Category : Email Security
Part 2: How to monitor application performance and send alerts on Windows Server 2008
In my previous article, I outlined how one could monitor a performance counter and send alerts to a pager or smartphone on a Windows 2003 server. This is how to do it on Windows Server 2008... (Nov 30, 2011)
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)
Top 10 tips to secure your email server
1. Configure mail relay options carefully to avoid being an Open Relay
It’s very important to configure your mail relay parameter to be very restrictive. All mail servers have this option, where you can specify which domains or IP addresses your mail server will relay mail for. In other words, this parameter specifies for whom your SMTP protocol should forward mail. Misconfiguration of this option can harm you because spammers can use your mail server (and network resources) as a gateway for spamming others, resulting in your getting blacklisted.
(Aug 16, 2011)
The more anti-spam & anti-virus scanning filters, the better?
Many administrators like to turn on multiple scanning filters on their network to help protect against spam, viruses and specific potential harmful attachments. With multiple types of scanning software, this can be a good redundancy option in case one vendor lets one slip through, the other most probably will block the email. But it can be quite frustrating when an email is blocked by some shady and undocumented firewall module is blocking an email is desperately CEO waiting for… you know how it goes. (Jun 20, 2011)
To Delete or to Quarantine? An answer
A couple days ago, a fellow anti-spam specialist posted an interesting article called "To Delete or to Quarantine? That is the Question" on the GFI blog, AllSpammedUp. I would recommend you read his article prior to this one. The author, Ed Fisher, was discussing several of the problems attached to spam-quarantine management from both an IT administrator's and an end-user's perspective. Within my role at Vircom Email Security, I've asked myself the exact same questions a couple months ago during what became the directQuarantine product definition. (May 27, 2011)
What’s hiding in the Cloud?
Around 2 years ago, Richard Stallman called cloud computing a trap and said it was worse than stupidity. For those of you who do not know Richard Stallman, he’s the founder of the GNU project and the pioneer of the GNU Public License, an unrivalled genius in the programming world and a holder of 8 honorary doctorates! (May 26, 2011)
Your Next Network Infrastructure Decision
The network infrastructure, which historically was just a means to move information from one place to another, touches every user and device, making it the critical integration point for security technologies. (May 23, 2011)
Do you trust your child online? Can you trust yourself?
Ok, you’ve been hearing this advice for years: monitor your children’s activities on the Internet, talk to them about the possible dangers, install web monitoring programs, and so on. And, of course, you secure your own online activities too, right? (May 11, 2011)
IPv6 Adoption (US, Europe & Global)
In a previous article, I was talking about the challenges that Service Providers, SMB and Vendors will be facing with IPv6. Now, I would like us to take a look at the current adoption rate for IPv6 for the United States, Europe and the entire World. (May 04, 2011)
IPv6 for Service Providers, SMBs and Technology providers
In the late nineties, there was Y2K. Governments, businesses and individuals got scared big time. As a consequence, massive amounts of money were invested to prevent doomsday before it was too late. And it paid off. More than 10 years later, we can say the transition from the second to the third millennium was pretty smooth. Again, the world is faced with a new threat: IPv4 has ran out of addresses. (Apr 28, 2011)
directQuarantine for Outlook Launches Today
Today Vircom launches directQuarantine for Outlook, a Microsoft add-on for Outlook designed to relieve IT administrators from time-consuming quarantine tasks. Users can view, sort, search & release their quarantined email directly within Outlook. (Apr 19, 2011)
Facebook: Ceglia’s alleged Emails, fraud or not?
In the past few days, news have been soaring with a new episode of the Ceglia-Facebook-Zuckerberg saga. Are we at 'Facebook: A New Hope', 'Ceglia Strikes Back', 'The Return of The Face Book'? I've lost count. Evaluated at $50 Billion and with over 600 million users, the popular social media is an ideal target. (Apr 15, 2011)
On-demand webcast: directQuarantine for Outlook
On-demand webcast: directQuarantine for Outlook. Join Margot MacNutt as she presents our new quarantine management add-on for Outlook designed to give end-users total visibility and control over their quarantined messages within Outlook. (Apr 12, 2011)
How to use SSL/TLS to Secure Your Communications: The Basics
With the rising rate of data theft and increasing media attention given to hackers, malware, eavesdropping and, more recently, WikiLeaks, there is a greater awareness of the need for data security. Network administrators and end users alike are seeking ways to protect their data at home, and on their work and private networks. (Apr 11, 2011)
Epsilon security breach: we’re all targets to spear phishing now!
