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Spam Control - HIPAA Compliant Email

How secure is Webmail and how to handle SPAM and other malicious emails, if any

Based on many different factors, including content, source, user training, etc., the server comes up with a score for every incoming message, which directly relates to the probability of it being spam. A score of 6+ is likely (or probable) spam and 10+ is almost certain spam. The user can control how spam is handled based on its score. The most common methods include:

  • Marking the subject for easy identification
  • Moving it to a spam folder
  • Challenging the sender to see if human
  • Outright blocking it unless whitelisted

By default, the server will move any message rated 10 or higher to your server Spam folder without challenging the sender, nor will it mark any subject lines. You have access to modify any of the above spam control features and more within the advanced options settings. However unless you know what you are doing, we do not recommend this. Four commonly used pre-configured groups of settings are provided instead to choose from:

  • DISABLED - no spam filtering done
  • Mark probable spam and deliver to Inbox - Prefixes the subject line with [Spam: score] if 6 or higher.
  • Mark probable spam and deliver to Spam - Same as above but moves the message into Spam folder
  • Challenge almost certain spam, mark likely spam - This will mark the subject of probable spam for identification but also move messages scored 10 or higher into the Spam folder, challenging the senders.

Unless you receive little spam, we recommend using #4. This not only allows for catching false positives easier, but also challenges the senders of any email moved to the Spam folder. If a human response is received back from a challenged sender, the message is automatically moved back into your Inbox and the address is also placed into your Friends whitelist, not to be challenged again. Whichever setting you choose, any new addresses you email will be whitelisted automatically. More details on the Friends Challenge-Response System and its modes of operation can be found here.

Any of the above pre-configured settings can be selected within the Standard interface by going into Options, Preferences and then clicking "Filtering & Spam Control".

As you use webmail, you will want to train the anti-spam system and manually correct false positives so it will score messages more reliably based on the type of email you receive. This can be done within webmail or an IMAP client by taking the following actions:

*** subject marking Move to not spam train is spam train Contacts add Friends whitelist Address block list  
Webmail - Buttons on messages having received high spam rating: (single message only)
Press "Spam" button Spam Train Remove
Press "Not Spam" button Cleaned Train Add Add
Press "Allow Once" button Cleaned
Press "Block Forever" button Spam Remove Add
Press "Spam" button deleted Train Remove
Press "Not Spam" button Cleaned INBOX Train Add Add
Press "Allow Once" button Cleaned INBOX
Press "Block Forever" button deleted Remove Add
Webmail - "More Actions" menu action: (one or more messages)
"Spam" whilst in any folder other than Spam Spam Train Remove
"Not Spam" whilst in any folder other than Spam Cleaned Train Add Add
"Spam" whilst in Spam folder deleted Train Remove
"Not Spam" whilst in Spam folder Cleaned INBOX Train Add Add
Webmail - Drag and drop / copy / move: (one or more messages)
from any folder to Spam folder no special spam handling actions taken
from Spam folder to INBOX Cleaned INBOX Train Add
from Spam folder to other folder no special spam handling actions taken
IMAP copy / move: (one or more messages)
from any folder to Spam folder no special spam handling actions taken
from Spam folder to INBOX Cleaned INBOX Train Add
from Spam folder to other folder no special spam handling actions taken

Primary action Blue in INBOX or other folder White in Spam folder