Enabling bounce address tag validation (BATV)

Bounce address tag validation (BATV) is a method for determining whether a bounce message to an address in your protected domain is valid. This method helps to prevent backscatter spam, in which a bounce message to your organization contains a forged recipient address.

With BATV enabled, the sender address of outbound email is marked with a unique tag. A bounce message addressed to that sender is examined for the presence of that unique tag. If the tag is detected, the bounce message is cleared for delivery. A bounce message without the tag is blocked.

Steps

  1. Navigate to the page Settings > Inbound/Outbound > Message Control.
  2. From the section Bounce Address Tag Validation, mark the check box Enable Bounce Address Tag Validation.
    Selection enables the corresponding pull-down menus.
  3. Define user and IP address groups to bypass the BATV function; select the groups from among the following pull-down menus:
    • Inbound IP address group
    • Inbound domain group
    • Outbound domain group

      A domain group selected for outbound bypass must also be selected for inbound bypass. The default setting for each group is None.

      Only user-defined domain and IP address groups are available in the pull-down menus. See Managing domain and IP address groups for information about creating domain and IP address groups.

  4. Click OK.
    The settings are saved.