Google Message Security is an email filtering service powered by Postini. Message Security works with your existing email system by filtering mail on the way to and from your mail service. With Message Security, you get:
- Spam and virus filtering for all email addresses at your domain, including mailing lists and user aliases
- Content and attachment filters, which you can create to enforce your company's policies for inbound or outbound messages
- Approved and blocked senders lists, which you can use to ensure or prevent delivery from specific senders—or even whole domains
- The Message Center, which lets users manage their quarantined messages and set up their own approved and blocked senders lists
What is the Account Administrator?
The Account Administrator is the top-level administrator of your Message Security service. The administrator who activates the service is automatically granted Account Administrator privileges. This administrator can then grant administrative privileges to other users at the domain. For detailed information on administrator accounts, see the Administration section of the Administration Guide.
What is the Administration Console?
The Administration Console includes all the tools you use to set up and administer your Message Security service. It is where you can add users for filtering, set options for spam and virus blocking, create email content and attachment filters, add other administrator accounts, manage users' access to the Message Center, and view reports. Here's what the console's home page looks like:
Does Google Message Security filter messages to email lists and aliases?
Message Security filters mail for all email addresses at your organization, including email lists and aliases, as long as these accounts are added in your Administration Console. Once you've activated your account, you can review the Message Security documentation to learn how to add a mailing list or email alias for filtering.
How does Message Security filter email?
After you activate your Google Message Security service, all your users' email messages flow through the service, including:
- Inbound email: Messages sent to users from outside your company. Inbound filtering starts working as soon as you activate your service.
- Outbound email: Messages that users send to others outside your company. Once you've activated your service, you can find instructions for configuring outbound services in the Outbound section of the Administration Guide.
As your email flows through Message Security, the service applies spam and virus filters. Any content filters and attachment filters you create are also applied to the messages. Note: Intradomain mail (messages sent internally between users in your organization) is not filtered by the message security service.
How inbound email flows through the service
The Google Message Security service filters all inbound messages and blocks or quarantines spam and virus-infected messages. If you've created any inbound content or attachment filters to enforce company policies, the service also blocks or quarantines any inbound messages that violate a policy.
How outbound email flows through the service
The service filters outbound messages for viruses and blocks any infected messages. If you've created any outbound content or attachment filters to enforce company policies, the service blocks or quarantines any outbound messages that violate a policy.
What happens to messages that are blocked by filters?
The Message Security administrator determines what happens to undelivered messages. You can choose to have spam or virus content bounced, deleted, or sent to a quarantine in the Message Center. You can also decide what to do with messages caught by any content or attachment filters you set up, and can specify different dispositions for each filter if you need to.
If you decide to quarantine any blocked messages, you and your users can access these messages in the Message Center. The Message Center includes a Junk Quarantine and optional Virus and Pending Quarantines. Learn more