Email and Network Security News
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The Latest Email and Network Security Info
Trojan Horses Still Kicking After All These Years
It is obvious, after 3000 years, that your average person will never learn to not accept trojans.
Today, trojans are made of 1s and 0s and are dangerous software masquerading as innocent computer files, not horses made out of wood, but it is obvious that users will continue to accept them. While user education demonstrates beneficial results, it is clear that organizations need an off-site email filtering product like Sentinare PostGuard.
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2010/04/trojan_anniversary_feature
Posted: Apr 25, 2010
FBI Opens Probe of China-Based Hackers
China-based hackers have penetrated the e-mail accounts of leaders and members of the Save Darfur Coalition.
China is well known for its hacking nowadays and email is the most likely target in espionage.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/20/AR2010032003193.html
Posted: Mar 22, 2010
BlackBerry servers ripe for the hacking
Blackberry servers may not be worth the trouble, considering this latest study conducted by penetration test firm NTA Monitor.
With secure IMAP and a mobile phone or PDA with secure IMAP support, you get as good or the same service as with Blackberry Enterprise Server. Why risk your internal network and spend all that extra money for Blackberry service?
http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?newsID=11663
Posted: Mar 16, 2010
Healthcare organizations feeling cyberattacks growing
Sensitive healthcare data is under threat and HIPAA is conducting suprise audits.
Healthcare providers take notice and make sure your email communications are encrypted. Email providers like Sentinare Messaging Solutions have very strong encryption and a very strong privacy policy.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/022708-healthcare-cyberattacks.html
Posted: Mar 4, 2010
Hackers penetrate police email accounts
Sweden police force's email system hacked
This is an example of why you should not rely on an email provider that is not exclusively an email provider. The 24x7 attack on an internet email system is brutal and only a company that provides only email services can protect you.
http://www.thelocal.se/10170/20100229/
Posted: Mar 4, 2010
US government forces military secrets on Brit webmaster
Hundreds of classified U.S. military emails accidentally sent to a website promoting the British town of Mildenhall
Yet another example of an organization burdening some overloaded programmer or network administrator with the task of email administration. If you want to have it done right, outsource your email to a company that provides only email services and takes email security and privacy seriously.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/03/mildenhall_website/
Posted: Mar 4, 2010
'Out of office' messages turned into spam relays
Ever creative spammers have found a new method to get past some filters.
The solution isn't to block all autoresponse vacation methods. The solution is to analyze the entire message and the IP range it comes from. Only a holistic analys is of a message can adequately judge whether a message is legitimate or not.
http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?newsID=11544
Posted: Feb 28, 2010
Buffer Overflow: The common cold of IT security
Patch, scan, patch, scan, patch patch, scan scan....
Email servers are especially vulnerable to buffer overflows. Think of it: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the email server allows connections from any IP address from any part of the world, accepting data of unspecified type and size. There really isn't anything more dangerous you can do on the internet. This is another reason to use an off-site proxy email filter like Sentinare PostGuard. Since all your mail will relay from Sentinare, you can shut off internet access to your mail server and forget about the dangers of buffer overflow on your email server.
http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/45864-1.html
Posted: Feb 25, 2010
FBI warns of Valentine's Day 'Storm'
The Storm botnet is sending spams with links to malicious websites which install viruses.
The Stormbot is at it again. Don't risk your network security. Sign up for a free 30 day trial of SentinarePostGuard today.
Posted: Feb 14, 2010
BlackBerry Users Experience Service Outage
This is the second widespread Blackberry outage in less than a year.
Sentinare beats Blackberries uptime with a 99.9% service availability. Greater functionality is availble by using Sentinare's
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206402345
Posted: Feb 12, 2010
Storm worm 'making millions a day'
IBM Internet Security Systems says that the motive has shifted from ego to the three P's: profit, politics and prestige.
By keeping your PCs protected with anti-virus software and strong firewalls, and by using an email filtering service like Sentinare PostGuard, you are securing your data and making the internet a safer place.
http://www.pcw.co.uk/personal-computer-world/news/2209293/strom-worm-making-millions-day
Posted: Feb 11, 2010
Security Warning 2010: Top 11 Malware Threats To Watch Out For
McAfee labs predicts a 54% increase in malware in 2010. This article covers the new terminology we will see for new malware this year.
Whatever the type of malware or new term for it, your server, your network and your mailboxes will be better protected with Sentinare PostGuard.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206105996
Posted: Feb 8, 2010
C-Level Executive Phishing Attacks On The Rise
Direct phishing attacks on corporate executives are on the rise. Another article which demonstrates that you need email perimeter protection.
