Extraordinary Spam Catch Rates

• Rated #1 in detection accuracy (lowest false positive levels)
• Independent of content, format, language
• Perimeter protection blocks spam before it reaches the mail server
• On-premises solution poses no risk to privacy and mail flow

Source, Sender and Recipient Policies
Mail relay policies are essential tools that enhance the security and integrity of any organizational or private network. A mail relay policy is a set of rules that detect and mitigate common nuisances like spam, but also defend against serious threats such as “relay-hijacking” (also called “open relay”).

Meridius supports three types of policy entries: source, sender, and recipient-executing them in that order. Easily define new policy entries, and update your entries at any time.

Recipient Validation (using LDAP)
Accept and process only email sent to valid email addresses that are part of a recipient list with Recipient Validation. Load a list of email addresses using text files, or use LDAP to query an LDAP server. The Meridius Management Console also provides a “Testing LDAP Only” mode to evaluate queries before activation.

The LDAP servers are immediately queried when the configuration is deployed. An email address list is created, loaded (unless during testing), and activated. Only the recipients on the list receive emails in their inbox, or in the Meridius Quarantine Mailbox.

Performance Improvements and Time Saved
Meridius simply and securely relays high volumes of email. Leveraging real-time spam detection and quarantine capabilities, Meridius enables your email servers to experience significant performance improvements.

Super Blocking
Super blocking rejects all known spam, and dramatically reduces the number of messages marked as spam, messages passed on to recipients, or quarantined messages.

System Whitelist
Meridius supports the use of “whitelists” to boost the efficiency of the spam detection process. A sender whitelist might include routinely sent desired solicitations from companies. A recipient whitelist might include email addresses of your salespeople who want to receive all their email (even if it often resembles spam). System whitelists can be imported or exported with the Meridius Management Console.

RBL Checks
Meridius checks Real-time Blackhole Lists (RBL) of IP addresses of known spam sources. If an IP address matches one on the list, Meridius immediately drops the connection before accepting any traffic from that spammer.

Inbound and Outbound Antivirus Check with Advanced Outbreak Protection (Optional)
Built-in virus detection automatically checks outbound and inbound messages handled by your server. The server automatically drops the message when a virus is detected, and an antivirus report lists the number of dropped virus-infected messages.

Spam Level Configuration
Specify actions for marking, quarantining, or rejecting spam. Messages rated outside their specified spam threshold value are treated as spam. Also, specify whether to automatically consider bulk emails as spam, or have the system evaluate them for spam content.

Multilevel Approach to Spam and Virus Detection
The Meridius Email Gateway appliance tackles spam on eight levels:

• Level 1 — Policies: Meridius adheres to Source, Sender, and Recipient policies at the SMTP protocol layer.
• Level 2 — Real-time Blackhole Lists: Meridius consults with Real-time Blackhole Lists to automatically drop known spamming relays.
• Level 3 — Virus Scans: Meridius automatically scans for viruses (if the anti-virus option is activated). The server automatically drops the message when a virus is detected. An antivirus report is available that lists the number of dropped virus-infected messages.
• Level 4 — White List Scan: Meridius scans whitelists so that emails from some senders are not checked for spam, and emails sent to some recipients are never checked for spam. Recipient Validation enables Meridius to accept and process only email sent to valid email addresses that are part of a recipient list.
• Level 5 — Recurrent Pattern Detection™ engine/Super Blocking: a real-time Recurrent Pattern Detection (RPD™) engine detects spam, regardless of the message’s language, content, or format. With Super Blocking feature enabled, Meridius rejects messages confirmed as spam. “Super Blocked” messages are dropped, but not quarantined.
• Level 6 — Heuristic analyses/Bayesian filtering: Meridius performs heuristic text analyses and Bayesian filtering to detect spam.
• Level 7 — Spam Detection: Meridius can collaborate with various leading peer-to-peer spam detection networks (such as Vipul’s Razor and DCC-Distributed Checksum Clearinghouse) for extended spam detection.
• Level 8 — Spam Quarantine: Meridius quarantines spam, per user, in Zero Administration Quarantine Mailboxes.