email security

Spam turns 30

Mon, 05 May 2008 06:59:59 -0400

Spam, the bane of every office and personal email system, celebrated its 30th birthday on May 3 and as every CIO knows, age hasn't stopped the scourge from remaining ubiquitous. Microsoft founder Bill Gates predicted in 2004 that the spam problem would be solved in two years. But Sophos, an email security company, says that 95 percent of all email today is spam, while Symantec says that figure is more like 80 percent to 85 percent. Due to sophisticated solutions, email service providers and the hard work of IT managers, end users only see a fraction of what's out there. But the spammers are an industrious lot, constantly presenting new security risks to company systems and offering an unrelenting array of solicitations for unwary victims. Princeton computer science professor Ed Felten says "there is more spam than ever and no end is in sight."

For more on spam's significant birthday:
- See this InformationWeek article

Google tries to sneak one past IT

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 06:59:58 -0500

During the last year, we've seen Google slowly sneaking into the enterprise, with a series of solutions that bring the company's web-based consumer technologies into a corporate environment. Just this past week, we saw the latest such product from Google, an email security/discovery suite based on Postini technology. Despite Google's best efforts, however, we haven't exactly seen enterprises rushing to deploy Google's software, which has proven quite popular with consumers. So, what's a Google to do? Why, sneak its software into the corporate world, of course.

The company's latest enterprise product, Google Apps Team Edition, is a version of Google Apps that's designed for corporate users but can be used without the IT department's knowledge. "Current business versions of Google Apps are linked to an organization's Internet domain and therefore require IT approval and at least some degree of administration," Ars Technica writes. "Team Edition eschews this approach, and allows end-users to create sharing workgroups so long as the individuals in question have valid e-mail addresses within the employer's Internet domain."

So, what's the big idea? Seems like Google is aiming to use GATE as a sort of Trojan horse--a way of convincing businesses to deploy Google Apps. "Google Apps has been, by definition, an IT project, and now we want to let people use it without IT involvement," Google Apps senior product manager Rajen Sheth said. "The IT department always has the option to sign up for the Standard Edition for free if they want to provide control over this. This is a solid, happy medium."

For more on Google's sneaky new product:
- see this Ars Technica article

Corporate email: A portal to potential disaster

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Email continues to be a huge source of risk to enterprises. Proofpoint, an email security and data loss prevention company, released its fourth-annual study of outbound email and content security issues recently. The company obviously has a horse in this race, but nevertheless, the numbers are fairly interesting.

Respondents estimated that nearly 20 percent of all outbound email poses a legal, regulatory or financial risk. More than a third of surveyed companies investigated a suspected email leak of confidential or proprietary information in the past 12 months. Other findings: more than one-quarter of surveyed companies (27.3 percent) have terminated employees for violating email policies in the past 12 months, while 45.5 percent have disciplined employees for violating email policies during the past year. 29.1 percent of the largest enterprises (20,000 employees or more) reported that employee email was subpoenaed in the last 12 months. To counter these threats, a significant number of companies are hiring staff specifically to read or analyze the contents of outbound email.

For the full report:
- see this press release

ALSO NOTED: Increasing the tech industry's competitiveness; IBM boosts processor power;

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 19:01:38 -0500

> Increasing the tech industry's competitiveness. Article

> IBM to use embedded DRAM on its processors, tripling memory. Article

> Microsoft issues 20 security patches. Article

> Challenges in public sector IT. Article

> Microsoft accuses IBM of forcing OpenDocument format on users. Article

And finally… Email security products grow up. Article

Spam fight prompts security market changes

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 19:01:35 -0500

The continuing quest to squelch spam, deter spyware and stop malware is causing more than a few waves within the email security industry. Big tech titans--from Cisco to Microsoft and everyone in between--are gobbling up specialized vendors in order to offer tools for better security protection. And while that leaves the smaller email security vendors a bit in the lurch, it's a good scenario for companies seeking an efficient, cost effective and centralized security approach.

For more on what's happening with email security tools:
- read the analysis at C/Net News.com

ALSO NOTED: Adobe PDF browser plug-in flaw poses serious risk; Open-source engineer vows to patch Apple flaws as they debut; an

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 19:01:33 -0500

> Adobe PDF browser plug-in flaw poses serious risk. Article

> Open source engineer vows to patch Apple flaws as they debut. Article

> A free solution to averting application crashing. Article

> Cisco buys up email security vendor for $830M. Article

> Despite rosy job outlook, IT workers not too optimistic about jobs. Article

And Finally... Amazon's Besos quest for low-cost space travel. Article

SPOTLIGHT: Top ways to secure email even more

Sun, 13 Aug 2006 20:01:34 -0400

You can never feel confident that you've got a grip on good email security, and knowing the top five steps to tightening down the most used communications venue can prove valuable as new measures crop up continuously. Just by mandating users not use the preview pane feature can help, for example, and it's an easy remedy to get in place. Find out four other good strategies for securing the email channel. Article

SPOTLIGHT: How email security is tied to job security

Sun, 25 Jun 2006 20:01:34 -0400

The issue of email security is so hot today that a new study reports that IT directors fear losing their jobs after an email incident takes place. A study by Safe-Post reports that over a third of IT leaders believe they'll be fired if confidential information is leaked or read by unauthorized users. Article

Email snafu puts client addresses in public domain

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 20:01:39 -0400

While the news item below indicates that internal security issues aren't looming as large as many believe, it's still pretty clear that internal snafus can become huge financial and corporate headaches. Database vendor MySQL AB is feeling that pain right now after a staffer accidentally emailed nearly 10,000 customer email addresses into the text of an email instead of the "blind carbon copy" input on the form. While the company is scrambling to apologize to clients, it's also working on policy and a new process to make sure such an email security incident doesn't happen again.

For more on the email snafu:
- read this article at Computerworld