Zérospam

Our team of email experts spent 18 months developing ZEROSPAM's multi-layered architecture, which uses cutting-edge detection techniques and has a proven 96%+ detection rate. The technology incorporates 15 filtering layers during the various stages of email communication. Most of ZEROSPAM's integrated components use open source software and are ultra-stable. This technological independence safeguards the service against vulnerabilities and malfunctions that could happen when using commercial products. Since April 2007, ZEROSPAM has also been using message fingerprinting technology provided by Cloudmark, a world authority on the genotyping of threats. This state-of-the-art technology enables ZEROSPAM to provide optimal protection against image spam.

Antivirus protection, an integral part of ZEROSPAM's service, ensures a high level of network security. ZEROSPAM's external antivirus protection eliminates viruses, worms, phishing, executable files and other malicious content before they reach your server. Your local antivirus simply filters the few rare viruses that may not have been detected and prevents infections from media other than email.

The effectiveness of a filtering solution is also determined by its false positive rate (the number of legitimate email misidentified as spam). While some anti-spam solutions block a high number of legitimate emails, thereby preventing important messages from reaching their recipients on time, ZEROSPAM's superior detection accuracy accounts for its extremely low false positive rate of about 0.001%. In other words, after the break-in period (about three days), one legitimate email in one thousand may be quarantined. Moreover, false positive email generally results from mailing lists.

As spammers change their tactics, ZEROSPAM's filtering techniques are constantly changing in order to adapt to the evolving morphology of spam. ZEROSPAM's technical team monitors, in real time, the millions of emails that the company filters daily. It then updates its system components and filtering rules to address these shifting threats.

Email is the lifeline of companies today. If this vital function is paralyzed, everything comes to a standstill. The ZEROSPAM solution increases email security in three main ways: protecting your network perimeter; accepting incoming email if your server is down; and providing redundant protection against email threats.

Protecting your network perimeter

By eliminating malicious content before it reaches company servers, ZEROSPAM ensures greater security at the network perimeter. In addition, company servers that are protected by ZEROSPAM are not visible on the Internet; their IP addresses therefore cannot be harvested and distributed by spammers. As ZEROSPAM is the first line of defence, upstream from the customer's server, it can provide protection from threats such as Denial Of Service (DOS) and Distributed Denial Of Service (DDoS) attacks, as well as waves of virus attacks. From the customer's perspective, the attack goes completely unnoticed.

Accepting incoming email if your server goes down

If your email server goes down, ZEROSPAM continues to accept incoming email and stores it for later delivery. No email is lost and senders are unaware of the outage, as they do not receive a bounce message. Once your server is able to receive messages again, the queued email is delivered. This store and forward function has another advantage: as ZEROSPAM accepts your incoming email, your IT team can do maintenance on your gateway without the risk of losing your email. In emergencies, contingency plans can be implemented so that you receive your most critical communications (fee-based service).

Providing redundant protection against email threats

The ZEROSPAM solution has built-in redundancy, as it uses a network of fail-over filters housed in five data centres. All of these data centres, which are located in Canada and Europe, are under electronic surveillance 24/7. They have a bandwidth capacity of 100 Mbps and use Border Gateway Protocol (BGP3) to route email using high-speed redundant links on the backbone of the Internet. ZEROSPAM's filters are secure, equipped with fault-tolerant devices, and are constantly monitored. Therefore, in the unlikely event of a server malfunction, email is immediately and imperceptibly redirected to another server.

The delay incurred by the email's passage through ZEROSPAM's servers is usually not more than a few seconds. From the customer's perspective, the difference is negligible.

To enhance filtering performance and increase the level of security of its customers' communications, ZEROSPAM also informs its customers about the best practices for sending and receiving email and encourages them to publish SPF records in order to protect domains from brand spoofing and phishing schemes.

ZEROSPAM's customers are inherently protected from Patriot Act inquiries. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Bush Administration enacted the Patriot Act, allowing U.S. security authorities to access any business records (files, email, documents, etc.), on servers located within the United States, without a company's permission or knowledge. This law, for which there is no Canadian equivalent, may compromise the confidentiality of various information stored by managed email security companies such as the senders' identity and the frequency of communications. ZEROPAM's clients do not have to be concerned about the Patriot Act, as all of its servers are located in Canada and Europe.

