What is SPAM ?

"SPAM are messages sent via e-mail that the user does not want to receive."

This definition shows that a SPAM filter is always also a personal and individual choice. Compared to the situation 10 years ago when only one of 100 e-mails contained unwelcome advertising, today 99% of all e-mails are SPAM messages that are sent automatically and need to be filtered.

At SerNet, anti-SPAM measures consist of seven consecutive measures:

1. SMTP connection: checking for syntactic correctness
2. Checking receiver/sender, optionally with grey listing
3. Checking with IP blocking lists
4. Checking file attachment types
5. Checking with SpamAssassin with extended rule set
6. If necessary, handover to Avira MailGate
7. Transfer to an internal e-mail server and an e-mail client with individual junk filter

With these measures, a high percentage of SPAM can be filtered.

Don't believe anyone who promises you 100% SPAM protection. Too many "false positives" are created with such a solution, and e-mails that you would like to receive are rejected. SerNet also advises not to outsource SPAM protection to e-mail gateway operators on the Internet. To date we don't know any operator who can take all data protection concerns into account.