The Anti-Phishing Working Group on Monday said that "eCrime gangs' are increasing focus on targeted phishing attacks against key corporate personnel to secure credentials for theft against corporate assets."
Even more reason to use an email perimeter filter service like Sentinare Messaging Solutions.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206103681
Posted: Feb 6, 2010
SSL Gmail Not As Safe As You Thought
Even using SSL does not protect you from this Google mail programming flaw.
Another example that shows that companies -- even massively cash-rich and powerful ones -- that provide email services out of a range of other services don't provide email services as well as companies that provide email services only.
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2010/01/ssl-gmail-not-a.html
Posted: Feb 4, 2010
Mobile worm spreads through networks
This new worm is spreading across mobile networks via Symbian phones.
This new worm disguises itself as an image file. Don't ever accept an installation message for an image file. An image file should never ask you to install it. Also make sure you use an off-site email provider/anti-spam filter proxy like Sentinare Messaging Solutions to protect the email inbox on your phone.
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/68749,mobile-worm-spreads-through-networks.aspx
Posted: Jan 31, 2010
Zombie Computer Army Targets Bank Account Passwords
The Storm Botnet is the boldest, most formidable, agressive, and sophisticated Botnet today.
With an off-site email provider/anti-spam filter proxy like Sentinare Messaging Solutions, you don't have to worry about getting the phishing spams of any kind, even those that originate from Storm. Nevertheless, you can't be too careful. Don't click on links in email, especially from sites like Paypal or Amazon.
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2010/01/zombie-computer.html
Posted: Jan 10, 2010
'First' iPhone Trojan rolls into town
The iPhone is a great platform, but unfortunately it isn't the most secure.
Warning: If you are prompted to install a "important system" upgrade called ""iPhone firmware 1.1.3 prep", DON'T. If you do, however, it doesn't appear to cause problems until you uninstall it. When you uninstall it, it uninstalls other important applications, which you will have to reinstall. Unfortunately, the vector for this attach is web-based, not email-based. Nevertheless, you should not be using an iPhone without a great antispam service like Sentinare PostGuard.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7154187.stm
Posted: Jan 8, 2010
Boom times for hi-tech criminals
In 2007, hacking and spamming became more sophisticated.
An email filtering service like Sentinare PostGuard does much more than just block spam and viruses. The spam blocking is the most tangible benefit, but the protection of your email network is equally or even more important. With PostGuard, you can restrict access at your firewall to allow SMTP traffic only from Sentinare servers, thereby greatly increasing the security of your email server and network.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7154187.stm
Posted: Jan 3, 2010
Warning of webmail wi-fi hijack
Using public wi-fi hotspots has got much riskier as security experts unveil tools that nab login data over the air.
Sentinare uses the highest grade encryption possible and encrypts ALL the mail data. Your password and your mail content are secure. With Sentinare, you are safe using mobile devices and unsecured public networks.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6929258.stm
Posted: Aug 4, 2007
Pentagon email hacked
More proof that the public SMTP (email) interface is the most difficult internet service to protect.
Too often organizations leave email security to people or groups assigned to other tasks. Email servers accept connections 24 hours a day from anywhere in the world and accept unspecified types of data, which makes email service inherentley dangerous.
http://australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,21948818-15306,00.html
Posted: June 27, 2007
New email-based security breach revealed at Los Alamos National Laboratory
A LANL contractor made the mistake of emailing classified information from a non-secured email network.
This is an example of not implementing or enforcing an effective organizational email policy.
http://www.lamonitor.com/articles/2007/06/15/headline_news/news01.txt
Posted: June 18, 2007
FBI: Over 1 Million Potential Victims of Botnet Cyber Crime
The FBI is probably underestimating here with their 1 million figure. Whether they are serious and capable of doing anything about it remains to be proven.
You may never know if you are a victim of a botnet, as most of this software runs undetected on "owned" machines. The best thing to do is to keep your antivirus updated, keep your software updates up to date, don't surf to sketchy web-sites, and use Sentinare PostGuard for email filtering.
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel07/botnet061307.htm
Posted: June 14, 2007
Four deadly security sins (in IT security)
#1: Fixed passwords. #2: Neglecting inbound threats from e-mail, the Web and instant messaging. #3: Forgetting that data traffic is two-way. #4: Not encrypting data.
Since we stop the inbound spam and viruses from hitting your mail servers and mailboxes, and provide for strong encryption on all protocols, we help our customers to check off #2 and #4 of this list.
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/security/0,39044215,62020417,00.htm
Posted: June 14, 2007
Public Anti-spam sites weather DDoS assault
Prominent anti-spam services came under a sustained denial of service attack late last week. The assault targeted Spamhaus, Spam URI Realtime Blocklists (SURBL), and Realtime URI Blacklist (URIBL).
