MPP Email Security and Archival at Diehl Spedition

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Mailspect’s Message Processing Platform Solves Freight Forwarder’s Spam and Email Archiving Issues

 

Diehl Spedition is a full-service international freight forwarder headquartered in Germany. In 2007, the company’s 330 employees handled 3,634 shipments per day within Germany and across Europe. The company relies on email to execute orders and shipments. The failure of an email server means lost productivity, lower revenue and potential liability claims.

 

In 2007, the throughput of Diehl’s email system was severely challenged as spam and malware bombarded its server, causing the server to be overwhelmed with congestion. Internal emails containing large attachments were being distributed to multiple employee mailboxes taking up enormous amounts of disk space. These twin loads were resulting in system delays and downtime.

 

Another problem was the lack of compliance with German email archiving regulations. Email retention is a legal requirement for all German companies.

Hermann Schnaidt, IT Manager at Diehl, defined the project objectives: (1) find a solution based on Open Source technology; (2) protect the email server from spam and malware; (3) relieve users from the nuisance and inefficiency of spam in their inboxes; and (4) comply with email retention regulations. Mr. Schnaidt turned to Natural Computing GmbH for vendor solution and bitbone AG for the development of the project plan based on Mailspect’s Message Processing Platform or MPP. "MPP fit our needs exactly," recalls Hermann Schnaidt. "Not only was the solution flexible and customizable because it was built on Open Source components, but the financial aspects were convincing."

 

After the selection of MPP as the software vendor, in June 2007, the project was launched. The existing IBM iSeries hardware was supplemented by an IBM eSeries X Server, running Ubuntu 6.06LTS, to protect the mail gateways. The firewall and the email server software were also upgraded.

 

In addition, a multi-tiered solution was implemented for the mail stream which involved looping through several spam and virus filters. Incoming email is run through the firewall to a mail gateway in the demilitarized zone, where it is inspected and archived, and then routed back through the firewall to the email server. This architecture resulted in an improvement in speed and availability due to improved load balancing.

 

Storage requirements were reduced freeing up disk storage by stripping internal emails of large attachments. Internal attachments are stored a single time on the server and retrieved via a link embedded in the original email.

Since the completion of the project in July 2007, the email server has not experienced any unscheduled downtime. This is thanks to MPP’s ability to protect the email server from spam, phishing, fraud and virus attacks. MPP also guards against various types of denial-of-service attacks using sender, content, URL, and dictionary rating algorithms. MPP’s spam quarantine tool, QReview, is well structured and can be managed simultaneously at both the end-user and systems admin levels. E-mails are filtered based on their content, header information and attachments and placed in quarantine if they represent a risk.

 

Good traceability and ease of administration characterize MPP’s integrated interface which oversees the email traffic as its moves on and off the Internet. The email archive is flexible and easy to configure, meets all statutory requirements and has the additional advantage that e-mails can be searched and retrieved quickly. The archived emails can be introduced as evidence in an arbitration or court proceeding.

 

MPP can process about one million emails per hour; its message tracking feature can be used to create reports and statistics. Mr. Schnaidt is also particularly pleased with MPP’s ease of use, "The web interface is very user friendly and clear and can be mastered by any user."

 

According to Mr. Schnaidt, “Problems with the e-mail servers belong to the past. Delays in email delivery have ceased; internal IT efforts related to availability have disappeared. And we don’t waste time preventing denial-of-service attacks. Taken together, MPP increases availability and lowers total cost. "

 

End-users have benefited the most from the use of MPP. The email system is stable and always available. The annoying daily task of clearing spam has been eliminated. The employees of the company are more capable of meeting their performance goals because the email system is efficient and productive.

 

MPP also increases the overall security of Diehl organization. Internal data is harder to leak due to outbound content inspection. Regulatory requirements regarding email retention and email signatures / disclaimers can be centrally administered and unjustified legal claims can be refuted based on archived email evidence.

Diehl is satisfied with the performance of MPP as evidenced by its renewal of the software. "The solution is efficient, easy to use and saves us money. Its value as an evidentiary source has been demonstrated and has protected the company from litigants. We have no reservations regarding its value and utility, "says Hermann Schnaidt.

 

About Mailspect aka Message Partners: www.mailspect.com

Mailspect, based in New Rochelle, New York, is the producer of the Message Processing Platform or MPP. MPP offers clients a comprehensive and integrated suite of email archiving, compliance and quarantine, completed with spam filters, email policy management, and email retention solutions focused on the Open Source and Apple environments. MPP is based on proven technology, integrates with leading anti spam and antivirus products and currently is installed in client mail systems that process billions of emails per day.

Contact Info: Nick Herring, nherring@mailspect.com