Email is sent on the Internet in full text, like a postcard. The content of most email is not encrypted and administrators along the email's path could theoretically read the messages that go through their network. ZEROSPAM is the last link in this transmission chain. The email's passage through ZEROSPAM's servers does not, however, incur an additional confidentiality risk, as this process is executed at lightning speed and only the communication logs are stored. Furthermore, as we believe that protecting confidential information is of utmost importance, ZEROSPAM has developed a series of measures to ensure the confidentiality of its customers' communications.

Written commitment

ZEROSPAM guarantees in writing that none of its customers' email will be recorded, archived or reproduced. ZEROSPAM also guarantees in writing to protect the confidentiality of its clients' list of electronic addresses and will not disclose, share or sell them to a third party. This clause is included in ZEROSPAM's Terms of Service agreement, which is sent to all customers when they subscribe. What other provider gives you this kind of commitment in writing?

Trustworthy administrators

All our system administrators are required to undergo rigorous background security checks, including criminality checks. Furthermore, they must abide by ZEROSPAM's strict code of ethics. It is also reassuring to know that ZEROSPAM is managed by security professionals who have CISSP certification from ISC2.

If you are dealing with highly confidential files, ZEROSPAM recommends that you encode your messages using an encryption solution to prevent them from being read by anyone along the email's path. Our experts can tailor solutions to your needs and help you implement them.

Customer confidence

ZEROSPAM's clients include renowned organizations such as CRIM [IT applied research centre], ISIQ, Société des Alcools du Québec, Datamark, I.D. Foods, Fédération de l'informatique du Québec, TQS, Telefilm Canada, the Montreal, Laval and Quebec chambers of commerce, Alexis-Nihon Corporation, Bathfitters, Mendax Microsystems, Radial Point, and Oxfam. This speaks volumes about ZEROSPAM's security and reliability.

In addition to freeing up users, ZEROSPAM liberates your IT team from the burden of having to manage and maintain the anti-spam solution. There is nothing to install, nothing to configure, nothing to update, no manuals to read, no training to take, no complicated interface to learn about, and no settings to change. After the initial two- or three-day break-in period, the solution requires only the occasional intervention. Your IT experts can thus focus on more strategic tasks than managing the anti-spam solution. They no longer have to continually create and apply new filtering rules to adapt your anti-spam solution to shifting spam; ZEROSPAM's experts take care of this task and thus save customers hundreds of dollars every week simply by freeing up their IT specialists. The solution works, its users are pleased, and network administrators are considered heroes!

Once the ZEROSPAM solution is activated, email users become more productive, as their concentration is no longer continually interrupted. They do not even have to change their work habits or manage anything. The only difference is that they do not have spam cluttering their inbox.

Unlike other solutions that offer individualized quarantine reports sent to each user, ZEROSPAM is based on the principle of a central quarantine, which only one or two administrators have access to. This approach is more productive, as it frees up the user. In fact, if a quarantine is sent to users, in all likelihood, they will religiously check it and waste the time the solution just saved them; the ZEROSPAM solution saves them time by intercepting their spam. ZEROSPAM's low rate of false positives makes it possible to use a central quarantine. In fact, ZEROSPAM's quarantine contains so few legitimate messages that a single administrator is easily able to manage it, even if there are thousands of users.

ZEROSPAM also frees up valuable bandwidth by preventing congestion from undesirable connections. Based on data gathered from its communication logs, spam now represents 85% of connections (by connection, we are referring to an attempt to establish an SMTP dialogue). Furthermore, the ZEROSPAM solution also lightens the load on your gateway, which works overtime simply receiving and processing junk mail. By reducing incoming traffic, you can postpone costly upgrades to your infrastructure, thereby saving thousands of dollars.

ZEROSPAM offers freedom and requires no long-term commitment. Customers can unsubscribe at any time simply by sending a written notice. Cancellation notices take effect on the last day of the month following the month in which they are received by ZEROSPAM.

It goes without saying that ZEROSPAM's customers have complete control over their email architecture, individual accounts, and DNS.

Implementing the ZEROSPAM solution is fast and easy. It cannot be considered an "IT project" since it involves nothing more than a business decision. In fact, the only technical intervention required to activate the service is a change in the MX records of the domain to be protected. ZEROSPAM's technicians request this change by sending you instructions by email or by sending them to your DNS service provider (with a copy sent to you). All you have to do is make or authorize the change. Once the change is made, you will only receive clean email, free of malicious content. ZEROSPAM is generally configured internally in about one hour. From then on, the activation is in the hands of the DNS service provider. A quick response on their part ensures activation of the service within two hours of your request.