Fighting Spam on Campus: Challenges, Solutions and Best Practices

White Paper: Anti-Spam on Campus Best Practices
WHITE PAPER
Fighting Spam on Campus:
Challenges, Solutions and Best Practices
October, 2004
Summary
A campus presents one of the most complex environments for managing spam due tothe volume of e-mail, wide variety of users, and concern for academic freedom. Thiswhite paper reviews the most common approaches to spam management on higher-education and K-12 campuses and details how a suitable solution must addressparticular challenges for campus IT administrators.
The paper provides comprehensive best-practices for spam management on campus,including guidelines for evaluation, roll out and deployment of an anti-spam solution.Roaring Penguin has developed these best practices through extensive work withcampuses in resolving their spam challenges, and has developed the CanIt-PRO anti-spam solution in conjunction with campuses across North America.
Copyright © 2004, Roaring Penguin Software Inc.1White Paper: Anti-Spam on Campus Best Practices
The Challenge of Spam on Campus
The challenge to solve the problems of spam e-mail is reaching the desks of CIOsacross campuses in North America and Europe. A combination of factors has elevatedthe urgency for better management of spam on campus, including:
.Pressure from end-users and the ensuing tax on help-desk staff indealing with spam-related complaints..The need to protect critical infrastructures from malicious threatscarried via e-mail..A desire for tools that help campuses fully comply with policiessurrounding the services they provide..The increasing collusion of commercial spam with fraud schemes,phishing attempts and malicious viruses.
However, the campus presents one of the most complex environments for managingspam due to the volume of e-mail, wide variety of users, and concern for academicfreedom. This white paper reviews the most common approaches to spammanagement on campuses and details how a suitable solution, such as RoaringPenguin Software's CanIt-PROT, must address particular challenges for campus ITadministrators.
The paper concludes with comprehensive best-practices for spam management oncampus. It includes guidelines for evaluation, roll out and deployment of an anti-spam solution. Roaring Penguin has developed these best practices throughextensive work with campuses in resolving their spam challenges.
Common Solutions to Spam on CampusCampuses generally consider three types of anti-spam solutions:.Client-based solutions are quickly becoming outmoded for campuses.The volume and nature of spam today makes it too critical an IT issue torely on individual users to maintain up-to-date anti-spam/anti-virussoftware on their PCs. And, a campus cannot require users to pay forsuch solutions..Outsourced filtering services are sometimes considered, althoughthese may be too costly to suit the typical campus budget. An outsourcedsolution also presents concerns about a loss of control or security overcampus e-mail, as the MX records must be routed through third-partyservers..In-house solutions, typically based on open-source software such asSpamAssassinT and Roaring Penguin's MIMEDefang, are usually presentin some form on most campus mail servers. In most cases, thesesolutions were sufficient until about 2002, when the volume of spam and
Copyright © 2004, Roaring Penguin Software Inc.2White Paper: Anti-Spam on Campus Best Practices
spammer's ever-evolving techniques began to render home-grownsolutions unmanageable. Still, campuses tend to remain committed to theuse of open-source software and prefer that their systems employ open-source wherever possible.A solution that deals with spam at the mail server is preferable for campuses. Such asolution is centrally manageable and deals with the problem before spam and virusesreach end-users or consume network resources.
Getting Anti-Spam Right on CampusThe main challenge for a campus looking for an anti-spam solution is to find aproduct for the server that also provides the flexibility most campuses need to suittheir wide variety of users and those users' preferences. For example, a campus witha medical school will be unable to globally determine that e-mail content mentioningbody parts or drugs is necessarily spam. Likewise, some academics may be doinglegitimate research on pornography, drugs, or other subjects that are often found inspam. And, a campus of hig... [download for more]