August 19, 2004
Red Earth Adds SURBL Scanning To Policy Patrol 3.5
By adding SURBL scanning to Exchange Server, Policy Patrol should trap more spam and phishing attack messages.
Portsmouth, NH, August 19, 2004, In a move calculated to up the ante in the war against spam and against phishing attacks, Red Earth Software today became the first anti-spam company to use the new Spam URL Realtime Block Lists (SURBL) in an add-on for Microsoft Exchange Server. The addition of SURBL technology to Policy Patrol 3.5 allows the product to scan e-mail content and look for embedded URL's used by known spammers and phishers.
Standard Real Time Block Lists (RBL's) scan for the IP address of the sender, and are effective at blocking spam, but may not block all spam and may not block phishing attacks. That's because spammers are replacing text with images with a link to a web site in order to bypass existing heuristic and Bayesian filters.
By scanning for embedded URL's, the use of SURBL lists may overcome that deficiency because spammers need to be contacted to be successful, so they almost always include a URL, which is what SURBL is scanning for. SURBL lists also provide specific protection against phishing since they include domains of known phishing sources.
Policy Patrol already includes a plethora of spam-fighting technologies, including RBLs, Bayesian filtering, header checking, recipient verification, heuristic filtering, and IP blocking. Red Earth CEO Mike Spykerman said that, "The addition of SURBL support we are adding yet another layer of protection against nnwanted messages."
Jeff Chan of , which created and supports the SURBL list, welcomed the addition to Policy Patrol. "The more widely SURBL's are use, the more effective they will be, and we are delighted that Red earth Software has added SURBL support for Exchange Server," he said. More information about SURBL is available at the organization's web site. SURBL lists require no administration, and are constantly updated and fine-tuned.
