Last modified at 3/4/2018 10:37 AM by Bill Coulter (admin)

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Barracuda Email Security Gateway 
(formerly named Barracuda Spam & Virus Firewall)
 --Overview--

As an independent cloud services provider, Webville uniquely combines Microsoft Exchange (plus Skype for Business, SharePoint and web hosting) with the Barracuda Email Security Gateway (Spam & Virus Firewall) system. If you've had experience with both Microsoft and Barracuda spam filtering, you already know why. Microsoft's Exchange is the best email system, but Barracuda's spam filtering is vastly superior. Unlike the competition, we cross these corporate boundaries to give you the best of both worlds. Barracuda catches more spam with fewer false positives. Barracuda message logs provide a reason when a message is blocked, allowing you to target the real problem, instead of blindly whitelisting. Below are some of the benefits of the Barracuda Email Security Gateway.

Note that Webville's implementation of Barracuda Email Security is fully redundant thanks to two local Barracuda appliances plus the Barracuda Cloud Protection layer. 

Note Barracuda has recently renamed this system the Barracuda Email Security Gateway. This is the new name for the same Barracuda Spam and Virus Firewall system that so many have known and loved for years. The new name acknowledges constant and ongoing improvements to the system. 

Spam Protection

With a long-standing heritage in spam protection, Barracuda Networks remains the leader in identifying and blocking spam. A comprehensive set of security layers ensures that organizations remain productive in the face of evolving threats.

The Barracuda Email Security Gateway leverages Barracuda Central to identify email from known spammers and determine whether domains embedded in email lead to known spam or malware domains. It leverages many of the same industry-leading techniques found in the Barracuda Email Security Gateway that protect against attempts to embed text inside images with the intent of hiding content from traditional spam filters.

Virus Protection

As virus attacks become more sophisticated and complex, email infrastructure requires advanced virus protection. The potential for the destruction and release of information, or the disruption of a network severely impacts productivity and can lead to financial loss.

The Barracuda Email Security Gateway scans email and incoming files using three powerful layers of virus scanning technology. It also decompresses archives for complete protection. Powerful virus definitions are automatically updated via Energize Updates to maintain the most up-to-date protection against email-borne viruses.

Barracuda Central

All Barracuda products are supported by Barracuda Central, a 24x7 advanced security operations center that works continuously to monitor and block the latest Internet threats. Barracuda Central collects data from more than 150,000 collection points worldwide and analyzes it to develop defenses, rules, and signatures. As new threats emerge, Barracuda Central is quick to respond to early outbreaks and delivers the latest definitions through Barracuda Energize Updates. These updates require zero administration and ensure that the Barracuda Email Security Gateway provides comprehensive and accurate protection against the latest Internet threats.

Denial of Service (DoS) Attack Protection

Not every attack is focused on getting users to send their credit card number, getting users to click on a malicious link, or to plant a virus. Often, the objective of the attack is focused on disabling a network or mitigating its effectiveness. As a cloud-based service, the Barracuda Email Security Gateway is positioned to stop spammers before they overload an email server.

Email Spooling

The Barracuda Email Security Gateway ensures that email can still be delivered even during email server failures or loss of connectivity. In the event of a disruption in the data center, email can be spooled in the Cloud Protection Layer for up to 96 hours. An alternate destination can also be specified for delivery, if delivery to the primary destination fails.

Spam and Virus Pre-Filtering

The Barracuda Email Security Gateway is integrated with a cloud-based service that pre-filters email before delivery to the Barracuda Email Security Gateway in Webville's data center. The Cloud Protection Layer is continuously updated with definitions in real time with updates from Barracuda Central. The elasticity of Barracuda’s global cloud infrastructure provides the flexibility to handle email surges during specific periods of the day and during Denial of Service attacks.

 

The Cloud Protection Layer ensures that Webville's email security infrastructure scales with the increasing growth in email volume and attachment sizes; as well as the growth of clients. By leveraging the bandwidth and computing power of the CPL, Webville can easily scale their email security solution.

Encryption

The Barracuda Email Security Gateway offers a number of encryption features. It is fully integrated with a cloud-based email encryption service for outbound email. Email that matches policy or are marked for encryption (inquire for details) are securely sent via TLS to the Barracuda Message Center.

The Barracuda Message Center uses AES with 256-bit keys to encrypt email. To encrypt email traffic between sites over the Internet, the Barracuda Email Security Gateway Message Transport Agent supports SMTP over TLS. This can be used between Barracuda Email Security Gateways or other email servers that support SMTP over TLS.

Outbound Filtering

Outbound filtering prevents organizations from being put on spam block lists and prevents sensitive data in email from leaving the organization. Employees can inadvertently cause internal systems to become a source for botnet spam. Using a subset of its defense layers, the Barracuda Email Security Gateway’s outbound filtering stops outbound spam and viruses. It also lets administrators enforce content polices for data loss prevention (DLP) and to meet other content standards in outgoing email. Predefined filters and custom policies can be used to detect sensitive data and block or encrypt email.

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