Sentinare uses some of the affected lists, but the filtering technology we use is redundant in that it does not rely completely on any one list or any one method to score spam. As such, Sentinare is the most reliable email filtering technology available today.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/11/anti-spam_ddos/
Posted: June 14, 2007
Phony BBB email dupes more than 1,400 execs
A provider of online security services has uncovered a highly sophisticated phishing scheme that has already duped at least 1,400 US executives.
This is another example of why a multi-layered approach is necessary today. The best protection is to have an off-site SMTP proxy like Sentinare PostGuard as well as desktop antivirus tools.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/30/bbb_spear_phishing/
Posted: June 4, 2007
IETF approves new weapon to fight spam, phish
This new protocol is the better of the few competing new protocols to prevent forgery. According to Eric Allman, "I think primarily this will be attacking phishing for now. ID fraud is incidental to spam, but it's fundamental to phishing."
Though implementation is more complex and costly than other protocols like SPF, this is the better one and holds much promise. Right now, it is a trivial exercise to forge a mail from any "FROM" address. Domainkeys will prevent email sender forgery.
Posted: June 6, 2007
DDoS attacks fall as crackers turn to spam
Black hat hackers like using your PC more than their own. It is "more lucrative -- and less risky -- way of making money illicitly".
Spam isn't going away soon, but Sentinare doesn't rely on spam for its business model. We are a full-service email company and we only do email. There will always be a need for email so there will always be a need for Sentinare.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/02/dos_trends_symantec/
Posted: May 9, 2007
Wi-Fi networks still insecure in London's City
If you don't use encryption of some sort, your email is available to anyone with a wifi antenna nearby.
All of Sentinare's protocols support both TLS and SSL, which encrypt your email. Even if you are connected to an insecure access point, the hacker will not have access to your data if you encrypt the SMTP and POP3 or IMAP connection with SSL or TLS.
http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?newsID=8721
Posted: May 9, 2007
"Evil Twin" Rogue wireless access points harvesting your private information
Hackers can easily set up wireless access points in public places that appear to be legitimate. They then "own" all the unencrypted information you transmit.
All of Sentinare's protocols support both TLS and SSL, which encrypt your email. Even if you are connected to a rogue accesspoint, the hacker will not have access to your data.
Posted: May 1, 2007
Spammers use a two-phase process to infiltrate computers
Spammers use first wave to send out love e-mails and then a second round to warn against the first round as a trojan. Both rounds of e-mails are infected.
Sentinare's spam filters detect such spoof e-mails in both rounds. Thus, the infected files (neither round) make it to your computer.
Posted: Apr 24, 2007
Bad Guys Offer Evil Subscription
Your Exchange server is vulnerable to this 24 hour threat and could be the next victim.
Your email server is taking abuse 24 hours a day directed at it from the the entire world. You name the nasty evil hacker and he (and his evil subscribers) have access to your email server. Your email server will accept a connection and accept the evil data content and happily and gullibly process it. With Sentinare PostGuard, you leave the danger to the SMTP professionals, shielding your email server from attack.
Posted: Apr 10, 2007
Wireless security must be top priority
Public hotspots and other wireless technology are wide open to hacking and eavesdropping.
Sentinare's servers support TLS and SSL, which allows you to encrypt your connection to our servers, hiding both your login information and password as well as the content of the received and sent mail items. Without TLS or SSL encryption, it is a trivial task to grab your password and email off of the air.
Posted: Mar 28, 2007
How to Avoid Having Your Business Emails Caught in Spam Filters
This article gives some useful tips to make your legitimate emails resistant to being accidentally caught by spam filters.
Sentinare's percentage of false positives are much lower than its competiors. These tips are useful to make your emails more legible and resistant to lesser spam filters.
http://www.dotmed.com/news/story/3556/
Posted: Mar 20, 2007
Minor Worm Attack: CNN to Symantec
Too much attention for this little worm.
The lack of updating systems to the current stable patch level is again the culprit. This minor attack of W32.Rinbot.L would not have occurred if CNN used Sentinare to protect their mail servers.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197700611
Posted: Mar 7, 2007
Massive jump in spam levels according to Information Week
90% of email will be spam by the end of the year.
According to this article, spam has increased 280% since October 2006. Sentinare's PostGuard filter provides a fix for the enterprise and end-user, but the final solution is to eliminate the spambot networks. This requires more knowledge and capability in the end-user and more secure programming among software manufacturers. The spambot networks are a result of users' bad practices, lack of current anti-virus protection, and above all, insecure software.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=197008209
Posted: Feb 28, 2007