You’ve been told time and again to be careful about who you give your email address to, and to NOT give any personal information to businesses you don’t know or trust. But what about the BIG guys you do trust? Epsilon just experienced a security breach resulting in a major data theft. (Apr 04, 2011)
Poll: Corporate Email Security Solutions
What is most important to you for an email security and anti-spam corporate solution? (Apr 04, 2011)
Message Throttling Issues With Exchange and an Email Security Gateway
From time to time, you might find that messages get stuck in your email security gateway server and don’t get delivered to your Exchange server. This usually happens with new installations or when the system receives a sudden, high load of email. (Mar 23, 2011)
How To Deploy a Spam Filter with Exchange: Whitelists & Blacklists
Installing Exchange Server anti-spam components (for Exchange Server 2007 and 2010) can improve security by allowing the administrator to apply whitelists and blacklists on the Edge Transport and Hub Transport servers. But, over time, they can also place a burden on administrators because they must be managed manually. (Mar 15, 2011)
Hijacked by free Wifi: It can cost you
It's just like jaywalking: you know it's wrong, but you do it anyway. If your monthly data plan is almost full, you’ll probably connect to a public hotspot to save some bucks. (Mar 10, 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)
Anti-Spam Performance Awards in the Real World
Why would an anti-spam filter with tons of awards guaranteeing 99.9%+ catch rate and ultra-low false positive rates perform poorly in the real world? Why would an email security software from another vendor do better despite having a lower score in the same certification/award program? (Feb 28, 2011)
Top 10 Tips for Choosing a Spam Filter for Exchange
Spammers use common tricks to bypass the primary mail server security to spam an Exchange Server. One solution would be to install a separate spam filter to scan for and trap unwanted mail before it reaches the Exchange Server. (Feb 25, 2011)
Email vs. Social Media: Email Is Still the Killer App
Every now and then someone offers up their opinion about why they think email is dying, and social media and other communication formats are taking over. (Feb 24, 2011)
Have You Checked Your Email Server’s Reputation?
Most ISPs (big or small) are not aware of their company’s status on the Internet; let alone what it is and how to check it. In fact, it is called a reputation, and this is the grade that is given to either your domain name (or the domains hosted on your system) and/or the IP addresses that you use to send mail out. (Feb 17, 2011)
Thierry Breton to eradicate email? Can’t wait to see!
French web site 01net.com published yesterday an article interviewing Thierry Breton, politician, ex-Chairman & CEO of France Telecom and current CEO of Atos Origin. M. Breton claims he wants to eradicate email within his organization, and use Instant Messaging exclusively. I wanted to wish him Good Luck. (Feb 10, 2011)
Three ways configure a spam filter with Exchange Server
Here are three ways that you can configure a spam filter with Microsoft Exchange Server. (Feb 07, 2011)
How to Troubleshoot 501 5.7.1 Errors with Exchange
If you’ve ever had “501 5.7.1 This system is not configured to relay mail from…” errors when relaying email through Exchange, it means that your email client did not properly log on to the mail server because it failed the SMTP authentication check. (Jan 31, 2011)
Dictionary Spam Trends
Spammers often like to use a dictionary type of attack to reach users’ Inboxes. You have probably noticed that most spam now appears to come from your own email address. A dictionary attack is where spammers create or work off a list of addresses starting with the letter A, and move down the alphabet. (Jan 28, 2011)
Troubleshooting your mail server part 2
In Part 1 of Troubleshooting your email server, I showed you how to use telnet to determine whether or not your mail server is having communication problems on port 25. In this part, we’ll see how to test address resolution to check for DNS Server problems (Jan 27, 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)
Email Encryption: Is your email secure?
