Mail Portal

The Network Box Mail Portal system, allows end users in organizations using SMTP email servers, to have direct control of their quarantined emails for the first time. This means that in the event that an end user sees an email which has (in their opinion) been incorrectly blocked as spam; they can with no more effort than ticking a checkbox, and clicking a single button, have that email released. Using the same very easy to understand report, they can also tick an additional checkbox, to request that the sender is white listed in the future; should that end user so desire.

Mail Portal Reports

The Mail Portal report is usually delivered to end users on a daily basis. However, this report is configurable, and can be delivered weekly, daily, twice a day, hourly, or indeed delivered to conform to whatever timeframe suits the customer’s organizational requirements.

Obviously however, if the Mail Portal report is delivered too frequently, it will likely be regarded as an annoyance by end users; while if the report is delivered too infrequently; end users may be frustrated to learn that an important email (which they were waiting for), was quarantined some time ago, without their knowledge.

These reports (an example can be seen to the left) are delivered via email, to each of the users in the organization who wish to receive them. (It is possible for some people to opt out, if they do not want these reports.) Users can immediately see all of the emails sent to them which were classified as spam, during the timeframe concerned, just in case any genuine emails (called ham, as opposed to
spam, by the anti-spam industry) were incorrectly blocked for any reason. In the event that any emails were incorrectly blocked, users can schedule these emails for release from the Network Box’s built-in spam quarantine system, and also request that the sender be white listed in the future, to avoid that particular sender’s emails being incorrectly blocked again by the anti-spam system.

Even if a sender is white listed however; it is worth noting that in the event any future email from that sender contains company policy violations, or a computer virus, or a computer worm; it will still be quarantined by the Network Box by default. White listing is not dangerous as such. Just because a sender is white listed in the Network Box anti-spam system, they will NOT automatically be white listed by the anti-virus, anti-spyware or organizational policy systems.

Exception lists exist for these systems; but are not controlled by end users, for obvious reasons.

Technical Bullet Points:

• Network Box Mail Portal contains patent-pending technology, and implements a virtual per-user administrative interface, extending delegation of manageability and maintenance of the security gateway down to the per-user level. This is an industry first.
• Network Box, as a managed service, has always been primarily managed from the NOC (Network Operation Centre). This provides for centralised configuration, backup, monitoring and maintenance of the Network Box device. However Network Box also permits for delegation of certain management functions (such as anti-spam, quarantine release, content filtering policies, etc) to the local administrator (via a web-based interface called my.network-box.com).
• Mail Portal, allows support further delegation of certain management functions (such as mail, anti-spam, anti-malware, etc) to the actual user (via both an email-based and a web-based interface called Mail Portal).
• When the Network Box NOC manages the box, they get a view of the entire box and all it does. When the administrators manage the box, they get a view of the box and all it does. When the users manage the box, they get a view of just their portion of the box. Administrators see all the email going through the box, users see only their email. Thus users get a virtual view of just their subset of the security gateway.
• Mail Portal is implemented in two parts:
  • An email-based report. This is sent periodically (monthly, weekly, daily, or a custom-reporting period at a minimum hourly), to all users who had activity. It reports on traffic for that user through the box, and allows click-to-release quarantine release and request for white listing.
  • A Web-based interface. This is accessible either via the email report, or via username + password, and shows the users email traffic on the box. The user can search for past email, and can release from quarantine (if so authorized).
• Mail Portal supports clusters of boxes, with centralised reporting. Network Box systems can be configured to report their logs to a centralised cluster logging server, and then access Mail Portal on that centralised cluster logging server. Distributed quarantine release is supported in this configuration. The cluster can be geographically distributed using VPN technology on the box.
• Using highly-secure web services, and up to 256bit AES encryption, Mail Portal can operate over SSL and is configurable to permit external (Internet) access, either direct or over VPN, to allow road-warriors and home users to access the portal and release email while on the road, or from home.
• In the case where a particular user has multiple email addresses, the Mail Portal (email report and web interface) can be configured to group all those email addresses under one account. Grouping can also be configured on a wildcard basis (e.g.: *@acme.com).
• Using secure token-based authentication, user account and password maintenance is in the hands of the users themselves. This reduces administrative overhead, but still permits the administrator to help (using my.network-box.com Mail Portal user administration) the users if necessary.
• Mail Portal is essentially an industry-first, patent-pending, per-user virtual administrative interface for email. Reducing administrative overhead, while still maintaining an overview, this system puts control back in the hands of the users.