Why outsource email security?

There are several types of solution for securing e-mail: using software deployed on user workstations, specific software installed on the e-mail server(s), installing a box on the company’s local network, or outsourcing. This article summarizes the advantages of outsourcing, also known as ASP software or SAAS service. In the first part, you’ll discover the direct advantages inherent in outsourcing, regardless of the service provider. In the second part, we’ll go into detail about the advantages offered by the ALTOSPAM solution in particular.

Generally speaking, outsourcing antispam and antivirus software brings :

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Easy and quick to implement
You just need to modify the MX fields in your DNS zone to “install” the service. No need to modify your architecture. You have no software to install, no management or updates to carry out on your client workstations or server.

– No human investment
No additional human resources are required, as this is a rental service (ASP software).

– Reduce your bandwidth : only legitimate mail arrives on your mail server. Your network is no longer clogged with all the useless traffic generated by spam.

– Lighten the load on your mail server
If your mail server is hosted on your internal network, it will be much less busy, both in terms of machine processes and disk space used to store unnecessary e-mails.

– Turnkey product : You don’t have to make anything, you don’t have to configure anything. Server management and updates are carried out by a dedicated professional team as and when required.

– Safety & Security The very principle of setting up a filtering SMTP relay upstream of your architecture means that your mail server is no longer visible from the Internet. This means that it cannot be reached directly, so you are protected from any external attack on your mail server, including Denial of Service(DOS) attacks.

In the specific case of the ALTOSPAM service, other advantages can be highlighted:

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Analysis efficiency
Analysis efficiency: ALTOSPAM takes advantage of being positioned upstream of the mail server to carry out an additional analysis of emails directly IN the SMTP protocol, thus increasing the efficiency of the solution.

– Very high availability Multiple servers are assigned to each customer. These servers are installed in different datacenters, with connections to different operators. With each server having an availability rate of 99.9%, the overall server availability rate is very close to 100%.

– Increased reliability
If your server or Internet connection is down, Altospam will store your emails until your server is up and running again.

– Increased safety ALTOSPAM servers are highly protected against all kinds of attacks, with only the SMTP port open. ALTOSPAM also incorporates specific rules to prevent certainDOS attacks.

– Antiviral protection ALTOSPAM integrates three antivirus programs, which scan the body of the e-mail and all attachments in series, one after the other. Archive files are unzipped for analysis.

This is not an exhaustive list, but rather a summary of the most important points to bear in mind when outsourcing e-mail protection. Feel free to leave your comments below to share your experience and express your opinion on the subject.