So, you’ve secured your mail server and implemented all the necessary security policies. You think all your data is safe now and your privacy is protected? Think again. What about your correspondence? (Jan 24, 2011)
25 Most Common Mistakes in Email Security
The 25 most common mistakes in email security. (Jan 14, 2011)
Top 10 Exchange Blogs
So... you're still a busy-bee, aren't you? After the success of the "Top 10 Email Security Blogs" article, I decided to go further and provide you with Email Security Matters' Top 10 Exchange Blogs now. (Jan 05, 2011)
How To Enable Exchange 2010’s PowerShell Web Service
If you’re as busy as most IT administrators, you’re probably looking for the most efficient way to manage your Exchange server. The best tool you can use is PowerShell. Exchange 2010 ships with a well-defined PowerShell 2.0 web service that allows you to manage and automate administrative tasks using a remote session through HTTP. (Dec 27, 2010)
Major League Save
It’s almost 2 o’clock in the morning and your boss is expecting an important email. What is so important to keep him waiting up until the wee hours of the morning? Well, only the signing of the star pitcher for his Major League Baseball team. This player figures to be the centerpiece for the team’s success in the coming years, but the signing must be done quickly because other ball clubs are interested and are pursuing his services. (Dec 23, 2010)
How to clean up after the Gawker mess
I actually find the Gawker1 situation a bit of a mixed blessing. If you work in the IT industry, I’m sure you know how frustrating it can be to explain to users the hazards of reusing passwords, of using short, simple dictionary words, and blah, blah, blah. All that oft-repeated advice fell on deaf ears, right? Maybe now that will change. (Dec 17, 2010)
Short Story: UTMs Are Not a Panacea
One of my customers is an admin who works within a small portion of a larger institution. The main administrative group decided to overhaul their primary firewalls with UTM devices instead, which included spam and virus filtering for MTAs (Mail Transfer Agents). Can a UTM device replace a dedicated device? (Dec 10, 2010)
The Spam Before Christmas
The Spam Before Christmas [Video]. ‘Twas the fortnight before Christmas, and all through my email / No good messages were stirring, just illicit retail; / There were Viagra and Cialis, and their load of bunk, / And watches galore – really, who buys this junk? (Dec 08, 2010)
How To Deploy a Spam Filter with Exchange
Spam, any unwanted email, has been an increasing problem for business. Not only is it a nuisance, it can often be downright dangerous for your business, carrying viruses and other malware. Various spam filters exist; however, choosing the best option for your company can get complicated. Do you use a separate server to act as a mail relay, a third party program, or integrate the filter into your firewall or your mail server? (Dec 07, 2010)
Time to give up on GFI/SORBS?
A year ago, in november 2009, GFI Software acquired spam blocklist provider SORBS promising improvements to the responsiveness and data quality problems. Has anything changed? (Dec 03, 2010)
Are you afraid of the cloud?
If you need only a cheap solution for your not-so sensitive data, the bargain bin option is good enough. If you really want to jump into the cloud, look deeper and spend a bit more. But is that enough? Cybercriminals, from basement-dwelling amateur hackers to professional criminal organizations, everyone is trying to get in. Once in, it’s all over: they can see absolutely everything. But how they do get in? (Dec 02, 2010)
Smishing and Vishing: Scammers are targeting your cell phone
Are you familiar with the terms smishing and vishing? They’ve been around for a few years now, but they’re not as common as email phishing and haven’t been given as much attention. (Nov 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)
Top 10 Email Security Blogs
I know you're busy. You don't have time to look for pertinent blogs all over the Net: go to Google, find a million search results, browse through the first 50 and find most of them are either generally unrelated, unfocused or simply out of date or inactive. So, to save you time and effort, we here at Email Security Matters have compiled our own Top 10 Email Security Blogs! (Nov 10, 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)
Test your mail server security infrastructure with Email Security Grader
Email Security Grader is a free online tool which helps IT and mail administrators evaluate the security of their mail infrastructure. The web site regroups several important tests (spam blacklist, open relay, mx records, smtp/pop3/imap authentication), educates users and makes recommendations for each aspect of email security. (Nov 01, 2010)
I’m getting flooded with spam - HELP!!
Here are the top 3 security gaffes and a bonus one! (Oct 13, 2010)
Email Security Matters: A Look Back at the Year
Email Security Matters just turned one and we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to highlight some of the top posts of the year. (Oct 01, 2010)
Word of the Week: Email Bomb
An email bomb is the act of sending copious amounts of e-mail in an attempt to overflow a mailbox or crash the mail server. (Sep 29, 2010)
You might be an IT Nazi if…
When it comes to email content and filter settings, let’s suppose you have to keep a tight lid over what users can and cannot access. Or maybe you’re just too keenly aware of how people can get themselves into trouble and all the man-hours required to clean up the resulting mess. You might be an IT Nazi if... (Sep 22, 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)
What does Email Security mean to you?
