The management of white, black or exception lists, although fully automatable (self-learning), can be the second means of interaction on the processing of messages and the security rules applicable to them. No longer by focusing on the characteristics of the messages, but by intervening in the relations between the senders and recipients.
Principle of lists :
Unlike anti-virus software, which is based on signatures, spam filters work on the basis of non-deterministic techniques.
Anti-spam software can make mistakes and classify e-mails as spam that are not: these are "false positives". On the other hand, they can let through e-mails that are in fact spam: these are "false-negatives".
Lists are set up to address these "false-positive" and "false-negative" problems.
They are
there to complement the existing filtering rules of the spam filters.
We distinguish between two types of
lists: white and black.
White list
The white
list is one of the answers to reduce "false positives". This means that
it contains all the e-mail
addresses, IP addresses, subdomains and domains that you do not wish to
filter in our anti-spam systems.
These are your contacts, collaborators or others who are close and safe.
The server also injects the e-mail addresses of your trusted recipients by analysing your mailings, this mechanism is called "self-learning".
There are also sub-categories of white lists:
- VIP list: To group important people in your company (Manager, CEO, etc...)
- Personal List: To group your relatives, and facilitate the respect of private correspondence
-
Black list
The
blacklist is one of the answers to reduce "false negatives".
Blacklisting an address will ensure that you no longer receive messages from
that address.
Often spam messages come from spammers, who are familiar with anti-spam technologies; it is possible that in case your anti-spam rule is too weak a spam can arrive in your mailbox.
This is why messages from blacklisted addresses will be considered undesirable and therefore deleted.
It is also possible to reject senders who have not filled in a dispatch e-mail address. Please note, however, that system mails (mailer daemons) sent by the servers do not have a forwarding address, so you may be missing out.
Relationship between domain and users
Domain lists are generic lists applied to all addresses in your domain. However, they can be supplemented or modified by an individual list for an e-mail address.
It is possible to populate all lists by auto-feeding, i.e. an analysis of the users' behaviour allows the lists to be filled automatically according to their exchange habits. Thus, when the self-learning function is activated (ON), when a user sends a message to a recipient, the latter's address is automatically added to the white list of the user in question.
List management interface :
You can view and manage the contents of the lists for the entire domain or for individual users (email addresses).
In both cases, you can manage the White or Black lists or do searches (to find out if an email address, a domain or a sender IP address already belongs to a list).
1. Drop-down menu for selecting the domain, or an email address for that domain.
2. Options available on the list :
- add an item
- purge list
- export or import a list in .CSV.
- Contextual option, self-learning (white) or empty senders (black)
3. Types of entries in the list, either "Domain / Email Address" or "IP Addresses".
4. Origin of the record (e.g. self-learning, administrator, etc.)
5. Date the item was added to the list.
6. Possible actions on the elements :
- Extend to the whole area
- Search for other addresses in the domain.
- Delete
- Selection of page elements.
7. For white lists only, allows items to be passed to the Personal or VIP subcategories
All these options are described in
detail in the following sub-chapters.