A popular strategy to address spam is through content filtration. This is actually a time-proven technology. Under this, spam messages can undergo scanning for various specific words, pictures, text fragments and related spam features. Previously, content filtration analyzed themes of the messages coupled with the texts which are also contained in it (plain text and HTML). The existing spam filters on the other hand are able to scan all segments of the message involving graphical attachments (Costales&Flynt, 2005). The analysis may result in the creation of a text signature or calculation of the ’spam weight’ of the message. The benefits of this strategy are due to its flexibility as well as the possibility based on the fine-tuned settings (Haskins &Nielsen, 2005). Further, the systems that utilize this technology easily adapt to the new types for the spam and which rarely makesdrastic mistakes for the distinguishing of spam against legitimate email traffic.
On the other hand, it has a number of challenges attached to this technology. One of them is the fact that constant updates are required. In addition, specialists, and sometimes the anti-spam labsare necessary in setting-up spam filters. This kind of support is overly expensive and will also influencethe overall costs of the spam filtration. The spammers invent thorough tricks to be used in bypassing this technology. For instance, thespam messages could include random ‘noise’ which later impedes on the detection and evaluation of the spam elements of the message (Levine, Young &Church, 2007). This means that it could also use non-alphanumeric character sets. In this regard, for purposes of preventing email spam (unsolicited bulk email), the email systems’end users and administrators need to make use of different anti-spam techniques.
References
Costales B., Flynt M., (2005) SendmailMilters: A Guide For Fighting Spam. New York: ADDISON WESLEY Publishing Company Incorporated
Haskins R., Nielsen D., (2005) Slamming spam: a guide for system administrators. New York: Addison-Wesley,
Levine J. R., Young M. L., Church R. E., (2007) Fighting Spam For Dummies. New York: John Wiley & Sons,
