23 June 2005
Outsourced Security Called Battle Tested
Outsourcing corporate security is no longer risky business and large organizations should hand off network monitoring and security services as soon as possible. That was the main conclusion Gartner analysts presented to about 2,000 IT executives at the firm's IT Security Summit last week. Gartner predicts the future of security is in the cloud and expects to see more services such as MCI's WAN Defense ,announced two weeks ago. "Why should I filter out this garbage at my end? Outsource as much of the day-to-day busywork as you can, as soon as you can," said Gartner analyst John Pescatore in his presentation titled "The Near Future of Network Security." Pescatore acknowledged this is a radical change from what Gartner would have advocated in years past, when it viewed security outsourcing - which requires a company to entrust an outsider with critical support - as controversial.
"It's just not controversial anymore," Pescatore said. He said the level of expertise exhibited by the first-generation of managed security service providers (MSSPs) along with the rise of carrier- class high-speed security gear from vendors such as iPolicy Networks indicate that security outsourcing can evolve into a trusted service. Customers need not purchase their own customer premises equipment (CPE), Pescatore says, particularly for perimeter defense. Managed security services will evolve into "in-the-cloud services" in which network traffic is cleaned of spam, viruses, attack traffic and other problems before it reaches the enterprise, and perimeter firewalls and IDS reside with the carrier, said Kelly Kavanaugh, whose presentation was titled "security in the Cloud: Take My security Hardware, Please." Traditional pure-play MSSPs such as Symantec, Internet security Systems and Counterpane Internet security, as well as the larger IT outsourcers such as EDS and IBM, are most often associated with remote monitoring customer IDS, firewalls and other gear. But he predicted,"It becomes a utility that's shared. For enterprises, it's a way to let go of having customer premises equipment." He said a number of in-thecloud anti-spam and anti-virus filtering services already exist, including those from MessageLabs and Symantec's Brightmail outfit. While MSSPs also might offer their own version of in- thecloud security, Kavanaugh explained that "the carriers have the best opportunity to deliver in the cloud" because they provide the essential connection closest to the customer's network.
"It's just not controversial anymore," Pescatore said. He said the level of expertise exhibited by the first-generation of managed security service providers (MSSPs) along with the rise of carrier- class high-speed security gear from vendors such as iPolicy Networks indicate that security outsourcing can evolve into a trusted service. Customers need not purchase their own customer premises equipment (CPE), Pescatore says, particularly for perimeter defense. Managed security services will evolve into "in-the-cloud services" in which network traffic is cleaned of spam, viruses, attack traffic and other problems before it reaches the enterprise, and perimeter firewalls and IDS reside with the carrier, said Kelly Kavanaugh, whose presentation was titled "security in the Cloud: Take My security Hardware, Please." Traditional pure-play MSSPs such as Symantec, Internet security Systems and Counterpane Internet security, as well as the larger IT outsourcers such as EDS and IBM, are most often associated with remote monitoring customer IDS, firewalls and other gear. But he predicted,"It becomes a utility that's shared. For enterprises, it's a way to let go of having customer premises equipment." He said a number of in-thecloud anti-spam and anti-virus filtering services already exist, including those from MessageLabs and Symantec's Brightmail outfit. While MSSPs also might offer their own version of in- thecloud security, Kavanaugh explained that "the carriers have the best opportunity to deliver in the cloud" because they provide the essential connection closest to the customer's network.