When it comes to securing your organization’s email, you want to protect all aspects of email flow: inbound, local-to-local, and outbound. (Sep 01, 2010)
6 Ways to Reduce Your Costs with a Virtual Machine Solution
In his post, Six major trends for Email Security Companies, Mike discusses the trend of virtualization and the cloud. In case you still need convincing, here are 6 ways to reduce your IT costs through optimization of resource utilization: (Aug 31, 2010)
Word of the Week: Phishing
This week's Word of the Week is Phishing. What exactly does it involve and how can you prevent unsuspecting people from becoming victims of it? According to Wikipedia, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames,passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. (Aug 26, 2010)
“You can’t fix stupid”
HostExploit people named Demand Media the worst ISP in the world because of the number of botnet control centers they host and the sheer volume of junk that spews from its network. They reportedly host an estimated 7,400 infected websites. (Aug 19, 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)
Stop Social Spam on Twitter
My last article was on stopping and getting rid of Comment and Registration spam on WordPress. Today, I’d like to cover another Social Spam topic: Twitter. You can bet all social networks are a target, and Twitter is no different. Here are a couple tips to minimize and get rid of the Twitter spam such as Direct Message (DM) spam. (Aug 03, 2010)
Spear Phishing: Is Your Boss a Whale?
Spear and whale phishing 1have been around for a while now, but recent social engineering efforts are focusing more on company executives. An example is this type of email: it certainly looks legit at first glance; even the phone number and address – right down to the floor number – are correct. But take a closer look at the URL used in the links: the real site has no relation to puzzlejs-mailing.com. (Jul 29, 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)
Surfing on Web 2.0: Where Innovation Meets Cybercrime
Yesterday, I logged into Facebook. I usually never use my account there (I am not a Facebook fan), but once in a while I’ll spend some time on it. For the first time, after entering my credentials, a “security” page appeared stating that unusual activities have been witnessed on my account. I then had to answer some questions, choose the names of some tagged friends, and reset my password. I have no idea what happened or how my account got compromised. (Jul 20, 2010)
Get rid of Social Spam on WordPress (Comment & Registration Spam)
The hot topic of the past few years certainly has been Social Networking and the Web 2.0! So, you started a blog on your own domain, have spent a lot of time writing relevant quality content, performing SEO, integrating into social networks to distribute your news. Now, your site is starting to get decent exposure from Search Engines and Social Networks, traffic is building up and so is spam. This damn spam. After being spammed for years through email, now you also get it on your blog. Of course, spammers have identified this new source. It offers basically the same potential as email (and actually an even better potential), so they want to be there as well. There is spam whose purpose is SEO (improve backlinks), some others are about phishing, identity theft, or malware. Let's see how to get rid of all this noise once and for all. (Jul 16, 2010)
Organized Cybercrime
A month ago I read a fascinating book called McMafia 1by Misha Glenny 2. Glenny, a former BBC world correspondent, presents a terrifying yet eye opening look at how organized crime has progressed with Globalization over the last few decades. Glenny covers all the major illicit activities from global drug trafficking networks, to prostitution and human trafficking. One chapter in particular is dedicated to the future of organized crime and the fastest growing sector, cybercrime. (Jul 13, 2010)
Privacy vs. Data Leakage: What’s More Important to You?
In an earlier post, I discussed why your business needs Policy Management and the different causes of Data Leakage. In today’s post, I will take a closer look at one of the causes of data leakage protection and how it can be prevented: let’s look at the case of the Disgruntled Employee. (Jul 08, 2010)
Why Your Business Needs Policy Management
Instead of being reactive to scandals and managing them after the fact, organizations should take a proactive role and protect data leakage before it happens, to prevent the loss of secrets that are revenue generating. However, most companies are still under-protected and focus their security budgets on compliance and protection of custodial data (customer personal information) rather than internal information such as corporate/product strategy, or financial reports which directly affect the bottom line. (Jun 17, 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)
Angelina Jolie wants to be my friend: The pitfalls of social media
I guess writing this blog brings some perks after all. I’ve been nominated to ‘represent [my] professional community’ for every possible Who’s Who list, Facebook invitations are coming in fast and furious, I’m getting offered all kinds of free product subscriptions, and, judging from my message content, I think my 15 minutes of fame have finally arrived! (Jun 09, 2010)
Are Canadian spammers above the law?
