Does Cerberus decrease the security of our email?

No. On average, a single email experiences 7–10 “hops” (the number of routers through which it is sent) as it travels from sender to recipient. Cerberus becomes the final “hop” in the journey. Adding this extra “hop” introduces no additional insecurity to the process of sending or receiving email. In fact, while Cerberus acts like any other router in the transmission process, it actually adds a layer of security to your email by shielding your MX record from the Internet, where it may otherwise be accessible by spammers and hackers.

What is an MX record?

A Mail Exchange record, or MX record, is an entry in a DNS database that identifies the mail server responsible for handling email for that domain. In other words, your MX record is like your primary postal address, to which all of your mail is sent. When you use Cerberus, you change your MX record and make the address of Cerberus your primary address. All email from the outside is sent to Email Defense first. This conceals your Internet-facing mail servers and gateways and protects you from attack. Cerberus then filters your email as it is redirected to your true address.

If we point our MX record to Cerberus, does this mean you will have access to our email?

No. While Cerberus’s filters do comprise the final “hop” a message takes en route to your network, we do not have the capabilities to intercept or review email. Cerberus message processing centers act as proxies when receiving your inbound email. Messages are filtered in real-time as they are being simultaneously delivered into your messaging environment. Because our service is proxy-based, your messages are not stored to disk. Systems that store and forward your messages to disk expose your email to the risk of loss if the disk is damaged or corrupted.

Do we lose control of our MX record when we point it to Cerberus?

No. The MX record remains in your control. At anytime your MX record may be configured to point back to your messaging infrastructure. You may also lower your MX record’s time-to-live (TTL) to increase propagation times.

Will our email be stored on Cerberus servers?

Unlike a number of companies, Cerberus does not use a “store and forward” process for filtering messages. Therefore Cerberus does not accept your email, store it on servers, scan it, and then send it on (“store and forward”). Instead, Cerberus’s proxy-based method filters email real-time “on the stream”. Legitimate emails are never written to any media unless our customer requests it. In fact, Cerberus handles all mail processing via memory and only stores quar ned mail to hard disk. Cerberus’s technology introduces more security by cloaking the location of your messaging servers and removing anonymous SMTP connections.

Does Cerberus filtering work when I send mail or only when I receive it?

Cerberus filtering only works on messages you receive.

Does Cerberus’s Cerberus filter email internal to our network?

As a proxy-based managed service, Cerberus currently does not offer filtering for email sent within an internal messaging network (intranet).

How do I know what mail has been blocked as spam?

End users receive a Spam Quar ne Report in their inbox that contains a link to their quar ne. This notification allows them to access blocked messages and restore messages from quar ne, if desired, and easily configure the system to allow those types of email in the future.

Is there a risk that legitimate email sent to our company will accidentally be blocked?

Cerberus’s multi-layered Stacked Classification FrameworkSM provides over 99.9% filtering accuracy and a UK industry-leading low false positive rate (legitimate email incorrectly marked as spam). In the rare event of a false positive, Cerberus provides each end-user with a daily Spam Quar ne Report that enables end-users to locate any legitimate emails, release them to their inbox, and ensure that those messages are not blocked in the future.

Furthermore, to enable certain types of content and attachments to pass through Cerberus’s filters, any allow lists, deny lists, or keyword lists that have been developed specifically by Cerberus customers can be uploaded to Cerberus Portal to enable customized, regulation-compliant message filtering.

Do I need a password to view messages blocked as spam?

No. You can directly access and view spam through the Spam Quar ne Report that is emailed to your inbox.

How does Cerberus identify and block spammer attacks? Do you have a team dedicated to monitoring and protecting against spammer and worm attacks?

Cerberus is run by Knowall It Solutions Ltd that has an in house IT Support team. Part of this team, caller CITS (Cerberus IT Support) is responsible for monitoring, updating and fielding client calls. CITs is continuously watching the flow of email through our system for new spammer techniques, DoS attacks, viruses, worms, or any other threat that can enter and harm a customer’s network.

Does Cerberus compromise privacy?

Cerberus takes the security and privacy of user data seriously. Messages are filtered in real-time as they are being simultaneously delivered into yours messaging environment. Because Cerberus’s service is proxy-based, your messages are not stored to disk in order to be filtered, where they can be lost if the disk is damaged or corrupted nor can they be read.