Electric Mail Announces Launch of PerimeterProtect Service; New Service Provides Enhanced Email SPAM and Virus Control Service for Businesses
Electric Mail, a provider of managed secure email services to businesses, today announced the immediate availability of an enhanced version of PerimeterProtect(TM), its comprehensive solution that delivers up-front email messaging protection and continuity through SPAM and content filtering, as well as virus blocking. PerimeterProtect offers improved message quarantining, enhanced reporting, policy and service control, as well as tighter integration with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2000 -- creating a fast, powerful and cost-effective solution that significantly reduces enterprise email headaches. "PerimeterProtect has been an ideal solution for us, allowing us to virtually eliminate SPAM and safeguard our network and email servers," noted Christopher Black, Director of Technical Infrastructure at T&F Informa plc, an international provider of specialist information for the academic, professional and business communities. "Most importantly, we can completely control our use of the service but don't have to worry about maintaining or updating filters and mail rules. We have seen immediate benefit on our perimeter network through the sheer reduction in unwanted network traffic caused by SPAM/virus emails. In addition, it is very cost-effective, easy to use and configure. Email is a critical business application for T&F Informa, as it is for most companies. Frankly, I don't know of a business that doesn't need a product like PerimeterProtect." "Enterprise customers, like T&F Informa, have fully embraced the advantages of outsourced email security services and are demanding tighter integration with their in-house mail servers," said Adam Hyde, Director of Product Strategy for Electric Mail. "PerimeterProtect provides robust and scalable SPAM and virus protection for corporate email systems, combined with an intuitive tool through which administrators and users can monitor and manage their email security protocols."About PerimeterProtectPerimeterProtect safeguards companies from unwanted, often obscene and productivity-robbing messages, while protecting customer email servers against denial-of-service and directory-harvest attacks. PerimeterProtect combines six filtering layers designed to identify 99% of SPAM with less than 0.01% false positives. The content filtering capabilities enable administrators to configure flexible profiles and policies via a Web-based console. This service helps minimize a company's exposure to inappropriate email content and can reduce server load caused by large email attachments. PerimeterProtect's enhanced Quarantine Central (TM)offers users easy access to quarantined messages -- ensuring that no legitimate email is ever lost. Moreover, it gives users and administrators the ability to directly control "allow/deny" lists and view filtering reports. An "auto-allow" function is also available, automatically adding an email address to the "allow list" when it is sent two or more messages by the user. Quarantine Summaries consolidate all SPAM and virus headers into a list for easy review. The list is delivered to each user's email account on a predetermined schedule, with message retrieval available via a link to the Quarantine Central Web interface. Users can customize report frequency, delivery time and filter the summary results based upon a configurable "SPAM score" range. Administrators can turn summaries on or off, control which users get summary reports and manage the report delivery "From" address. Microsoft Exchange customers can synchronize PerimeterProtect with their Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2000 servers via a Windows-based LDAP synchronization tool. This ensures invalid accounts are blocked at the network perimeter and Exchange aliases, groups and directory information are automatically available to the web quarantine.Availability & PricingPerimeterProtect is available now. For more information on pricing and features, please visit www.electricmail.com or call 800-419-7463.About Electric Mail
Simple step keeps hard drive from filling up with spam
Question: Every day I delete spam. Today it was 66, a record. Yesterday Outlook Express wanted to compress the files. Is this stuff filling up my hard drive? How can I get rid of it and stop the incoming without changing my Internet service provider? _ Bob Stump @camtel.net
Answer: I wish I could just tap out a paragraph or two and tell the world how to eliminate spam, Mr. S., but that's a question that people far more adept than Mr. Computer Answer Person have failed to solve for years now.
As you note, though, in addition to becoming an obnoxious time sink, spam also clutters up hard-drive real estate even if one has anti-spam shields in place and set all the way up to Kill all Klingons.
The junk, as you note, gets saved into the default Deleted Items folder, or in a special folder designated for spam that folks set up using various rules to identify and quarantine unwanted messages.
These folders are needed because there are times when even the best spam filters can attack messages that one really needs.
However, it is possible to remove these deleted messages permanently by the simple process of going to the Deleted Items folder and either delete one by one or tap Control + A to select all messages at once and then Control + X to kill them for good.
It's not a bad idea to do this every time the software pops up with an offer to compress the entire contents of the e-mail in an archive file.
___
Q: We have just upgraded our home computers to Windows XP and Office 2003. When we insert pictures into a Word document, the Format Picture option does not seem to work. The pictures are inserted, but they are either at the left or right margins.
When we change to absolute positioning and click OK, the changes are ignored. Interestingly, I was able to do the Microsoft online tutorial on graphics in Word, but I could not get the position to work on a new document.
Any ideas on a missing setting? Are you aware of any problems in this area? We have installed all the required updates to Office 2003 as of May 15. _ Elaine Olson @comcast.net
A: There are a couple of points to review here, Ms. O., but otherwise your settings can be fixed simply by forcing Word to rebuild the default settings file it uses each time it is booted up.
