Tag: Email
Think you don’t spam? Think again!
Who has never sent email spam? Maybe you wanted to promote something, contact friends or relatives you never really emailed before (at least with a normal email), send a chain letter that promised success and money or to promote a garage sale using your local hockey team email list? Maybe you sent a message for your business using a large contact list grabbed on a corporate email with a multitude of CC’d addresses? Or did you ‘borrow’ the customer list from work for your own use? (Oh, that’s bad!) (May 05, 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)
March Email Security News
A summary of links to recent articles that I have found interesting in the last few weeks. Includes my own commentary. (Apr 02, 2010)
Are machines really the “bad guys”?
Do you know what this is? Of course you do! This, along with some other strange stuff, has gained popularity and become part of our virtual life when browsing the web. CAPTCHAs (as they’re known) are one example of a Turing test: a challenge-response criteria that is used to determine the probability that a remote being is actually a human vs. a computer that’s trying to mimic a human response. (Mar 31, 2010)
Simple Admin Tricks: Quick & Dirty Monitoring
From time to time, you’ll need to monitor a port to see if there's a problem brewing. For smaller companies, it can be quite a chore to deploy some sort of commercial or open-source monitoring solution (e.g., NAGIOS-based stuff), when all you want to do is do some quick and dirty monitoring. (Mar 26, 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)
(Un)subscribe me
Hundreds of emails get blocked daily by your spam filters, but sometimes one slips through. You look it over and it appears to be very legitimate. You don’t remember clicking ‘Yes’ to subscribe to this newsletter, but you see the classic, “You are receiving this because you subscribed to one of our partners… blah, blah, blah… and this is an excuse for us to send you spam. Yeah, it’s true: XYZ company is one of our partners, we do their mass mailing and we grabbed your address at the same time!” So, now you’re tempted to click the Unsubscribe button, but how can you tell if it’s legit? And how do you know that clicking unsubscribe won’t tell the spammer, “Hey I’m alive and I actually read what you sent - send me more”? (Mar 17, 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)
Spam by the numbers
So you think spam volumes have gone down, right? Wrong! Have a look at this video which captures the stats quite well…. (Mar 10, 2010)
Spamhaus releases a new spam-fighting tool
Spamhaus publicly released its new Domain Block List (DBL)1earlier this week, after beta testing it for much of last year. They claim they have had “exceptionally positive” results from the testing, and the premise is really quite interesting. (Mar 03, 2010)
Battle of the Newsletters: Marketing 1, Security 0
While working on a False Positive (yes, it can happen to the best of us), I was stunned to discover how marketing people can bend email security rules. (Feb 22, 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)
How would you punish a spammer?
“Last time out I suggested sentencing spammers to some quality time in a maximum security cell with an ex-biker named "Tiny." But I think that's too good for these people. They should be strung up by their thumbs and forced to watch ShamWow infomercials and Rick Astley videos until their ears bleed.” Robert Cringely, InfoWorld 1 (Feb 03, 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)
Would you fall for this?
If you're about to sell something online, beware! I planted a dummy advertisement and went hunting for scammers, which wasn't difficult at all. Scams are all around us, and here are 2 where I deliberately offered myself as a "victim." (Jan 25, 2010)
Blocked by RFC-IGNORANT ... Now what?
From time to time, customers wind up getting blocked by a seldom seen blacklist called "RFC-Ignorant." Unlike classical blacklists that are usually honeypot driven, this one is driven by people who have manually reported you as violating RFC. (Jan 22, 2010)
Spam: Surveying the Surveys
Another year has passed and it seems everyone is busy publishing their year-end security reviews, survey results, and fearless predictions for the upcoming year. (Jan 20, 2010)
Welcome back, dear Customer!
Email Security product and solution vendors rely heavily on customer loyalty and retention. The recipe for achieving this is different for every company. What never changes is the total joy of winning back a customer that left for some reason, tried the competition and then returned. (Jan 15, 2010)
