Glossary

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Adaptive learning – adaptive learning technology enables a service to improve its performance with use by retaining and responding to user preferences.

Aliasing – conceals email addresses for external presentation to prevent unauthorised use or identification of personal information.

Annotations – notes that the administrator can add to the top, bottom or main text of outgoing emails

ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) – the amount a service provider averages in revenue from each of its customers. ARPU may be increased by the introduction of value-added services.

Authentication – The process of identifying a user attempting to access a computer system, usually based on a user name and password. Authentication ensures that the individual is who he or she claims to be.

Bayesian Probability – using the known attributes of spam and valid email to give each individual item a rating for the probability of it being spam.

Black Lists – Company and user-configured black list of email addresses or domains that BlackSpider MailControl Spam will explicitly block.

Checksum – a count of the number of bits in a transmission unit (such as an attachment). It is included with the unit so that the receiver can check that the same number of bits arrived and tell whether the complete transmission was received (also known as hashing).

Churn – the rate at which existing customers leave a service provider.

Collaborative spam databases – shared information among email security service providers and other bodies on known sources of spam.

Confidence score – a predetermined score of the characteristics of an individual email that assesses the likelihood of its being spam.

Configurable spam threshold – an aspect of the MailControl Spam on-demand service that enables the administrator to set the confidence score

Directory Harvest Attacks - attempts by spammers to hijack and steal an enterprise's entire corporate email directory.

DNS – Domain Name System. This is the worldwide system which maps names to addresses on the Internet. Several types of records are held; MX records specify where mail should be sent for a particular domain.

Encryption – The conversion of data into a form that cannot be read by unauthorized people. Decryption returns data to its original form.

Enterprise level – describes a service that’s sufficiently robust and scalable to meet the needs of the largest organisations.

Enterprise-to-enterprise encryption – Enterprise-to-enterprise encryption allows organisations to create encryption communities and enforce encrypted email to specified domains.

Enterprise-to-individual encryption – Enterprise-to-individual encryption allows ad-hoc encrypted emails to be sent to recipients who are outside an organisation’s TLS-based encryption policy.

Evolving Email Threats – Virus writers and spammers continually adapt their techniques to try to penetrate an organisation’s defences by penetrating existing email security technology

Executable files – files in a format that is only executable by the computer (ie program files) and cannot be read by people.

False positives – email messages and attachments that are mistaken as spam or inappropriate by an email security product or service.

Firewall – software and hardware that acts as a protective barrier between your computer or network and the outside world.

Heuristic –common sense rules drawn from experience that enable a computer program to improve with use through self-learning. BlackSpider’s Huntsman virus detection engine uses heuristics in a proactive search for new viruses before they have been identified by Anti-Virus software vendors.

Holistic – usually used to refer to a wide viewpoint that encompasses a complete picture, not just part of one (eg BlackSpider’s holistic view of the Internet and the email traffic that uses it).

HTML – HyperText Markup Language. This is the text formatting language of the world-wide web. Web pages are written in it, and often mail messages are formatted using this.

Huntsman - BlackSpider’s virus detection engine that uses heuristics in its search for new viruses.

'In the Clear' – The opposite of encryption. Messages sent ‘in the clear’ can be read by unauthorised parties.

Inappropriate content – the content of an email message that may be offensive or illegal to transmit or hold on a computer network. It can also refer to information that is confidential to an organisation.

Internet level – describes where BlackSpider logistically sits in relation to the sender and receiver of email

Internet Research Team – BlackSpider employs research teams round-the-clock who are analysing and responding to new email threats and trends.

ISP – Internet Service Provider. An organisation which provides Internet services, typically this includes Internet connectivity and management of DNS.

Junk mailbox – an optional, configurable email address to which all spam and/or inappropriate content may be directed.

Kaspersky – an anti-virus software vendor whose software is embedded in MailControl Anti-Virus.

Lexical analysis – a technique that analyses words and phrases in messages to automatically filter offensive terms in multiple languages, or to capture commercially-sensitive information.

McAfee – an anti-virus software vendor whose software is embedded in MailControl Anti-Virus.

MailControl – the suite of on-demand email security services (including Anti-Virus, Spam, Content and Encryption) that’s provided by BlackSpider Technologies.