Do that anyway so we're both on the same page as I suggest a fix. So right-click on Start and then click the magnifying glass icon for Search. Now type normal.dot in the search terms box and click OK. When this file appears in the panel on the right of the search display, give it a right-click and select rename from the pop-up menu that appears. Change it to something like xnormal.dot so you can restore it in case you have changed other settings that you still need.
Now to ensure that you're doing it all correctly, open your document and select the Print Layout setting in the View item on the toolbar. This assures that your document will appear on the screen just like it will look when printed.
Now put the cursor near where you want to insert the picture and then click on the Insert menu and then select Picture and From File. Use the browser box this summons to find the picture file you need to center in the document.
Click Insert in the file browser and the image will appear at the cursor location with text above and below it. Now right-click on the image and select the Format Picture option that appears in the list of choices. This brings up a tabbed menu where you need to select Layout.
This brings up a display with icons showing various ways the picture can be placed on the page, including centered or on the left or right margins.
Be sure to select the icon for square rather than the default that puts it on the left-hand side of the page. Now check the alignment buttons below these icons and make certain that yours is set to Other instead of left, right or center. Now click Advanced and select "Move with text."
With this done you can click on the inserted image and drag it wherever you want, and the text will flow around it or alongside it. Now save the document and then close it. It will come up where you want it when the file gets opened again.
Answer: I wish I could just tap out a paragraph or two and tell the world how to eliminate spam, Mr. S., but that's a question that people far more adept than Mr. Computer Answer Person have failed to solve for years now.
As you note, though, in addition to becoming an obnoxious time sink, spam also clutters up hard-drive real estate even if one has anti-spam shields in place and set all the way up to Kill all Klingons.
The junk, as you note, gets saved into the default Deleted Items folder, or in a special folder designated for spam that folks set up using various rules to identify and quarantine unwanted messages.
These folders are needed because there are times when even the best spam filters can attack messages that one really needs.
However, it is possible to remove these deleted messages permanently by the simple process of going to the Deleted Items folder and either delete one by one or tap Control + A to select all messages at once and then Control + X to kill them for good.
It's not a bad idea to do this every time the software pops up with an offer to compress the entire contents of the e-mail in an archive file.
___
Q: We have just upgraded our home computers to Windows XP and Office 2003. When we insert pictures into a Word document, the Format Picture option does not seem to work. The pictures are inserted, but they are either at the left or right margins.
When we change to absolute positioning and click OK, the changes are ignored. Interestingly, I was able to do the Microsoft online tutorial on graphics in Word, but I could not get the position to work on a new document.
Any ideas on a missing setting? Are you aware of any problems in this area? We have installed all the required updates to Office 2003 as of May 15. _ Elaine Olson @comcast.net
A: There are a couple of points to review here, Ms. O., but otherwise your settings can be fixed simply by forcing Word to rebuild the default settings file it uses each time it is booted up.
Do that anyway so we're both on the same page as I suggest a fix. So right-click on Start and then click the magnifying glass icon for Search. Now type normal.dot in the search terms box and click OK. When this file appears in the panel on the right of the search display, give it a right-click and select rename from the pop-up menu that appears. Change it to something like xnormal.dot so you can restore it in case you have changed other settings that you still need.
Now to ensure that you're doing it all correctly, open your document and select the Print Layout setting in the View item on the toolbar. This assures that your document will appear on the screen just like it will look when printed.
Now put the cursor near where you want to insert the picture and then click on the Insert menu and then select Picture and From File. Use the browser box this summons to find the picture file you need to center in the document.
Click Insert in the file browser and the image will appear at the cursor location with text above and below it. Now right-click on the image and select the Format Picture option that appears in the list of choices. This brings up a tabbed menu where you need to select Layout.
This brings up a display with icons showing various ways the picture can be placed on the page, including centered or on the left or right margins.
Be sure to select the icon for square rather than the default that puts it on the left-hand side of the page. Now check the alignment buttons below these icons and make certain that yours is set to Other instead of left, right or center. Now click Advanced and select "Move with text."
With this done you can click on the inserted image and drag it wherever you want, and the text will flow around it or alongside it. Now save the document and then close it. It will come up where you want it when the file gets opened again.
