State of Montana

State of Montana Espion Interceptor

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the Interceptor?
• What does the Interceptor Periodic Spam Report look like?
• How often do I receive the Periodic Spam Report?
• What is the current Spam scoring threshold?
• How do I retrieve quarantined email from the Interceptor?
• I'm still receiving email I consider Spam. What do I do?
• The Interceptor is stopping email I don't consider Spam. What do I do?

The Interceptor is an anti-spam device that quarantines all State of Montana incoming email that it identifies as Spam. Spam is considered any email that is a solicitation that a user did not request.

Each incoming email is analyzed by the Interceptor and assigned a score based on a variety of factors including message content, sender, recipients, etc. Scores above a certain threshold are considered Spam. Each user is sent a Periodic Spam report that lists the details of their quarantined messages. Users can retrieve any of these quarantined messages in case valid email was mistakenly identified as Spam.

The Interceptor is configured to send Spam Reports every 3 hours. However, this can be set per individual user - - to every 1, 3, 6, 12 or 24 hours. To request that your Periodic Spam Report interval be changed you can contact your Agency Security Contact.

The threshold is currently set at 5.1. This means that any email with a Spam score of 5.1 or more will be quarantined.

Locate the email message in the Periodic Spam Report and click on the link marked Retrieve, located to the right of the SPAM Score. The requested email will be sent to your Outlook Inbox.

This is referred to as a False Negative.

Report the email as Spam by sending it, as an attachment, to the "Spam Reports" mailbox.

To do this:

1. In Outlook - - open a new email message
2. In the TO: field type Spam Reports
3. In the SUBJECT: field type False Negative Spam
4. From the menu in the message window select Insert > Item . . .
5. Highlight the folder containing the Spam that you want to report (typically the Inbox)
6. Select the Spam message from the bottom Items window and select OK.
7. Click "Send" to send the message to the Spam Reports mailbox.

This is referred to as a False Positive. A user can request that the message be marked as a false positive for future reference, allowing the Interceptor to better understand the state's email environment.

To report a False Positive: Retrieve the Quarantined email, from your Periodic Spam Report by clicking on link marked Retrieve, located to the right of the SPAM Score.

Then report the email as a False Positive by sending it, as an attachment, to the "Spam Reports" mailbox.

To send the False Positive email to "Spam Reports" mailbox:

1. In Outlook - - open a new email message
2. In the TO: field type Spam Reports
3. In the SUBJECT: field type False Positive Spam
4. From the Menu in the Message window select Insert > Item . . .
5. Highlight the folder containing the Spam that you want to report (typically the Inbox).
6. Select the Spam message from the bottom Items window and select OK.
7. Click "Send" to send the message to "Spam Reports" mailbox.