title: Messaging security
text: # Messaging security
  
  Messaging Security is a program that provides protection for companies' messaging infrastructure. The programs includes IP reputation-based anti-spam, pattern-based anti-spam, administrator defined block/allow lists, mail antivirus, zero-hour malware detection and email intrusion prevention.
  
  ## Six Dimensions of Comprehensive Messaging Security
  
  * IP-Reputation Anti-spam It checks each email connection request with a database of IP addresses to establish whether a sender is legitimate or known spam sender and malware. If a sender is recognize it undesirable the messaging Security program drops the connection before the message is accepted.
  * Pattern-based anti-spam utilizes a proprietary algorithm to establish a fingerprint-like signature of email messages. When a message comes in, its pattern is calculated and checked against a database to determine if the message matches a known email pattern. This approach provides content agnostic protection and blocks spam without looking at any of the actual message content.
  * Block/Allow List Anti-spam Administrators can create a list of IP addresses
  * or domains that they would like to either block or allow. This method ensures that trusted sources are explicitly allowed and unwanted sources are explicitly denied access.
  * Mail Antivirus This layer of protection blocks a wide range of known virus and malware attacks.
  * Zero-Hour Malware Protection By analyzing large numbers of messages, outbreaks are detected along with their corresponding messages. These message patterns are then flagged as malicious, giving information about a given attack. With this information, outbreaks are blocked before a signature may be available, protecting the network in the critical period of attack development.
  * SmartDefense Email IPS The messaging security program utilizes SmartDefense Email IPS to stop attacks targeting the messaging infrastructure. Such attacks aim to gain access to the protected network, bring down a piece of the messaging infrastructure, or utilize the messaging infrastructure as a resource for launching new attacks.
  
  ## Characteristics of Messaging Security
  
  * Protection against advanced spam such as image-based and multi-language spam.
  * Antivirus protection through the combination of both zero-hour and signature-based detection.
  * UTM solution for Messaging Security that is content and Language-independent.
  * Advanced, real-time IP-reputation service.
  * On-session email blocking (emails are checked and blocked during the original SMTP/POP3 session).
  