November 1, 2006

FEATURE EDITORIAL

Meeting the Multi-Protocol Challenge

Today's IT department is required to securely control, monitor and manage a variety of messaging mediums. What is the best approach to meeting these challenges? We asked this question (along with many others) in the cover story from last month's Messaging News magazine, The Evolution of Messaging Security. It is amazing to witness the speed at which messaging security has changed in just a handful of years. We asked a few messaging security experts their opinion on how IT can best approach the multi-protocol challenge.

"First, focus on the quality of the infrastructure," says Patrick Peterson, vice president of technology for IronPort Systems. "A solution with bells and whistles added to an unstable platform can pass a cursory review. But, when put into production, these solutions become an IT black hole." Peterson offers the following tips: "Make sure the solutions you consider are enterprise-grade, with strong references. Evaluate the solutions' security components based on the criminals' next attacks. Virus outbreaks and sophisticated spyware will be two of the greatest challenges that will need to be managed. Ensure your solutions can address the spyware problem. IronPort believes this will be the number one security issue through this decade. Finally, look for products with strong management integration. Most enterprises have separate Web, voice and email IT groups -- but they share policies across these protocols. A shared management environment with strong directory integration is essential."

Art Gilliland, senior director of enterprise messaging management for Symantec finds that Symantec customers are dealing with four key requirements for managing their messaging infrastructure:

1. Businesses need to keep their systems up and running. If they fail, organizations need to be able to restore the systems, as fast a possible.
2. Organizations need to keep the "bad stuff" out. Spam is growing exponentially. Not only does it congest the system, but managing it also requires employees to expend valuable time.
3. Enterprises need to keep the "good stuff" in. A majority of a company's valuable information is shared though messaging systems -- and employees forward information to external parties all the time. Organizations need to track this information -- auditing where it goes and having the ability to stop it from getting in the hands of the wrong people. Corporate information needs to be protected at the gateway and server level. With that in mind, organizations should choose a solution that offers integrated content filtering to protect against data leakage and also allow administrators to set policies that block or flag future messages that violate those policies.
4. With all the confidential information being held within email, companies are working on how to keep the information as long as needed. This also includes setting up systematic ways to discard information that they don't want or need (while keeping the information they do). Efficient enforcement is critical for regulated companies, as well as companies in segments where lawsuits are frequent. For that, an archiving solution is necessary.

"IT departments should look at three different facets of messaging security," recommends Paul Judge, CTO for Secure Computing (formerly CipherTrust) "At Secure Computing we realize that it isn't a straight line, but rather paths that are interconnected." The checklist (according to Judge) has a directional view, a multi-layer approach and a multi-protocol approach. The directional view is basic inbound (spam, virus, phishing, etc.) and outbound (data leakage, compliance, encryption, etc.) protection. The multi-layer approach is where it starts -- the desktop, or the gateway -- most organizations today are deploying multi-layer solutions. The multi-protocol approach might begin with email, and then move to IM, Web, FTP, and now voice is becoming a concern. "If you want to complete the picture around your organization's messaging security posture, these are the three considerations that should be made."

Andres Kohn, vice president of product management for Proofpoint offers this advice, "Successful outbound initiatives start with understanding what you're trying to protect and creating the policies that you want to enforce. Define the policy at the same time that you are evaluating technologies for securing those protocols." He believes this will help IT know how to prioritize its efforts. "Outbound content security isn't something that you just deploy once and consider the problem solved -- it's an ongoing, iterative process," reminds Kohn. "On the technology side, look for solutions that are accurate, but that also minimize ongoing administration time and overall costs. Look for solutions that allow you to manage security policies for multiple protocols from a single, well-integrated interface. And make sure that your choices and requirements take into account the many different constituencies that need to be served -- including IT administrators, business users/content owners, compliance officers and end-users."

For more on this topic, refer to the cover story in the September/October issue of Messaging News. www.messagingnews.com

"Zombie" Prevention Strategy for Service Providers Launches

Billions of spam, virus and phishing messages are being sent daily from hijacked PCs. Cloudmark, Inc. has launched an extensive effort to help service providers detect, remediate and prevent attacks from computer "zombies." Intelligence and analytics gathered from the global network of service providers protected by Cloudmark automatically identifies zombie activities so providers can quarantine infected PCs and direct users to remediation service partners.

"ISPs need to address the email security threats caused by zombies and botnets," says Richi Jennings, lead analyst for the email security practice at Ferris Research. "However, it's important to address these threats in ways that minimize inconvenience to subscribers -- no ISP wants to alienate their customers. Proactive content filtering and remediation preserves customer relations and email reliability. The insights that Cloudmark can provide into outbound content and unusual spikes in volume are obviously pivotal to the process."

With an average of 100 billion emails sent daily and 92 percent estimated to be some form of spam, Cloudmark's data shows that over 90 percent of spam and phishing messages now originate from hijacked computers.

IN THE NEWS

Intelligently Managed Email Solution for Microsoft Exchange

Azaleos Corporation, last week announced availability of version 2.0 of its managed email solution that enhances OneServer and BladeMail email appliances by integrating email archiving, reporting, monitoring, and new security functionality into its highly available, managed email appliances. OneStop Managed Services have been extended to support the majority of IT requirements to cost-effectively enable highly available corporate email infrastructure based on Microsoft Exchange 2003 and 2007. The company says that working together, OneServer, BladeMail and OneStop Managed Services can deliver IT organizations up to 99.999 percent availability of their email infrastructure, while keeping IT in complete control of their email assets.

We welcome your ideas and your news for Messaging Newswire’s News & Trends in Email Security. Let us know what you think by sending your comments to editorial@messagingnews.com. Written or compiled by Stephanie Jordan. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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