Mascot Change from Perry the Peregrine Falcon

Though it has not been long since PCCC has adopted our mascot Perry the Peregrine Falcon, Reaper of Spam and Phishing.

It is belated news that we are adopting a new mascot named Perry the Platypus. Doofenshmirtz could not be reached for comment but a compilation of his interactions can be found here.

April Fools!

Kevin A. McGrail (KAM) received M3AAWG Award

In February 2025, KAM received the M3AAWG Mary Litynski Lifetime Achievement Award.

M3AAWG celebrated the KAM's lifetime achievement of work against spam, phishing, and malware at the M3AAWG's 63rd General Meeting in Portugal. Following the event, they created a post on LinkedIn alongside writing an article on m3aawg.org.

Giovanni Bechis elected Chair of the Apache SpamAsssassin Project Management Committee

In March 2025, Giovanni Bechis, PCCC's CTO and SNB's Ceo, was elected Chair of the Apache SpamAsssassin Project Management Committee.

Giovanni was voted into this position and approved by the Apache Software Foundation Board after Sidney Markowitz retired after many years of distinguished service.

After Giovanni accepted the position, an interview was conducted by LinuxSecurity after which they created a blog post here.

Raptor Phishing Testing and Training

PCCC is proud to announce our newly bundled Raptor Phishing Testing and Training.

This product is a 2 stage process with initial Raptor Phishing Testing completed in 3 phases in order to better inform a customized set of 2 Phishing Training sessions.

PCCC's Raptor Phishing Testing is based on REAL world tactics that we have seen in the wild. This is to ensure that it's not simply a "gotcha" moment but is instead a reflection of something that could be received from real spammers.

Using the results of our Phishing Testing, PCCC then creates personalized training materials that are tailored to your organization and based on information from our real-world threat database that is constantly updating to reflect evolving cybersecurity threats.

For additional information please see: https://raptoremailsecurity.com/phishing-testing-and-training/

Where you can find PCCC in Q2'25

SWVA Economic Forum - May 22, 2025

Our CEO, Chris Surprise and Oxbow Office Manager, C. Michael Fields will be in attendance

Inbox Expo - May 21-23, 2025

Our CEO Emeritus, Kevin A. Mcgrail will be in attendance

MIMEDefang 3.6 Released

MIMEDefang 3.6 released on February 26, 2025.

Raptor utilizes new features in MIMEDefang before public release which allows Raptor to better protect users from spams and phishes with evolving technologies.

Upcoming Raptor Features

Continued Improvements to Raptor Remark Tags

In the last quarter and into the future, PCCC is committed to continued work on improving our Raptor Remark Tags in order to help better protect Raptor users.

Features Added Last Quarter

Freemail RBL Added to Raptor

In order to improve Raptor's Anti-spam filter, PCCC Raptor now includes the SNB freemail RBL which is a blocklist including over 25k addresses of freemail providers.

Added Detection of Javascript (JS) Code Hidden Inside .svg Files

Raptor's Anti-spam capabilities have been improved with the added ability to detect JS Code hidden inside .svg files. We have recently seen an uptick in attempts to hide malicious JS Code inside .svg files and we're happy to provide greater protections through Raptor.

Did You Know? Raptor Feature Corner Corner

Raptor Continuity: Business Continuity in case of an Outage

Raptor Continuity is a service that is included in all Raptor Email Security packages.

This service, if enabled, saves a local copy of mail on PCCC servers which can be used for business continuity. This mail is then deleted after a set amount of time that is determined when the service is enabled.

The goal of this service is to allow mail capability even if your domain is experiencing an outage. This way your business doesn't grind to a halt.

Raptor Spam Stats Corner

In PCCC's Raptor Email Security Q1'25 Newsletter, we included stats in our Raptor Spam Stats Corner that were incorrect.

The underlying issue has been fixed and the Raptor Spam Stats Corner will now contain correct stats.

Exactly how much spam do we see? (Pulled on 03/27/2025)

Highest Spam Percent in the Last 30 Days: 90.63%
Highest Spam Percent in the Last 60 Days: 95.39%
Highest Spam Percent in the Last 90 Days: 96.47%

Average Spam Percent in the Last 30 Days: 34.80%
Average Spam Percent in the Last 60 Days: 35.42%
Average Spam Percent in the Last 90 Days: 35.24%

To see your domain Raptor Spam Statistics, you can navigate to raptor.pccc.com and enter your domain to be redirected to the server that you are deployed on.

Login to your Raptor Admin Dashboard and navigate to your Raptor Statistics either via the top Raptor Admin drop down or through the Spam Statistics Tile.

Tip of the Quarter

DON'T blindly trust QR codes.

Recently PCCC has seen a rise in the use of QR codes on different posters, at events, and in a variety of other locations.

While QR codes can be extremely convenient as scanning a QR code with your phone's camera is very simple and easy in most cases. It is IMPORTANT to remember that a QR code is effectively no different than a shortened URL on a website or in an email. You don't ACTUALLY know where it will take you and if it's even trustworthy.

This is exacerbated by the fact that some companies or fliers may use QR code stickers so that they do not need to remake their fliers. However this comes with the added risk that if a bad actor puts their sticker over the original, they can potentially trick people into going to malicious sites or downloading malicious code like malware, viruses, etc.