Welcome to the Proofpoint glossary. This page will give you a quick definition of the terms you’ll come across. In addition, we have included several common terms used to describe concepts related to email security.
A
Active Directory Sync – The mechanism used to import users from Active Directory and repeat the import process at intervals, ensuring that lists of users are kept automatically updated.
Admin Contact – The admin contact is the primary contact associated with the account. This is typically used to identify an administrator associated directly with the account.
Anti-Virus – A mechanism that prevents viruses from affecting computer systems. Proofpoint use several industry-leading Anti-Virus (AV) engines in order to scan emails sent to or by Proofpoint customers.
Azure Active Directory Sync – The mechanism used to import users from Azure Active Directory and repeat the import process at intervals, ensuring that lists of users are kept automatically updated.
Attachment Defense – Attachment Defense (AD) is an optional feature. When enabled, Attachment Defense will scan attachments in both incoming and outgoing emails against Proofpoint’s cloud-based scanning service. Known “bad” attachments are blocked from delivery.
B
Billing Contact – The billing contact is a contact associated with the account who is typically responsible for receiving notifications related to account billing or renewals.
C
CSV – A CSV is a comma-separated values file that stores data in a structured format. A CSV file can be used to import users into an account.
D
Data Loss Prevention – Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is an optional feature. When enabled, customers can access a library of smart identifiers and dictionaries that can be incorporated into a custom filter.
Dictionary – Dictionary is a term used in reference to the Essentials DLP feature. Proofpoint provides several industry-specific dictionaries that can be incorporated into a custom filter.
E
End-User – A user role type that allows users to have their email filtered, receive a quarantine digest, and have access to the user interface.
Emergency Inbox – Mechanism that allows users to send and receive emails during a corporate email system outages.
F
Filter – A filter is a set of one or more conditions that are applied to email traffic and can alter the destination of an email (i.e., allow, quarantine, etc.).
G
Group – Group are containers that contain users as members. Groups can be manually created and managed within an account or created automatically when syncing with an Active Directory or Azure Active Directory site.
I
Instant Replay – Instant Replay is an optional feature. When enabled, users can resend an email that was previously delivered to their mailbox.
L
Logs – Also referred to as “Email Logs”. Logs record all inbound and outbound messages for users, whether or not those messages were quarantined. Log entries for quarantined messages include links to the filter definitions. Logs are available for up to 30 days.
M
MX Records – A mail exchanger record (MX record) is a type of record in the Domain Name System (DNS) that specifies the mail server responsible for accepting email messages for a specified domain.
O
Organization Administrator – A user role type that grants users the ability to manage other users within the organization.
Q
Quarantine – A term used to describe an email that the system has intercepted and blocked for delivery. This is typically the result of a spam threshold being met for an email, or because a custom filter has blocked the delivery of an email.
Quarantine Digest Email – An email sent by the system to an end-user showing a list of emails that have been quarantined.
S
Sender List – Sender lists contain email addresses (someone@domain.dev) or domains (*@domain.dev) that are to be explicitly identified as “safe” or “blocked”.
Silent User – A user role type assigned to users who will have their email filtered and will receive a quarantine digest, but will not have access to the user interface.
Smarthost – An email message transfer agent that allows a mail server to route email to a designated mail server rather than directly to the recipient’s server.
Smart Identifier – A term used in reference to the Proofpoint DLP feature. Proofpoint provides several industry-specific identifiers that can be incorporated into a custom filter.
SMTP Discovery – A process that examines inbound and outbound emails for your domains and, based on the selected options, can either create new user accounts automatically and/or send an email list of candidates for new user accounts so that an administrator can choose which should have user accounts and which should be marked as invalid.
T
Tech Contact – The tech contact is typically the technical administrator of the account. This contact field can be used to identify an administrator associated directly with the account or a partner administrator who manages the account.
U
URL Defense – An optional feature that, when enabled, will replace URLs located in inbound emails with a re-written URL. Clicks on the re-written URLs may be blocked if the original URL is known to contain malicious content.
W
Welcome Email – An email sent by the system to end-users or administrators who are added to an account.