M&S benefits from email filtering

Companies implementing an email filtering system should "keep things simple" and focus on key issues, according to Marks & Spencer's IT experts.

M&S needed email filtering to support its business structure, which consists of 300 UK stores and 30 franchises worldwide, around 7,000 email users and a worldwide supply chain relying on email, and its offshore operation in India.

The retailer deployed the Clearswift email filtering system 18 months ago, but warned the audience at analyst IDC's IT Security Conference, not to expect such software to be set up perfectly from day one.

Stephen Cotton, M&S information security analyst, said the company had learnt valuable lessons from the project. "Focusing on what needs to be filtered and then tightening up the rule set for 'nice haves' later on is the best way forward," he said.

The company wanted the system to minimise the opportunity for fraud as it moves into financial services, to help with virus protection and to increase productivity by stopping time-wasting attachments."Email is maybe more important to us than the telephone," said Amanda Finch, information security manager at M&S.

"We wanted our email filtering system to help protect our reputation as all outgoing emails have the M&S tag and to protect our assets by preventing confidential information leaking out."

Cotton warned companies against thinking that content filtering can capture everything, and said that for legal protection they must state what monitoring will take place.

By installing the system, M&S has cut spam and acquired an early form of virus defence through textual analysis, and built a better understanding of traffic content. It has also worked out how many emails are business-oriented and put a stop to end-user time-wasting by blocking joke emails.

However, there has been "no user perception that the email service has been degraded in any way", said Cotton.

The company had specific criteria for selecting its email filtering system.

"It had to be stable, have a low impact on throughput and have granularity," said Finch.

"We sell lingerie so couldn't block emails by searching for skin tones in emails. We also sell booze, so the sex, drugs and rock and roll have to gothrough to allow people to do their business," she joked.