Author: Mike Petsalis
Mike Petsalis
Mike has dabbled in engineering, software development, R&D, operations, security, strategy, you name it. He still claims to be able to provide useful insights to his company's R&D and product teams. His posts will focus on email security industry issues and trends, although he might not be able to resist the tempation to discuss agile software development.
Articles by this author
Smartphone security: an overview of security frameworks and controlled app marketplaces Part 4 of 4
The more controlled smartphone application marketplaces require a thorough application vetting process. (Oct 26, 2011)
Smartphone security: an overview of security frameworks and controlled app marketplaces Part 3 of 4
There are 3 generic software installation models for a mobile apps marketplace: the walled-garden model, the guardian model, and the user-control model. (Oct 12, 2011)
Smartphone security: an overview of security frameworks and controlled app marketplaces Part 2 of 4
There are 4 main security features common to the 4 major smartphone OSs: process and file system isolation, app or code signing, ROM, firmware and factory restore, and kill switches. (Sep 28, 2011)
Smartphone security: an overview of security frameworks and controlled app marketplaces Part 1 of 4
The app marketplaces of the 4 major smartphone OS vendors have very different approaches for enabling the security of your device. (Sep 14, 2011)
Email Overload: Check your email later in the day
Renowned productivity guru Tony Schwartz suggests checking your email later in the day, so that you are the one dictating your productivity agenda and not someone else. (Aug 09, 2011)
Worth your time #3: Tools, Tips, Tricks and Facts
A cool time management tool for busy IT staff, managing application permissions on the blackberry, an easy way to test your web page on a zillion browsers and a slew of computer forensic tools. (Jul 13, 2011)
Personal and Business email: separate but equal?
Do you try to separate your personal from your business email? Does it bug you when friends use your work email address to send you information that should fall in the personal area? Are you paranoid about employers knowing too much about your personal life through info contained in your work email? (Jul 05, 2011)
A great vacation email auto-response
A great email auto-response is yet another opportunity to be distinctive. (Jun 30, 2011)
Worth your time #2: Tools, Tips, Tricks and Facts
In this issue: reasons why hackers try to break into your email server, some clarity on IPv6 from the experts at Cisco, a cool way to access all important config easily on Windows 7 and a bunch of security/hacking tools you can use to test your system for vulnerabilities. (Jun 22, 2011)
Email Productivity Tips #2: Manage your meeting requests and responses
It's fairly easy to set up Outlook so that your meeting requests don't ask for a response. It's also simple to filter responses so that only meeting rejections get to your inbox. (Jun 08, 2011)
Email Productivity: Organized Structure or Searchable Pile?
How we approach the organization of our email says a lot about our personality. Some of us prefer to have a very organized and controlled structure, while others don't care at all about structure as long as we can find a particular message when we need it. Where do you fall on that continuum? (May 20, 2011)
Worth your time #1: Tools, Tips, Tricks and Facts
Explanation of how tiny errors and assumptions in the past can cause major repercussions in the future, a great little support tool for identifying browser config, a nifty tool for creating virtual desktops in Windows and a site to help you search for hoaxes. (Apr 21, 2011)
Email Overload: The vacation return - dream or nightmare? Part 6
The email mountain to climb after a vacation return has always been a source of dread for tanned and rested vacationers, often removing the benefit of the vacation within a few hours of email frustration. Or worse, the dread forces you to check your email during vacation. Does it really have to be like that? (Apr 07, 2011)
Email Productivity Tips #1: Delay your email sending to get a second chance
How many times has this happened to you? You furiously type an email, enter the names of the recipients, click send, then about 20 seconds later you remember that it should have gone to one more person, and that you forgot to add one important point. Well, fear not, Outlook and most email clients offer a way to delay sending and give you a second chance. (Mar 28, 2011)
Email Overload: Maintaining Inbox Zero - Part 5
It turns out that maintaining Inbox Zero is easier than you might think. The hard part is getting to it. Staying there however gets easier as you go. (Mar 22, 2011)