I certainly hope not. Ever heard about that guy, Adam Guerbuez? Using some scripts, he sent over 4 million spams through Facebook’s Wall in 2008. After being sued by Facebook under the CAN-SPAM act, he was found guilty (Guerbez didn’t even bother showing up for the trial) and was charged a 873M$ fine. That turns out to be about a BILLION Canadian Dollars. (May 28, 2010)
SURBL: The catch of the day
There it is again: another email in your Inbox from an obscure financial institution, requesting that you click on the available link and be redirected to an unknown, unsecured website. Prompted for personal details or your credit card number, you hesitate to enter this information thinking something seems fishy. (May 19, 2010)
Your mail server might not be the cause of delivery problems
Most support people have seen every mail server configuration possible, and others that would have been considered impossible. No matter whether the operating budget is very tight, mega-sized or somewhere in between, people often try to throw everything onto a single server, including the kitchen sink. Well, that kitchen sink is often the cause of email blockage, rather than the actual mail server program. Even a honking new machine with mega-sized specs can have performance problems if it becomes bloated with unnecessary and/or resource hogging apps. (May 03, 2010)
April Email Security News: McAfee update error impacts many systems
A summary of links to articles that I have found interesting in the last few weeks. Includes my own commentary. (Apr 30, 2010)
Six items often overlooked when purchasing an email security solution
As discussed in an earlier post , the battle against spam is an ongoing one and requires you to do your due diligence when selecting an email security solution to protect one of your business’ most important assets: email. (Apr 26, 2010)
My catch-rate is better than yours… nah, nah!
Have you seen how some email security vendors seem to focus almost exclusively on their catch-rate and false-positive rates? Okay. So everyone in the industry does 99%+ catch-rate and less than 0.5% false positives,we do it, they do it. Woopdeedooo, let’s do the happy dance! And that’s the only thing many vendors will push for. Features? Blah. Easy to use? Blah. Support? Double blah (many outsource it offshore anyway). (Apr 14, 2010)
Anti-Social Networking
Web 2.0 is leading us to operate and collaborate more through our web browsers than ever before. Consequently, sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace are being used more aggressively for everything from chatting to marketing. Spammers are loving this. (Apr 07, 2010)
Policy Compliance: Keep it Simple, Stupid!
Are you getting pressured to provide some sort of regulatory compliance rules to your business that will affect your network configuration, your email flow and your end users? Do you have to deal with SOX or HIPAA or GLBA, or ‘Oh Lord, not another Acronym’ regulation (we’ll call it the OLNAA) whose apparent sole purpose is to complicate your life? (Mar 24, 2010)
Let’s Virtualize Email Security!
Virtualization. Virtual Machine. Virtual Appliance. We keep on hearing these words over and over: they’ve been a recurring topic for a few years now. And it’s growing to the point where the Microsoft vs. Google fight now has a new contender: Microsoft vs. VMware. So, what’s all the buzz about? (Mar 19, 2010)
Looked at our site or downloaded our software? Then allow us to harass you!
Some companies take their marketing tools a little too far. Download their software for a trial, or even just visit their website, and you just opened the door to daily email and phone calls from aggressive sales staff pushing their wares. I know the market is competitive, but can we please let the customer make their decision in peace? (Mar 12, 2010)
Who’s minding the store at WHOIS?
WHOIS (for those unfamiliar with it) is a system that provides free public access to domain name registration. Every domain name has to be registered with the following information: the registrant’s name, an administrative contact, a technical contact, and the name servers associated with each domain name. It’s all about traceability. (Feb 17, 2010)
“Love is in the air” ...or is it?
Ah, Valentine’s Day, the time of year when suddenly everyone is starry-eyed and declaring their love for one another. Our eagerness to please our loved ones tends to make us a little more vulnerable. And this makes us perfect prey to scammers who pounce on these vulnerabilities to spread their viruses and scams. (Feb 11, 2010)
Do you have what it takes to be an Email Security Reseller?
