Email Security Sniffers

A "sniffer" is a sofware program that runs on a computer in a network and looks for specific words and phrases in the data that flows through it. Hackers sometimes use them to spy on people by looking for email addressed to certain people or mentioning certain subjects. Firewalls also use sniffers as internet filters to look for information. For example, you could instruct the firewall to block any packet with the word "X-rated" in it. The only catch is that it has to be an exact match. The "X-rated" porn filter would not catch "X rated" (no hyphen). But you can include as many words, phrases and variations of them as you need.

Firewall Software

An e-mail bomb is usually a personal attack. Someone sends you the same e-mail hundreds or thousands of times until your e-mail system cannot accept any more messages. Sometimes a firewall can be set to automatically reject email from an offending address or domain, or you can talk to your ISP about additional options.

Email Security

A "sniffer" is a software program that runs on a computer in a network and looks for specific words and phrases in the data that flows through it. Hackers sometimes use them to spy on people by looking for email addressed to certain people or mentioning certain subjects. Firewalls also use sniffers as internet filters to look for information. For example, you could instruct the firewall to block any packet with the word "X-rated" in it. The only catch is that it has to be an exact match. The "X-rated" porn filter would not catch "X rated" (no hyphen). But you can include as many words, phrases and variations of them as you need.

Firewall Software

An e-mail bomb is usually a personal attack. Someone sends you the same e-mail hundreds or thousands of times until your e-mail system cannot accept any more messages. Sometimes a firewall can be set to automatically reject email from an offending address or domain, or you can talk to your ISP about additional options.