A local gateway device receives email across the internet from a sender of the email and forwards it across the internet to an email filtering system. The email filtering system analyzes the email to determine whether it is spam, phishing or contains a virus and sends it back to the local gateway device along with the filtered determination. The local gateway device forwards the received email and the filtered determination to a local junk store which handles the email appropriately. For example, if the email has been determined to be spam, phishing or containing a virus, the junk store can quarantine the email and if the email has been determined to be non-spun and/or not phishing and/or not containing a virus, the junk store can forward the email to a local mail server for delivery.