Andrew Spam Filtering Update

As you may know, Spam filtering is currently being done using the SpamAssassin software. Unfortunately, this hasn't been adequate in meeting our spam filtering needs. Presently, Computing Services has been looking into commercial spam filtering products to improve spam filtering on campus and PureMessage by Sophos is currently our top candidate for software. They boast identification of up to 98% of spam and a low false positive rate (authentic email messages that get marked as spam). Email messages will be tagged with a score and then filtered based upon that score. The product also allows users to be able to quarantine messages tagged as spam on the server itself and then decide what to do with the messages (send them through to the inbox or delete them). This feature may not immediately be available in our installation, however.