Services
Anti-virus/anti-spam gateway
Centralised and remote detection and management of spam and viruses passing through email messaging
Challenges
With the increase of means of communication and email exchanges, unwanted messages, also called spam, and even threatening ones like all kinds of viruses are swamping the web and interfere with exchanges. Far from being harmless, these messages may compromise security and the integrity of individuals. Some messages, among the most dangerous, successfully imitate a trusted authority and result in the recipients opening file attachments presented as invoices or contracts. Once 'willingly' opened, these files contain malicious software that can, for example, encrypt the hard drive on which it has been downloaded and demand a price for unlocking it.
To address these threats, it is essential to have anti-virus and anti-spam gateways routing incoming email traffic within the institution's domain name. Operating as an intermediate point between the Internet and the institution's own mail server, their regular updates, particularly in incorporating the latest security measures, play a vital role in ensuring some of the best protected email.
Advanced anti-spam and anti-virus protection
To combat spam and viruses, the Restena Foundation offers professional anti-spam/anti-virus protection to stakeholders in research, education, culture, healthcare, and administration in Luxembourg, whether their messaging is hosted on RESTENA servers or not. For eligible institutions who operate their own email server, the Restena Foundation also offers a complementary centralised anti-spam/anti-virus service. The gateway, on an email relay server hosted by the Restena Foundation, filters incoming emails before transmitting them to the institution's internal email server, thus ensuring that internal email is protected.
Thanks to the anti-spam and anti-virus filtering of messages for addresses within the institution's domain name, the service is an ideal solution for institutions operating their own email server who are looking for advanced anti-spam and anti-virus protection.
Checking of incoming emails and attachments
All incoming emails and their attachments are checked on a server hosted by the Restena Foundation before reaching the institution's email server, using:
- spam and virus protection via different tests;
- automatic rejection of messages 'proven' to be spam;
- flagging of messages 'likely' to be spam and viruses as directly in the email subject;
- automatic virus definition updates;
- free choice in how messages marked as spam and viruses are processed with the option of directly deleting them in the monitoring gateway before they are even uploaded to the email inbox;
- scanning of email attachments with the automatic deletion of infected items.
Benefits
Detection and neutralising of infected emails before uploading to the institution's email server
Benefits from the latest cybersecurity knowledge base developed as part of the Restena Foundation's IT security operations
Personalised management, within the institution, of the processing of messages flagged as spam or viruses
Temporary storage of pending emails for a maximum period of 72 hours and a message volume of up to 10 gigabytes in the event of the target mail server being unavailable
Protection of the target server against malicious attacks
Permanent back-up and monitoring of the service architecture
More details on the service
Who can benefit?
Primary, Secondary and Post-Secondary Schools, Higher-Education Establishments, Research Institutes, Cultural Institutions
How to benefit
Any institution interested in the service should contact the Restena Foundation. The service is independent from the email hosting service offered by the Restena Foundation.
The institution's email server must, however, be permanently connected to the Internet with a fixed IP address and receive emails on an SMTP standard port (25). The SMTP port must be accessible to the Restena Foundation's IP range.
Some useful information
- The gateway is compatible with all electronic messaging platforms that support an SMTP platform (TCP/25).
- The spam filter assesses each incoming message according to a multitude of criteria from which it calculates a score. If spam is suspected, the message is classified as 'proven' or 'probable' spam. In the first case, the message is rejected when someone attempts to send it. In the second case, the email detected as spam contains, in its header, information stating that it is spam or, where applicable, that it contains a virus. Infected items are automatically deleted. These flagged messages are delivered to the target email server and may be processed locally depending on the institution's preferences.
Assistance and support
Help desk block