Managed service – a Managed Service Provider (MSP) is a company that manages information technology services for other companies via the Web. Such services typically reduce a company’s need to invest in its own hardware or software.

Masking – a technique to disguise the nature of computer files by altering their filenames or filetype extensions in such a way that they are no longer recognised by the computer operating system, such as Microsoft Windows.

MIME – Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. These define ways of formatting SMTP mail so that it can be used to carry documents and nested messages. They are specified in documents called RFCs and Internet Standards written by the Internet standards body, the IETF.

Modularity – the structure of a service or system that enables the buyer to choose specific individual functions or a total, all-in-one solution.

MX record – Your DNS Mail Exchanger record ("MX record") is used by servers on the Internet to determine where to send mail bound for your domain. The company supplying your Internet connetivity, often an ISP, may configure this on your behalf. You can look at the MX records currently set for your domain by clicking here.

Non-repudiation – For e-Commerce and other electronic transactions, including ATMs (cash machines), all parties to a transaction must be confident that the transaction is secure; that the parties are who they say they are (authentication), and that the transaction is verified as final. Systems must ensure that a party cannot subsequently repudiate (reject) a transaction. To protect and ensure digital trust, the parties to such systems may employ Digital Signatures, which will not only validate the sender, but will also 'time stamp' the transaction, so it cannot be claimed subsequently that the transaction was not authorised or not valid etc.

Partners – companies that work with BlackSpider either to sell the MailControl suite to their own customers or to provide additional technology resources to BlackSpider customers.

Portal – a website that provides access to a wide range of resources, services and other information sources.

Quarantine – placing a file identified as spam or infected with a virus into a safe place where it can be reviewed securely.

Queued email – Email messages that are held in a queue awaiting an action. BlackSpider MailControl can complement a disaster recovery plan by queuing customer’s email in the event that they have a failure that prevents them receiving it.

Real-Time Black Lists – Collaborative services operated on the Internet by commercial organisations, or communities of interested users. RBLs contain lists of IP addresses of machines that have been black-listed because they are sources of spam.

ROI (Return on Investment) – the rate at which the benefits of a purchased product or service pays for itself through new efficiencies and functionality.

Scalability – the ability of a service or system to be extended (scaled) to meet growing demand or additional functionality.

Service-in-a-box – describes the BlackSpider approach to service delivery, where everything requested by the customer is provided immediately as an integrated, on-demand solution.

Single point of failure – the weakest point in a product or service whose failure can compromise its ability to function.

Single-tier channel model – the way in which BlackSpider deals directly with its partners, with no distributor or other middleman to erode profit or complicate the relationship.

SMTP –Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. This is the standard way in which email is sent across the Internet, specified in documents called RFCs and Internet Standards written by the Internet standards body, the IETF.

Spam – unsolicited bulk email, often sent to lists of people or domains, bulletin boards and newsgroups.

Spam traps/ honey pots – email accounts created deliberately to collect spam. If a message appears in just a small number of traps, it can be identified as spam and similar messages may be blocked.

Sticky – describes the value added features and services that encourage people to stay on a website or with a service.

Symantec – an anti-virus software vendor whose software is embedded in MailControl Anti-Virus.

Total Cost of Ownership – the total cost of a product or service which takes into account all direct and indirect costs

Transport Layer Security (TLS) – Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a protocol that ensures privacy between communicating applications and their users on the Internet. When a server and client communicate, TLS can be used with certificates to ensure that no third party may eavesdrop or tamper with any message. TLS is the successor to the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

Trend analysis – a technique that improves detection rates and lowers false positives by analysing the history of emails sent from an individual machine.

Usage Policy (for email) – written policy providing all corporate email users with guidelines related to what they can and cannot use the company’s email for.

Virus – a malicious piece of software that replicates itself, and may be transmitted via email, that could damage computer files and systems.

White Lists – Company and user-configured list of email addresses or domains that BlackSpider MailControl Spam will explicitly allow to pass through filters.

Window of exposure – the period during which a new virus can proliferate before adequate defences are built against it. The heuristic ability of BlackSpider’s Huntsman virus-tracking engine reduces the window of exposure.

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