Graph shows how during 30-day WSU study, the new Proofpoint spam filter clearly identified 98% of incoming spam e-mails
A stronger e-mail security system, designed to catch more inbound spam and viruses and protect WSU’s computer network, will be deployed this month by WSU’s Information Technology Services. The new system, titled Proofpoint on Demand, was tested by ITS during over 30 days and is expected to substantially enhance computer security.
“We were extremely happy with Proofpoint’s performance and spam filtering capabilities. It had an exceptionally high accuracy rate when detecting spam, said Tom Ambrosi, WSU’s information security officer.
“We were at or near capacity with our current solution, from Barracuda Networks, and needed to make a decision to upgrade (that system) or purchase a new email security solution. We decided to purchase a new solution. Proofpoint is a recognized leader in the e-mail security market and integrates easily with our current email environment.”
The program is a hosted service that uses an advanced machine learning filtering technique called MLX to ensure that no valid mail is improperly filtered.
Improved performance
Proofpoint On Demand is a hosted e-mail security solution where the vendor hardware and software are deployed at Proofpoint data centers, which offers WSU greater redundancy, availability, performance, reliability and security. All hardware and software maintenance will be handled directly by Proofpoint. All e-mail security policies and filtering will be managed by WSU.
Based on ITS tests, it’s estimated that users should see a marked improvement in e-mail performance. Because the Proofpoint is hosted at data centers, 98% of spam will be deleted before ever reaching the WSU network.
In addition, WSU users will be able to control items quarantined via an e-mail interface system. Under the current system, known as Barracuda, users need to log in to a web-based quarantine system. Proofpoint will eliminate the need for quarantine logins and passwords.
“Spam is a huge problem,” said Ambrosi, “98 percent of incoming e-mail is spam.
“Proofpoint ‘s Zero-Hour Anti-Virus module helps protect against emerging viruses in the earliest stages of their proliferation, often blocking them before they become a problem,” he said.
Launch and phase in
Starting Monday-Friday, June 16-20, faculty and staff might see e-mail messages from Proofpoint as well as quarantine messages from Barracuda. The Barracuda messages will eventually stop being sent once all of WSU’s e-mail servers using the Proofpoint filter. Employees do NOT have to take any action to be converted over to the Proofpoint system.
The Proofpoint system will not affect or replace WSU’s current antivirus system from Symantec. It will operate in addition to it.
For more information from ITS and how-to documentation go to https://www.wsu.edu/nospam. Questions should be directed to the IT Helpdesk at 335-4357 or helpdesk@wsu.edu. For more information about the Proofpoint Protection Server and MLX, see Proofpoint’s web site.
