Email Security Gateway (MTA) with Spectra Detect
Spectra Detect can act as an in-line email security gateway. Its SMTP Connector works as a mail transfer agent (MTA) that sits in your existing mail flow. It receives email over SMTP, analyzes each message and its attachments, and then either relays it to your mail server or holds it in quarantine.
How it works
- Your upstream email gateway or MTA sends inbound email to the Spectra Detect SMTP Connector.
- Spectra Detect analyzes the email, its attachments, and the network references it contains.
- Emails that pass are relayed to your downstream mail server, with headers that record the analysis result.
- Blocked emails are uploaded to Spectra Analyze, which acts as the quarantine.
- Analysts review quarantined emails in Spectra Analyze and release the ones that are safe to their original recipients.
The connector is a relay, not a mail server: it doesn't store mailboxes, and it always needs a downstream mail server to deliver to.
What you can control
- Which classifications are delivered and which are quarantined
- Allowlists and blocklists for senders, recipients, URLs, and file hashes
- Blocking based on the reputation of URLs, domains, and IP addresses in the email
- TLS enforcement and which networks can send email to the connector
- Notifications to recipients when their email is quarantined
Products involved
| Product | Role |
|---|---|
| Spectra Detect | Runs the SMTP Connector, analyzes email, and relays or blocks it. Available in Spectra Detect 6.1 and later. |
| Spectra Analyze | Stores quarantined email for review, and releases it to the original recipients. |
| Spectra Intelligence | Provides the threat intelligence used to classify files and network references. |
Other ways to analyze email
If you don't want to put a ReversingLabs product in your mail flow, you can analyze email without blocking it:
- Blackhole mode of the Spectra Detect SMTP Connector analyzes a copy of your email traffic and discards it, without delivering or blocking anything.
- Mailbox connectors in Spectra Detect and Spectra Analyze collect email from a mailbox, such as an abuse mailbox where users report suspicious messages, and analyze it.
Get started
- SMTP Connector in Spectra Detect: operating modes, filtering, and configuration
- Email Quarantine in Spectra Analyze: reviewing and releasing quarantined email
- Firewall and network connections: ports used by ReversingLabs appliances