Spammers beware: ACC has your number Published May 3, 2006 By 1st Lt. Jason McKernan Air Combat Command Public Affairs LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (ACCNS) -- Air Combat Command implemented a new plug-in software solution May 1 known as Symantec Brightmail Anti-Spam, or simply Brightmail – a system designed to better identify and block unsolicited commercial e-mails for everyone in the command. “Spam puts a strain on our network and approximately 50-60 percent of the commercial (non-military or government) e-mail received by ACC mail servers is unsolicited,” said First Lt. Patricia Weeks, ACC Network Operations and Security Center chief of information protection. ACC was the first the Air Force to implement the Brightmail plug-in commandwide. Prior to implementation, Beale Air Force Base, Calif., volunteered to be the test site for the program. Along with assistance from base technicians, the ACC NOSC implemented the program on Beale’s servers. The results were dramatic. “We had Brightmail running at Beale on Feb. 19, and we immediately saw a drop-off in the number of spam e-mails that were reaching our personnel,” said Lieutenant Weeks. “Beale saw a three-fold increase in the number of spam e-mails being blocked.” According to Lieutenant Weeks, this was somewhere in the realm of 12,000 daily spam e-mails. While Brightmail not only drastically reduces the number of unsolicited e-mails, it also saves manpower and time for ACC communication Airmen. Before this new system came online, spam e-mail was blocked through more traditional methods. The NOSC personnel would have to identify spam e-mails through individually-crafted subject and content filters. This method was time consuming and marginally effective, resulting in only 17 percent of spam being blocked. After the success of Brightmail at Beale, the decision was made to implement throughout ACC. The program was implemented at Langley AFB March 19 with similar success. “In one weekend at Langley, we were able to block 42,000 commercial spam e-mails,” said Lieutenant Weeks. Brightmail is able to work so effectively because it is constantly updated with the most recent electronic signatures of unsolicited e-mails. The program allows the ACC servers to communicate with Symantec’s servers, which are constantly scanning for new spam threats. Once it finds new spam signatures, it updates the ACC servers and instructs those servers to block the e-mail. While very effective, Brightmail is not the end-all solution for blocking unsolicited e-mails; it is considered an interim solution. While there other long-term solutions being developed to deal with spam, ultimately it is up to the user. "Many unsolicited e-mails are a result of the increasing use of the web," Lieutenant Weeks said. "The number-one way to prevent unsolicited e-mails is through individual user self-defense. People will often receive unsolicited e-mails because they have made their e-mail address available on the Internet through postings to web sites, newsletters, email groups, blogs or similar open communications.”