Key Features of Email Security Software

An email security software solution is a robust, comprehensive, and feature-rich technology tool designed to provide companies of all sizes with full protection against any email-based threat, including viruses, spam, phishing attacks, offensive or objectionable content, and data theft.

Key Features of Email Security Software

There are many vendors and numerous email security software packages to choose from, each addressing different needs and requirements. That being said, most of today’s popular email security software systems offer such powerful capabilities as:

Spam Filters
Billions of unsolicited email messages are sent by marketers every day. Email security software enables companies to minimize the disruptions caused by spam by allowing them to set pre-determined criteria to detect, filter, and/or block messages that have a high probability of being irrelevant, non-permission-based promotions.

Some of the cutting-edge spam filtering techniques employed by email security software systems include automatic monitoring of key phrases, detection of large images, and the dynamic measurement of the ratio of graphics to text. Once an email has been identified as spam, it will typically be moved to a separate folder within the user’s inbox, or be deleted completely from the email server. Additionally, the sender’s email address may be blocked from distributing any future correspondence to the company.

Anti-Virus Protection
Viruses can be detrimental to email systems, as well as to the other files and components within a company’s network. Once a virus has permeated an email server, there is almost no stopping the damage it can do to a technology infrastructure. That’s why anti-virus protection is the cornerstone of most email security software packages.

With email security software, all incoming and outgoing messages, as well as their attachments, are scanned for the latest and greatest viruses. When an infection is identified, the message will be blocked from distribution or receipt, or the corrupted files will be automatically cleaned before being sent or received.

Content and Image Control
With email security software, companies can proactively block content based on pre-defined conditions. For example, they can prevent large images – either embedded or attached – from being received and negatively impacting email server traffic, or they can prohibit emails that contain offensive language or pictures from hitting company inboxes.

Data Encryption
The sharing of private and proprietary information via email is part of every company’s day-to-day activities. Therefore, email security software solutions are designed to protect that data from being intercepted by hackers, and falling into the wrong hands. They accomplish this by dynamically encrypting all email message data before it is transmitted from the server.

As today’s email security software solutions become more and more sophisticated to keep up with customer demands, many of them are beginning to offer advanced functionality such as support for online chat applications, detection of phishing emails that attempt to entice a recipient to share private information such as credit card or bank account numbers, and end-to-end policy implementation and compliance related to privacy laws and information-sharing guidelines such as HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley.