The Cybermagic of Whitelists

Before we start getting deep into the meat of this article it's important to explain some standard terminology to make sure the rest of this article makes sense.

An IP address is a number which identifies your location on the Internet.
A blacklist is a list of IP addresses which your antispam software uses to block incoming spam.
A whitelist is the exact opposite of a blacklist.

A whitelist is a predefined list of IP addresses that are allowed to send email to and receive email from each other. Blacklists exclude known and suspected spammers. Whitelists can be used to exclude everyone except known IP addresses. Think of it like this. A whitelist is a like having a phonebook which is owned by a small group of people who only wish to speak directly to each other. They don't want just anybody ringing them. Not only that but the entire group need to approve new phone numbers before they appear in this exclusive phonebook.

To send email to a whitelist you must be approved by the owner of the whitelist. This is a lot like the double optin systems used by legimiate ezines and mailing list owners. Whitelists are the nightclub bouncers of the virtual world - if you ain't on the list you ain't getting in. Simple but very effective.

A real world example of a whitelist would be if two companies wanted to exchange email only with each other. These companies could implement a whitelist that contained the IP address for just the two email servers that want to send email to each other. That would mean that any email coming from an IP address not on the whitelist would be returned to sender. For companies they can ensure that employees are only dealing with work related email and not chatting with their friends.

The benefits of whitelists are many but proper management of the whitelists is equally important. Misuse of whitelists will only lead to more headaches for everyone involved with missing email, irate customers and IT departments doing overtime just being the tip of the iceberg.

This article was provided courtesy of Spam-site.com which reviews and tests spam blockers for the business and end user.

MORE RESOURCES:

REVIEW: Watchguard#39;s Firebox X Edge - Search Security

Avoiding Identity Theft - The Epoch Times

Watchguard s First XTM Network Security Appliance - enterpriser.in

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd width=80 align=center valign=topfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifa href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/2i-0fd=Rurl=http://www.enterpriser.in/India/Know_It/Watchguard_s_First_XTM_Network_Security_Appliance/551-95425-448.htmlcid=0ei=at8lSdemO5zI8AS21aG5AQusg=AFQjCNHInWWOe8q_-kFHJak4H3yvZ48eDwimg src=http://news.google.com/news?imgefp=UdRCxNH03WYJimgurl=images.enterpriser.in/entrimages/storyimages/95425_matter.jpg width=80 height=51 alt= border=1brfont size=-2enterpriser.in/font/a/font/tdtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/2-0fd=Rurl=http://www.enterpriser.in/India/Know_It/Watchguard_s_First_XTM_Network_Security_Appliance/551-95425-448.htmlcid=0ei=at8lSdemO5zI8AS21aG5AQusg=AFQjCNHInWWOe8q_-kFHJak4H3yvZ48eDwWatchguard s First XTM Network Security Appliance/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fenterpriser.in,nbsp;Indianbsp;-/font nobrNov 19, 2008/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1XTM 1050 has optional security service subscriptions, including WatchGuard bSpamBlocker/b with virus outbreak detection, WatchGuard Web for URL and content b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table

Singin#39; the Fontainebleau shut-out blues? - MiamiHerald.com

Spam drops after McColo shut down - MX Logic

More email security tips - TechRepublic

University develops spam filter for e-mail accounts - Royal Purple News

PnR/ WatchGuard stellt ,,Fireware XTMquot; in Deutschland vor - FinanzNachrichten.de

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/7-0fd=Rurl=http://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2008-11/12233263-pnr-watchguard-stellt-fireware-xtm-in-deutschland-vor-015.htmcid=1259392243ei=at8lSdemO5zI8AS21aG5AQusg=AFQjCNFY8UhTphZWs4nKrYXijuaLo1VJOQPnR/ WatchGuard stellt ,,Fireware XTMquot; in Deutschland vor/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fFinanzNachrichten.de,nbsp;Germanynbsp;-/font nobrNov 4, 2008/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1Die Palette der neuen, erweiterbaren Lösungen umfasst unter anderem Virtual Private Networking (SSL VPN), Advanced Web (HTTP und HTTPS), bSpam Blocker/b, b.../b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/7-1fd=Rurl=http://www.visavis.de/modules.php%3Fname%3Ddjnews%26djn_id%3D97756cid=1259392243ei=at8lSdemO5zI8AS21aG5AQusg=AFQjCNGPXtl00v2tQtG21Ut3T_VMNARpUwDJ PnR / WatchGuard kündigt neue Hochleistungs-XTM-Lösung für b.../b/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrVisAvis (Pressemitteilung)/nobr/font/fontbrfont class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1259392243hl=denobrall 3 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

Spam-Blocker - Google News

RELATED ARTICLES

Evict the Spammers from Your Inbox
Block Spam and Other Email Threats From Entering Your GatewaySpam, commonly defined as unsolicited commercial email, is a powerful advertising channel for many products and services. As a result, spamming has become a profitable business, driven by the low cost of sending email compared to other direct marketing techniques.

The Trouble With Spam Is....
Each day we all face the same challenge. Spam.

Your Dolphin E-mail Caught In Spam Tuna Net?
Let me ask a couple of questions:If (potential) customers sends an e-mail to your company, do they want to receive an answer?If you, in return, e-mail your customer, do you expect that your e-mail is delivered to the customer?Well, in my case, I answered "YES" on both questions. After all, the customer asks for an answer, so it's normal to expect that when you send an e-mail in return, that the customer receives it.

How To Stop Spam (Especially If You're Already a Victim)
Spam. Those annoying, time-consuming emails that clog your Inbox and ruin your day.

How Spammers Fool Rule-based and Signature-Based Spam Filters
Effectively stopping spam over the long-term requires much more than blocking individual IP addresses and creating rules based on keywords that spammers typically use. The increasing sophistication of spam tools coupled with the increasing number of spammers in the wild has created a hyper-evolution in the variety and volume of spam.

Spam The Spammer - Will It Work?
Spam is everywhere. It's the "in-box lunch meat" nobody likes, wants or looks forward too.

The Anti Spam Challenge - Minimizing False Positives
Email is the quintessential business communication tool, so when it doesn't work like it's supposed to, business suffers. Anti spam software is designed to protect your inbox from unwanted messages, but unless your system is properly trained even the best software misses the mark and flags legitimate messages as spam.

Email Chain Letters - Harmless Fun or Not?
I'm sure I'm not the only person on the planet that remembers getting the occasional chain letter in school..

Internet Tip of the Week: Information Overload
We receive so much information on the Internet, especially via email, that many times we have difficulty separating the good "stuff" from the junk. Most of us put unsolicited email (spam) in the junk category.

Email Spam and Phishing
It seems like the volume of email spam has doubled in the last month. Increasingly, we receive daily emails for better mortgage rates, pharmaceutical discounts, and offers to enlarge body parts we don't even have.

Is Email Dying?
2004 was really a year when the whole subject of email and spam has been at the forefront of the minds of internet marketers.The anti Spam legislation has had more than the desired effect.

Ignoring These Tips Could Result in an Inbox Full of Spam
Although there still seem to be some differences among the US Government, the lawmakers, the anti-spam organizations and the spammers regarding what is spam and what is not, identifying it is actually pretty easy: if you did not ask for it, you did not sign up on a mailing list related to it, and did not leave your e-mail address on a web form asking for more information on it?it's spam! The spam issue is not about content, but solely about delivery method. The content of spam is and has always been irrelevant.

Internet Tip of the Week: Outsourcing
It's no secret that the US economy has slowed down, and many jobs have been outsourced overseas. Thousands of companies are still and are being forced to cut costs, decrease benefits, and even lay off employees.

Junk Mail Works!
Junk mail works.Why does it work?How does it work?These are very important questions.

Is Spam Affecting Your Business Email?
5 Ways Spam Is Affecting Your Business And what we can alldo to prevent it.If you had only just got online, and received your firstfew emails, you may be forgiven for thinking you had hitpaydirt.

Why Is Spam Such a Problem?
Spam can be a lot more damaging than you might think. Obviously, they are the most annoying thing that you can receive through your inbox, but it goes deeper than that.

Eight Quick Tips For Stopping SPAM
If you are buried in SPAM then you're not alone. It's been suggested that asmuch as 50% to 75% of the e-mail traffic on any given day is SPAM.

Where Did The Word Spam Come From?
We've all become familiar with the term spam. It's become so commonplace that even people who never use computers are familiar with the term spam.

Challenge Response Spam Filters Explained
As the flood of spam increases end users are looking for new and more efficient solutions to block spam. In turn software developers are knocking themselves out trying to come up with the killer app that will stop spam forever.

Dealing With SPAM - An E-mail Address Strategy
With SPAM being such a problem it might seem the right thing to do is never give anyone your email address. As a strategy that's not bad but it misses one rather important point; the purpose of having an email address is to be able to exchange emails, both with friends and also as a means to receive eZines from online forums and information sites.