Questions About Protection Against Spam And Phishing Mails

[rugk 397]

Question 1

I think this is the simplest question, but I found no explicit answer to it so I'm asking it now.

You give instructions how to submit a phishing mail or website that the anti-phishing module misses.

 

But my question is, should I also submit spam mails to samples @ eset.com? Should I add "spam mail" in this case to the subject?

 

Related: How to submit a malware or a website?

 

Question 2

I simply saw a strange setting in ESS (v7 and higher) and so I'd like to ask what this is...

 

What does this "advanced anti-spam feature" and why isn't it enabled by default?

 

Question 3

This may be also a suggestion, but take it as you like.

 

I'm talking about the outlook addon (from the anti-spam protection) which filters spam and phishing mails.

At first it is a bit confusing (especially for new ESET users) what is the difference between your spam and your phishing protection. I will say it here shortly - If I'm wrong then please correct me:

• The phishing protection is a kind of websites filter that protects you against phishing and scam websites.
• The spam protection is an email-filter. It needs the automatic installed add-on for your email-client to work. It filters spam and phishing mails.

Maybe you should rename the spam protection to mail protection (or something like this), because it also protects against phishing mails, but what I want to ask is something different.

 

Why not make a button "Mark as spam/phishing and submit to ESET" or an option to automatically submit the mails if they are marked as spam/phishing from the user, so you can improve the detection. Maybe this could be integrated into ESET LiveGrid...?

[Marcos 5,070]

No, at the moment it's not that easy to submit spam emails in a convenient way as they are handled by the 3rd party antispam vendor whose antispam solution ESET employs.,

[rugk 397]

On that's the answer to question 3 I think.

And what about the other questions?

[Marcos 5,070]

It's an answer to Q1 and Q3. As for Q2, to my best knowledge enabling this option will download larger antispam updates which may slightly improve antispam protection.

[rugk 397]

OK. Thanks for your reply.

 

So just conclude...

Q1 (& Q3): No, it makes no sense to submit it and won't improve the spam protection at this time.

Q2: Okay, nearly the same you can read in the software documentation:

Allow advanced antispam control – Additional antispam databases will be downloaded, increasing antispam capabilities and producing better results.

 

But this is said very generally.

And why isn't it activated by default?

Edited October 2, 2014 by rugk

[klv12gcn 4]

But this is said very generally.

And why isn't it activated by default?

I don't use the anti spam function because I don't use any email client.

So, it's just my deduction, maybe enable that feature will make downloading emails take longer?

Or, it may require more computing resource when scanning new emails?

And, or, their opinion is that without enabling that option, the anti spam work well enough for normal user?

[rugk 397]

Yes this can be.

[Marcos 5,070]

Activating that function could result in downloading larger updates with negligible effect on detection.

[rugk 397]

Okay, so you don't recommend it? And this is also the reason why it isn't activated by default.

 

So it maybe only makes a bit sense if you have a fast internet connecting, use Outlook or another email-client and if you accept that it will need more time to download the updates.