So, you want to be an email security reseller? Sure, here's the form, here's the discount you'll get, here's where you sign...Not so fast! (Feb 10, 2010)
Less Linux, more Windows
I’ve always been a pro-Linux type of guy. I started using Unix back in 1992 (SunOS) and then onto Slackware, Red Hat, Ubuntu. Linux offered so many more features, security, power to do anything and a reliability Windows couldn’t dream of at the time. Linux was a true multitasking OS, had a firewall, and all internet clients and servers one may want or need: pop3, smtp, http, ftp, ssh. All these were virtually impossible to do on MS-DOS or Windows, and I’m not even talking about the various crashes and ridiculous uptimes of the early Microsoft platforms. Since then, and up until a few months ago, it’s always been clear to me: reliability and security on Linux; office work, graphical user interface and leisure on Windows. (Feb 05, 2010)
Incompetent email security spam filters cause historic business to change name
The Beaver is, at 90 years old, Canada’s second oldest magazine. Founded in 1920 and named after Canada’s symbol and fur-trading history, the Hudson's Bay Company publication is devoted to popularizing Canadian history, aiming to make Canadians more aware and appreciative of their heritage. Two weeks ago, the venerable magazine had to change its name to Canada’s History because its newsletter and emails were being trapped by spam filters around the world. (Jan 29, 2010)
What is a Honeypot in Email Security Terms?
A Honeypot is, by definition, a decoy or a trap whose purpose is to detect and identify unauthorized use in order to prevent breaches. In Email Security, a Honeypot is a SMTP server setup to process a single domain (or multiple domains) to gather emails all day long. (Dec 18, 2009)
One phish, two phish, red phish, blue phish
Typical phishing messages purport to originate from various financial institutions, delivery services, Facebook, and so on, all with the aim of getting you to click the enclosed link and disclose some personal information that can be abused. (Dec 16, 2009)
What, me worry?
Incidents of cybercrime via malware and exploits are on the rise, but if this recent poll is to be believed, people are still too blasé about their Internet security. The Unisys Security Index: Global Summary report 1 revealed the following: “Concerns over security in everything from online shopping and banking to safety from computer viruses, as well as national security along with personal and financial security, were significantly down over what was recorded half a year ago for populations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Brazil, Netherlands, Spain, Australia and New Zealand. (Nov 18, 2009)
Anti-Spam, Hacking and Virus Security: How Will Smartphones Survive?
With a double-digit market growth rate, non-existent protection and super-fast communications based on a variety of protocols and media, Smartphones clearly are a future target of choice for hackers and spammers. How will they survive, and at what cost? (Nov 13, 2009)
The Future Of Email Security: Where Do We Go From Here?
There’s no denying that anti-spam filters are imperative in the fight against junk mail and malware, but no single solution is fool-proof. Employing anti-spam and virus filters, stronger passwords, encryption, and so on, are not enough to win the battle against the ever-increasingly sophisticated attackers. (Nov 04, 2009)
Drive by Downloads
This is a term I’m seeing more and more frequently in security-related web posts and, frankly, I thought it was fairly new. After doing some research, however, I found an article entitled, Anatomy of a “Drive-by-Download,” that was written in 2004 (!) by Eric L. Howes. Where have I been all this time? (Oct 21, 2009)
Three Reasons Why Cloud Computing May Not Be For You
Email Security. Love it or hate it, it needs to be addressed. Many small businesses often don’t have the money or resources to invest in installing and maintaining a secure mail system, and consequently look to outsource this very important aspect of their business. Email is a mission-critical application, forming the backbone for most organizations’ day-to-day business activities. So why not offload the security aspect of your email so you can focus on your actual business? (Oct 14, 2009)
10 Best Spam Subject Lines
Spam definitely comes in all shapes and sizes. We asked you to submit your best subject lines and after much deliberation we came up with the top ten list (and it was no easy feat!)
10 "a stone for making tortillas, a mortar for grinding red pepper."
9 "A cell phone glitch accidentally making millionaires" (Oct 09, 2009)
Top 5 Things to Distrust About Email
These are all very basic rules that a savvy person already knows. But if everyone already knows them, why are there so many scammers out there and how are they able to make so much money? (Sep 23, 2009)
First Michael, now Patrick. Celebrity deaths yield new spam campaigns
So how does a celebrity's death result in more spam? Spammers take advantage of our thirst for information and know that we will be Googling for the latest news and gossip. (Sep 16, 2009)
Spam’s future from the New School of Information Security
Will Spam ever stop? Some thoughts on spam economics from the New School of Information Security.
Adam Shostack (currently at Microsoft in the role of security program manager and with whom I worked on a security audit of the service delivery platform at Radialpoint) and Andrew Stewart recently published The New School of Information Security. (Sep 11, 2009)
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)
