It seems like your browser didn't download the required fonts. Please revise your security settings and try again.
Barracuda Email Gateway Defense
formerly Email Security

Content Analysis - Outbound Mail

  • Last updated on

See Regular Expressions for advanced filtering text patterns. HTML comments and tags in message HTML source are filtered out so that content filtering applies to the actual words as they appear when viewed in a web browser.

See Outbound Quarantine for more information on messages can then be viewed, delivered, rejected, deleted, or exported from the Overview > Outbound Quarantine page.

If you make setting changes, allow a few minutes for the changes to take effect.

Attachment Filters

All outbound messages, including those from exempt senders, go through attachment filtering. On the Outbound Settings > Content Policies page, you can select to filter text matching the entered pattern based on File Name or MIME type, and select whether to Block, Ignore, or Quarantine outbound messages. Additionally, you can select to Block, Ignore, or Quarantine attached archive files that require a password to unpack.

Password Protected Archive Filtering

For outbound mail, you can select to block, quarantine, or ignore messages containing archive file attachments. Selecting Ignore means that the service does not look for, or act on, emails with attachments that require a password to unpack.

Password Protected Microsoft Documents

For outbound mail, you can select to block, quarantine, or ignore messages containing password protected Microsoft documents. Selecting Ignore means that the service does not look for, or act on, emails that contain password protected Microsoft documents.

Password Protected PDF Documents

For outbound mail, you can select to block, quarantine, or ignore messages containing password protected PDF documents. Selecting Ignore means that the service does not look for, or act on, emails that contain password protected PDF documents.

Message Content Filters

Note: In the classic user interface, you can add duplicate patterns with different match criteria. However, the new user interface eliminates this option to simplify policy processing. Existing duplicates from the classic user interface will remain active, but you must remove them and create a new policy to change the action for a specific pattern. According to Inbound Email Precedence, Email Gateway Defense evaluates all Allow policies in Message Content Filters first; if no Allow pattern matches, it then evaluates Block and Quarantine policies.

Customize content filtering based on any combination of subject, headers, body, attachments, sender, or recipient, and apply to outbound mail. See the Outbound Settings > Content Policies page for settings. Filter actions for outbound mail include Block, Allow, Quarantine, Encrypt, and Do not encrypt.

Messages that meet the Quarantine criteria are sent to the Outbound Quarantine for the administrator to evaluate. Messages can then be viewed, delivered, rejected, deleted, or exported from the Overview > Outbound Quarantine page.

Enter filter patterns and select to Block, Allow, Quarantine, Encrypt, or Do not encrypt for Subject, Headers, Body, Attachments, Sender, or Recipient. Note that Header filters are applied to both the header name and content of any header, while the Subject filters only scan the contents of the Subject header. Use regular expressions as well as the following special characters:

.   [   ]   \   *   ?   $   (   )   |   ^   @

See Regular Expressions for text patterns you can use for advanced filtering.

When using the above special characters, you must escape each character with a backslash ("\").

Attachment Content Filtering is limited to text type files such as most MS Office files, html, pdf files, and other document files.

Predefined Filters

Note: In the classic user interface, you can add duplicate patterns with different match criteria. However, the new user interface eliminates this option to simplify policy processing. Existing duplicates from the classic user interface will remain active, but you must remove them and create a new policy to change the action for a specific pattern. According to Inbound Email Precedence, Email Gateway Defense evaluates all Allow policies in Message Content Filters first; if no Allow pattern matches, it then evaluates Block and Quarantine policies.

Select a predefined data leakage patterns (specific to the United States) for Subject, Headers, Body, or Attachments. Select whether to Block, Quarantine, or Encrypt outbound messages based on the filter.

Order of Precedence for Attachment Filters, Message Content Filters, and Predefined Filters

The Attachment Filters, Message Content Filters, and Predefined Filters support the following actions, in the following order of precedence:

Order

Filter

Action

1

Message Content Filter

Allow

2

Message Content Filter

Block

3

Predefined Filter

Block

4

Attachment Filter

Block

5

Attachment Filter

Quarantine

6

Message Content Filter

Quarantine

7

Predefined Filter

Quarantine

8

Message Content Filter

Do not encrypt

9

Message Content Filter

Encrypt

10

Predefined Filter

Encrypt

Notes:

  • When you select Do not encrypt on a Message Content Filter and Encrypt on a Predefined Filter, the Message Content Filter exemption takes precedence over the Predefined Filter and the message will not be encrypted.

  • When you select Encrypt on a Predefined Filter, the predefined encryption filter does not get bypassed by a sender allow filter.

Predefined Filter Exceptions

Add exemptions to predefined HIPAA or Privacy content filters to prevent outbound emails that include phone number or street address items from being blocked, quarantined, or encrypted.

Image Analysis

Image analysis techniques protect against new image variants. Image analysis is automatically configured in Email Gateway Defense.