Email Overload: Cleaning up old emails, is it worth it? Part 4
The next step in my on-going battle with Email Overload is to go through older email and determine whether it is worth keeping. To some this exercise would appear of little value, but I thought it would at least help me figure out what value I actually attach to email and help me better understand how to manage it. (Mar 17, 2011)
How to properly handle email marketing opt-out
It is very important to make it easy for your recipients to opt-out from your email marketing communications. (Mar 09, 2011)
Ego Stroking Spear Phishing
Senior managers and executives get spam that is a little different than most users. Spammers like to stroke their egos to get through the door. (Mar 03, 2011)
Email Overload: Did I actually get to Inbox Zero? Part 3
Success! Turns out getting to Zero Inbox is not that hard after all, and staying there is even easier. Of course, is it worth doing at all? That it still to be determined for me. (Feb 23, 2011)
Email Overload: How are we doing so far? Part 2
An update on my attempt to get to a cleaner inbox and reduce the amount of email that I keep. Progress, but not there yet. (Feb 02, 2011)
Four free Microsoft administration tools and much more
MS admin tools, security tools, how hackers hack your website, tools your users will ask you to install on their systems, how to create hard to break passwords, ... (Jan 26, 2011)
How Windows Search in Windows 7 flattened my email life
From XP to Windows 7 now, search has been getting progressively better on the Microsoft desktop. It is now getting really effective, quick and accurate to do searches for emails with Windows Desktop Search. (Jan 25, 2011)
Email Overload: Clear your inbox in a few easy steps
A few steps to help you use your inbox properly and quickly clear it. Based on methods proposed by Mark Hurst in his excellent book, Bit Literacy. (Jan 10, 2011)
Et tu, SAP? How not to handle email marketing opt-out!
I get a lot of email from legitimate companies trying to stay in touch with me, with my consent. Unfortunately, in too many cases I find that even the good citizens miss when I try to opt-out of their mailings, by simply making it too difficult for me to do so. SAP is just one of too many such examples. (Dec 29, 2010)
Reasons to be thankful at Email Security Matters
Lots to be thankful for on this day, and it starts with our customers, our readers, and our blog contributors. (Nov 25, 2010)
Email Security Grader: More security through education and community
The security battle today has two main fronts: systems and education of users. Email Security Grader hopes to promote the education of network admins on email security. (Nov 03, 2010)
Summer Email Security News: It was the ‘Summer of Spam’!
Lots of activity in our industry this summer, following the major trends we outlined previously: huge spam volumes, consolidation, virtualization and more. (Sep 15, 2010)
The 6 major trends for Email Security companies: ignore these at your risk!
There are currently very large forces at play in our industry. The issues, technology, competition, infrastructure, deployment and market are changing at such a rate that will leave many companies behind, while creating enormous opportunities for others. (Aug 13, 2010)
My spam is different from your spam!
The type of spam you receive depends on many things, including your behavior on the net, how you use your email address, your position in a company and much more. As a software company executive I receive a very particular stream, one that is probably very different than what most people receive. Well, at least that's what our Security Operations team tells me. (Jul 22, 2010)
Honest, I don’t want an email security appliance!
Vendors have their own very special reasons for pushing email security appliances, instead of virtual machines or straight software installations. You may find that their reasons do not always align with your own. (Jun 14, 2010)
More Recent News
Recent Spam Survey Winners
We are extremely pleased with the tremendous response that we have received to this point from our Fight Email Spam survey. As promised we have randomly selected winners of our gift card prizes. (Jan 23, 2012)
New Year's Resolution
We spend 8 to 10 (or more) hours a day at work - more time than we spend anywhere else - and our desks/workspaces are becoming our kitchen tables. But, do you realize that our desks are covered in more bacteria... (Jan 20, 2012)
Email Usage Survey
We are currently conducting a market research on email usage at work. Thank you for filling our this very short survey. (Jan 12, 2012)
