Collaboration of Anti-spam Vendors Essential to Defeat Spam

Virus Bulletin, a security testing firm, has called anti-spam solutions providers to work jointly in the fight against spam. According to the firm, following its recent spam tests, it found that anti-spam providers were capable of improving their products' quality if they adopted an approach of collaboration during the creation of anti-spam software.

It also said that if anti-spam vendors shared information of e-mails they blocked, it would be beneficial to all. If 5 or more filters (out of the products VB tested) were combined, then it could help to develop a 'hypothetical filter' that could block 99.89% threats without virtually any false positives. Moreover, the meta-filter wouldn't categorize any genuine electronic mail as spam.

VB's report states that anti-spam providers should work as antivirus providers and cooperate with each other by sharing their experiences of new findings and threats. However, VB is also suggesting that computer-users need to add layers of enhanced defenses against spam.

Martijn Grooten, VB's anti-spam Test Director, said that it wouldn't be unusual for any user, who had employed anti-spam software, that certain spam mails just didn't filter because of their extremely treacherous nature, while certain lawful e-mails were blocked when the filters wrongly labeled them as spam, as reported by SecurityFocus on November 30, 2009.

Grooten, based on his observation, suggested that no anti-spam software was impeccable. He further added that the VB test's outcomes proved that while one product might easily filter certain messages, another couldn't do so and vice-versa.

Notably, VB's test results match those across the overall antivirus sector. Researchers at the University of Michigan discovered that one antivirus scanner spotted 40-80% of malware during the first seven days after detection, but when multiple scanners say four were used, it raised the detection possibilities to 90%.

This, Grooten concluded, meant that if end-users treated spam-filtering as a crucial activity, it would be more favorable to use not just one but a few spam filters. He added that the anti-spam sector must collaborate and share information for greater benefits, as reported by Virus Bulletin on November 30, 2009.

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» SPAMfighter News - 12/8/2009