MSF antispam info

http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/technologies/antispam /default.mspx




Spam and fraudulent e-mail messages are major issues for computer users
and businesses of all sizes. Companies are being forced to commit
significant resources to protect their messaging infrastructure and
their brand from these abuses, and computer users must work to protect
themselves from the influx of deceptive e-mail. Network infrastructure
is being taxed. Spam was once just an annoyance, but it has now become
the tactic of choice for online deception, fraud, and abuse.
To help detect and prevent this onslaught of abuse and deception,
Microsoft has developed a holistic strategy that includes industry
collaboration, prescriptive education, and the development of
innovative technologies and antispam services. These technologies are
found in all Microsoft e-mail clients, servers, and services, including
Windows Live Mail, MSN Hotmail, Microsoft Office Outlook, Microsoft
Exchange Server, and Microsoft Exchange Hosted Filtering.


On This Page

Sender ID Framework
Microsoft SmartScreen
Microsoft Office Outlook Junk E-Mail Filter
Office Outlook 2007 E-Mail Postmark
Microsoft Exchange Server
Intelligent Message Filter
Microsoft Exchange Hosted Filtering
Windows Live Mail/MSN Hotmail

Sender ID Framework
The Sender ID Framework (SIDF) is the leading e-mail authentication
protocol. Created by Microsoft, with broad industry support, it helps
protect more than 40 percent of all legitimate e-mail sent worldwide.
By implementing Sender ID, your organization can realize a competitive
advantage for your brand and online marketing initiatives, resulting in
improved online trust and confidence.
Approved by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), SIDF addresses
spam and phishing exploits by validating a sender's identity. SIDF
confirms that each e-mail message originates from the domain from which
it claims to have been sent or that it authorized to mail on the
domain's behalf. When combined with the sender's e-mail reputation,
Sender ID significantly improves deliverability while substantially
reducing false positives.
Microsoft has integrated SIDF into Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
(beta), Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 , Microsoft
Exchange Hosted Filtering, and Windows Live Mail and MSN Hotmail
Web-based e-mail services. In addition, the majority of industry
antispam and messaging hygiene solutions now support SIDF.
Learn more about Sender ID
Microsoft SmartScreen
Microsoft SmartScreen is an intelligent spam-filtering solution based
on Microsoft Research's patented machine-learning technology.
SmartScreen technology has been integrated across all Microsoft e-mail
platforms, including MSN Hotmail and Windows Live Mail Web-based e-mail
services, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2003,
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2003 messaging and
collaboration client, and the new Windows Live Mail Desktop and Windows
Mail e-mail clients.
SmartScreen technology learns how to distinguish between legitimate
e-mail messages and spam; it also detects phishing URLs embedded in
e-mail messages. It does this by synthesizing extensive user input from
hundreds of thousands of MSN Hotmail and Windows Live Mail users who
are part of the voluntary Feedback Loop Program (FBL). The result is
improved delivery of legitimate e-mail and better identification of
spam, with about 95 percent of spam blocked or identified as junk
e-mail.
Microsoft Office Outlook Junk E-Mail Filter
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 (now in beta) and Outlook 2003 offer
features and functionality designed to help detect and block junk and
phishing e-mail messages that businesses and individual computer users
receive, while improving the deliverability of e-mail from known and
trusted senders.
The Outlook Junk E-Mail Filter is powered by Microsoft SmartScreen
technology. First introduced in Outlook 2003, the Junk E-Mail Filter
helps prevent spam from cluttering your inbox. Combining the Junk
E-Mail Filter with personalized antispam rules such as the Safe
Senders, Safe Recipients, and Blocked Senders lists provides enhanced
and personalized spam protection while reducing false positives.
The Junk E-Mail Filter is updated regularly to reflect machine-learning
technologies and user feedback, continually improving its effectiveness
and countering the latest spam tactics. Updates are available from the
Office Update and Microsoft Update Web sites and can be downloaded
automatically, providing up-to-date protection against spam and
phishing.
Learn more about the Outlook Junk E-Mail Filter
Office Outlook 2007 E-Mail Postmark
Outlook E-Mail Postmark is an innovative technology available in the
Office Outlook 2007 beta program. It was created to improve
deliverability of legitimate e-mail that would otherwise run the risk
of being junked or deleted. This technology analyzes outbound e-mail
messages for indications of spam using its content filtering technology
and instructs the sender's computer to perform a computation or puzzle.
This work is then assigned to a header within the e-mail message as a
token of legitimacy (a postmark). While not noticeable to the sender
and receiver, the Outlook E-Mail Postmark is designed to make it
difficult and time-intensive for spammers to send large numbers of
e-mail messages.
When an e-mail message with a postmark is received by an inbound system
such as Microsoft Exchange 2007 or Windows Live Mail, the system can
easily verify the postmark. This improves the spam confidence level
(SCL) of the e-mail message and improves the likelihood that the
message will be delivered to the recipient's inbox instead of being
rejected or delivered to the junk e-mail folder.
Learn more about Office Outlook 2007
Microsoft Exchange Server
Exchange Server 2003 and the Intelligent Message Filter reduce the
amount of spam by using advanced server-side technology powered by
SmartScreen and client-side filtering offered through Outlook to
identify both unwanted and legitimate e-mail. The combination of
connection-level, protocol-level, and content-level protection provides
an end-to-end e-mail hygiene solution that increases user productivity
and reduces the network and storage costs associated with junk e-mail
messages.
Exchange Server 2007 offers best-of-breed e-mail hygiene protection,
with significantly more capabilities than Exchange Server 2003. It
delivers integrated antispam technologies, including support for
real-time IP block list services, IP reputation services, daily spam
and IP reputation definition updates through Microsoft Update, e-mail
authentication by using the Sender ID Framework, anti-phishing
protection, and optional attachment stripping and .zip file inspection.

