Email compliance, security and content policy enforcement is a growing priority for all organizations. Email content control solutions provide real-time scanning of email traffic and provide the foundation for proactive enforcement of regulatory and corporate policies. However, the administrative burden associated with policy management imposed by most such products is significant.
Reducing the Burden of Administration for
Email Content Control, Compliance & Policy
Enforcement
Prepared By: Nemx Software Corporation 14 Poplarwood Avenue Ottawa, Ontario K2S 1V3 Canada
Copyright 2007, Nemx Software Corporation. All rights reserved. Table of Contents Introduction........................................................................................................... 3 The Challenges of "Policy" Administration ............................................................. 3 The Elements of Policy Definition ............................................................................ 4 Policy Management, Maintenance & Administration.................................................... 4 The Biggest Administrative Headaches .................................................................. 4 Rules-based Implementations................................................................................. 4 Rule ? Policy - The One to Many Problem ....................................................................... 5 Shortcomings of Rules-based Change Management ............................................................. 6 Key Word Based Filters.......................................................................................... 6 Lack of Integration ............................................................................................... 7 Email Policy Management - A Better Way .............................................................. 7 Integration .......................................................................................................... 7 On-demand Active Directory Integration ............................................................................ 7 Seamless Exchange Server Integration .............................................................................. 8 Integration with other Email Infrastructure......................................................................... 8 Reusability and Independently Managed Policy Elements ............................................ 8 Self-propagating Change Management..................................................................... 9 System Changes............................................................................................................. 9 Policy Changes............................................................................................................... 9 Hierarchical Policy Management............................................................................ 10 Intelligent Content Analysis (ICA) ......................................................................... 10 Summary.............................................................................................................. 11
Copyright 2007, Nemx Software Corporation. All rights reserved. This whitepaper describes the excessive administrative burden associated with "rules-based" email content monitoring and control solutions. An alternative approach based upon independent, reusable elements that provide a hierarchical "policy" management capability without the associated administrative burden is presented. Introduction Email compliance, security and content policy enforcement is a growing priority for organizations of all sizes. Many companies have formal policies that govern generally acceptable use and content for corporate email systems. More recently, companies have also become subject to scrutiny and audit to ensure their compliance with a wide range of external regulatory and legal obligations. However, the mere existence of corporate policies does not ensure compliance. Policies without proactive measures for enforcement are little more than window dressing. Email content control solutions have evolved to provide real-time scanning of inbound, outbound and, in a few cases, internal email traffic. These solutions provide the foundation for proactive, real-time enforcement of regulatory and corporate policies as they pertain to email content. The single most important benefit delivered by email compliance oriented products is their ability to actually prevent compliance violations from occurring by blocking delivery, or taking some other action on, messages that run afoul of corporate or regulatory policies. To be effective such systems require: 1) a way to embody... [download for more]
