SAN FRANCISCO - March 24, 2011 - If your spam filter can't handle the move to IPv6, you need a new spam filter.
That's the message from Mailshell, the leading provider of Internet security engines for OEMs, in response to other software vendors' claims that the upcoming move to IPv6 threatens spam filters' efficacy. Filters relying primarily on IP blacklisting may be adversely affected by the move to IPv6 since the massive volume of new IP addresses will enable spammers to use each IP only once, thereby defeating the blacklists. Some vendors have warned their customers to expect decreased detection rates, and are warning ISPs initially not to accept accept email from IPv6 addresses except from their own customers. The switch to IPv6, creating space for vastly more IP addresses than the IPv4 system currently in use, has been planned and expected for years.
IP Blacklisting is among the most common tactics among spam filters. However, no single technique has emerged as fool-proof in the fight against spam. In fact, the need to respond to spammers' ability to adapt their techniques, and morph their campaigns to circumvent spam blockers, has driven filtering technology innovation over the last ten years.
"Customers don't have to accept inferior results simply because their filtering vendor remains unprepared for IPv6," said Eytan Urbas, vice president at Mailshell. "Spammers' change their techniques almost every day and vendors with a rigid, dogmatic commitment to IPv4 blacklisting are simply unprepared. We've always advocated a mathematics-driven, statistics-based approach to the problem, rather than simply an ever-growing IP blacklist.".
Mailshell's spam filtering engine combines a small software library with the power of LiveFeed, a fast, reliable, and secure cloud-based data service. LiveFeed quantifies traffic reputation via advanced statistical models. Unlike other reputation services that provide only a binary 'good' or 'bad' rating, LiveFeed's algorithms provide granular trust ratings for dozens of attributes, not just IP addresses, with automated adjustments over time as reputations change. By focusing reputation on mathematical models, rather than simply an 'IP black list' approach, LiveFeed provides more accurate, highly scalable detection.
LiveFeed uses 61 secured data centers in 24 countries on six continents, to ensure minimum latency and guaranteed 100 percent uptime. Mailshell has more than 11 years of experience in cloud computing-based security and LiveFeed handles more than 10 billion queries per month.
About Mailshell: Mailshell (www.mailshell.com) is the leading provider of Internet security engines for OEMs, including Internet traffic reputation, anti-spam, anti-phishing, URL filtering and DNS security. Mailshell's software helps its global network OEM partners, including McAfee, CA, Check Point, ESET, AVG, Avast, NETGEAR and others, generate new revenue, up-sell existing products to new customers and minimize related engineering and support costs. Follow Mailshell on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mailshell.
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