Learn more about Exchange Server
Intelligent Message Filter
The Exchange Server Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) is part of a
comprehensive effort to enhance e-mail protection, security, hygiene,
and productivity. IMF is designed to combat the influx of unsolicited
commercial e-mail and to enable users to distinguish between legitimate
e-mail messages and unsolicited spam. Based on SmartScreen technology,
Exchange Server 2003 IMF provides server-side message filtering,
heuristics-based message analysis, and support for per-message spam
confidence level (SCL) ratings.
The Exchange Server 2007 implementation of IMF includes anti-phishing
capabilities to help detect fraudulent links or spoofed domains and to
help protect users from identity theft. Exchange Server 2007 customers
are protected from emerging spam and phishing exploits through the
automatic filter updates, which are published frequently. In addition
to filtering messages by content, IMF consolidates guidance from
Connection, Sender/Recipient, Sender Reputation, Sender ID
verification, and Outlook E-Mail Postmark validation to apply an SCL
rating to a given message. Administrators can use this SCL rating to
preconfigure actions to be taken when a message is received, such as
delivering the message to the inbox or junk e-mail folder, delivering
it to the spam quarantine, or rejecting it.
Learn more about the Exchange Intelligent Message Filter
Microsoft Exchange Hosted Filtering
Microsoft Exchange Hosted Filtering, formally FrontBridge Services, is
an e-mail filtering service that stops spam and viruses before they
reach the corporate network. A global, load-balanced network of data
centers ensures reliable e-mail delivery even during the largest spam
and virus attacks. A sophisticated, layered e-mail filtering approach
improves employee productivity through high spam-capture rates with
almost no false positives. Using a managed service model, Exchange
Hosted Filtering reduces complexity in the IT environment, frees IT
resources for more strategic corporate initiatives, allows for a
predictable service payment regardless of increases in spam and virus
activity, and eliminates the costs required to scale to increasingly
severe messaging threats. Network performance and filtering accuracy
are backed by a comprehensive set of service level agreements (SLAs).
Learn more about Exchange Hosted Filtering
Windows Live Mail/MSN Hotmail
To help reduce the negative impact of junk e-mail, Windows Live Mail
and MSN Hotmail use SmartScreen technology to provide junk e-mail
protection and help identify and separate junk e-mail from legitimate
e-mail. The SmartScreen content filter learns from known spam threats
and from information provided by Windows Live Mail and MSN Hotmail
customers who are part of the voluntary Feedback Loop Program (FBL).
When an external user sends an e-mail message to Windows Live Mail or
MSN Hotmail, SmartScreen evaluates the textual content of the message
and assigns a rating based on the probability that the message is junk
e-mail. This rating is stored within the message itself as a message
property called a spam confidence level (SCL). Anti-phishing protection
is also part of the patented technology. SmartScreen analyzes e-mail
messages to help detect fraudulent links and spoofed domains. If a
phishing indicator is detected, Windows Live Mail and MSN Hotmail warn
you to help protect you from these types of online threats.
Windows Live Mail and MSN Hotmail handle e-mail messages by using rules
that are based on a threshold SCL rating. If a message has an SCL
rating that is higher than the threshold-that is, the message is
believed to be spam-the message is deleted instead of being sent to
your junk e-mail folder. If the message has a lower SCL rating, the
e-mail is delivered to your junk e-mail folder rather than to your
inbox.