released messages will arrive in your inbox with the subject of [Released]
- Safelist link - The Safelist link releases the email into your inbox and places the sender on a safelist so that subsequent e-mails from the same sender arrive in your inbox and bypass the quarantine.
- Not Spam link - The Not Spam link releases the email into your inbox and sends a notification to Proofpoint indicating that the e-mail was not spam. Not only does this send you the message, it also reports it to Proofpoint, who will update their spam algorithm so that they are less likely to tag a message like that in the future.
NOTE: Local email clients may have junk mail settings that could filter the message you just released into its junk/trash folder. Be sure to check your email client's junk email folder if you do not immediately see the released message in your inbox!
Generally, there isn't much that you'll need to do to monitor spam filtering through Proofpoint. By default, spam filtering is turned on, and predefined levels are already set. However, you can do a few things to make sure you stay on top of what Proofpoint is filtering as spam.
- Open the Spam Digest email that you receive each day and review the listing of messages that were marked as spam.
- If any messages you find are not spam, click the Release, Safelist, or Not Spam links to release the message to your inbox, and if applicable, add the sender to your safelist.
- If all messages are spam, you can simply delete the E Digest e-mail.
Can I disable digest messages?
Digest messages can be disabled. Your daily digest email contains a link called Manage My Account. Click this link which will take you to the Proofpoint user interface. Login to the site, and then select the Settings button on the left side panel of this page. You will now be on the Settings page.
- To disable the digest only when there are no spam message in your quarantine, uncheck the box at the top for Send digest even when I have no messages in my Spam Quarantine Digest.
- To disable the digest even when you have messages in your quarantine, uncheck the box at the top for Send digest with new messages in my Spam Quarantine Digest. NOTE: Disabling this option does NOT keep spam from being quarantined. It keeps digests from being generated and sent to your mailbox.
What other features are available to manage my Digest?
Within the Spam Digest email, there are links available that let you quickly access other features of Proofpoint. These options, listed above and to the right of the message listings, are described below.
- Request New End User Digest - This option allows you to request an updated version of your Spam Digest, which will list any new messages that have been placed in the Quarantine since your last Digest was sent.
- Request Safe/Blocked Senders List - This option allows you to request a listing of senders on your Safe and Block lists. The Proofpoint server will send this listing via email.
- Manage My Account - This option provides you with a quick link to the Proofpoint server for managing your account profile, lists, and other options
For more information about these features, click here.
About ProofPoint
What is Proofpoint?
Proofpoint is a spam blocking service that is replaced the university's previous spam filter, Spam Assassin. The Proofpoint system inspects all incoming messages to the university and uses rules to determine whether or not a message is spam. Once examined, the legitimate messages are sent on to the recipient's inbox, while suspected spam is quarantined. Each morning, users receive an email, called the Spam Digest, which contains links to each of the quarantined messages. While the success rate of Proofpoint spam blocking is very high, in March 2009 this service received a major upgrade which further improved its detection and elimination of SPAM. The upgrade also enhanced the existing user email interface, allowing end-users to quickly identify and safelist legitimate messages.
How does Proofpoint work?
All incoming and outgoing email is filtered by the Proofpoint Protection Server. Depending upon Proofpoint Protection Server rules and policies, messages that contain a virus or inappropriate content can either be deleted or "scored." In the case of spam, the message score indicates the probability that the message is spam. So, a message scoring 100 would have a 100% chance of being spam (definite spam) and a message scoring 0 would have 0% chance of being spam. Messages scoring high enough to probably be spam are quarantined by the system. You can find the "score" of a message under the Score column in your Spam Digest.
You cannot increase or decrease the aggressiveness of the filter or choose to block foreign languages. The aggressiveness of the filter is set automatically by the Proofpoint system, and it uses a large number of variables to determine whether a message is spam. These variables are far more effective than simply blocking foreign languages or manually adjusting the filter.
About the Quarantine
Spam messages that are filtered through Proofpoint are put in the Spam Quarantine. The Quarantine is a location on the Proofpoint server where email messages that are suspected to be spam are stored temporarily so that they can be reviewed and retrieved, if necessary, by the user. Messages left in the Quarantine will be deleted automatically after 14 days. There is no need to delete messages that have been quarantined, since the Proofpoint system automatically deletes them after 14 days. Quarantined messages do not count toward your email quota. They are stored separately on the Brown Proofpoint server.