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In a world of content overload--with E-mail always pushing information and thousands of Web sites pulling us--more people are using RSS readers to cope. The grassroots technology, used for the past few years by bloggers and news junkies, is finding a place in business-computing environments as a fast and easy way to channel information to customers, employees, and partners. It's also catching on as a cheap but effective approach to application integration. RSS, short for Really Simple Syndication, defines a way to let people subscribe to their favorite information sources on the Web. It uses an XML-based content-syndication protocol to do it. (Variants known as Rich Site Summary and RDF Site Summary use a slightly different protocol.) A like-minded protocol called Atom also is gaining popularity.
Among other things, RSS is emerging as an antidote to some of E-mail's most frustrating problems. While technical countermeasures do a passable job of blocking spam and phishing attacks from beyond the firewall, the sheer volume of E-mail from legitimate senders has companies looking for ways to communicate through the clutter. "People get a lot of what we'll call occupational spam, where there's information that may be delivered to you every day, but you can have too much of it," says Michael Pusateri, VP of engineering with the Disney ABC Cable Networks Group.
The Disney division has begun using software from NewsGator Technologies Inc. to let employees run RSS feeds alongside their Microsoft Outlook E-mail clients. Instead of offering a link to a document, for example, an E-mail message can contain the live information via RSS, along with a link to the Web application that stores the original report. "We can make the applications present an always-up-to-date version of the information," Pusateri says. hile this approach doesn't entirely free users from having to deal with E-mail, it does shift the burden of maintaining distribution lists from an IT administrator to the user. It also reduces E-mail traffic by making sure that messages containing RSS information are wanted.
There's more you can do with RSS. Insurance and financial-services company ING Group N.V. recently implemented KnowNow Inc.'s Enterprise Syndication Server to deliver work-related information via RSS to employees. Instead of searching for information on company portals and other Web sites, employees now have the information sent to them, improving both productivity and internal communications.
A similar approach can be used to deliver data from a company's internal business applications to the specialists who need it, says Ron Rasmussen, KnowNow's chief technology officer. "I can create an RSS channel for the finance department called 30-days-past-due receivables," he says. "They just look at their RSS reader."
The Integrated Justice Information Systems Institute, whose members are IT companies that support law-enforcement and Justice Department operations, uses RSS and Atom feeds that came built into its blogging software from Traction Software Inc. to keep committee members up to date on recent developments. "Some of our more technical committees that had some familiarity with RSS saw immediately how they could use that inside their workspace to provide a publish-and-subscribe capability so they don't have to rely on going hunting to see if there's something new in their committee work," executive director Paul Wormelli says.
The institute uses grant money to help state and local agencies adopt new technology, and committee members regularly publish papers that require comment from members in other locations. The benefit Wormelli sees is that information distribution becomes automatic. "No one has to initiate the distribution of information using an RSS feed," he says. "The main purpose is to put things in an E-mail form without anyone having to take the action to do that, and to not force stuff on people that they don't want to take the time to look at."
Major news sites and most noteworthy Weblogs publish their content as RSS feeds. They can be viewed using an RSS reader application, an online aggregation site such as Bloglines.com, or an RSS-enabled Web browser such as Apple Computer's Safari, Mozilla's Firefox, or Microsoft's upcoming Internet Explorer 7.0.
Microsoft's growing interest in RSS heralds even broader adoption in the months ahead, portending a day when RSS becomes a standard feature of many PC applications. Microsoft plans to support RSS in its next major operating-system upgrade, the recently dubbed Windows Vista, formerly known as Longhorn and due in 2006. "Really, we're at the beginnings of this," says Gary Schare, director of product management for Windows. "The people who own the content are just realizing the power of it. And the tools we use to publish content internally are just starting to become RSS-enabled."
RSS gives people an efficient new way to organize their information resources. Users can track the publication of frequently updated content across any number of sites simultaneously from a single, simple interface, and, because they only receive the RSS feeds to which they subscribe, filtering unrequested information isn't necessary. In that sense, RSS is a proactive search technology--it goes out and grabs information on designated subjects from trusted sources.
Because RSS was designed from the outset to be a means for summarizing information, the feeds can be scanned and comprehended easily. Compare that with E-mail, where in-boxes clog up with unwanted missives and, thanks to overzealous filters, sought-after messages sometimes get blocked. Twenty percent of consumers are concerned that desired E-mail can get trapped in filters, according to research firm Forrester Research. And some E-mail messages don't deliver relevant information efficiently, particularly call-to-action messages that point to a Word or Excel document or other application.

Productivity ploys
It's not just the bottleneck aggravation that spam causes, employee efficiency can take a significant hit.
The amount of minute-by-minute so-called 'urgent' e-mails that demand attention drives down worker productivity considerably.
Managing and cleaning up staff e-mail accounts, or even keeping employees productive, is an issue all businesses have to deal with constantly now e-mail is considered an essential practice. E-mail's intrusive, immediate and possibly not work-related nature has led to companies such as Telecom New Zealand to implement no e-mail Fridays . A Hewlett-Packard study early this year reported that 62 percent of British adults are addicted to their e-mail. Half of the workers surveyed felt they needed to respond to e-mails immediately or within an hour, and one in five people reported being happy to interrupt a business or social gathering to respond to an e-mail or phone message.
According to Frost & Sullivan security analyst James Turner, e-mail for users today is similar to a DDOS attack on a network - packets of information (e-mail) is thrown thick and fast at a user and if they cannot process that information fast enough they fall in a heap.
"The companies that are thinking about their employees are going to start coming up with strategies to make the working day more productive, and that is not squeezing out productivity by responding to e-mails every 30 seconds ... people need thinking time," Turner said.
"Not all companies can implement a no e-mail day because it might not be viable but it is an interesting backlash against the intrusion e-mail has made on working capacity; companies that are doing e-mail packages are watching this and instant messaging with great interest because humans are at a point where they are so busy chatting and typing that they are not doing anything - that is not a sustainable business model." Stricter identity management, including using multiple e-mail addresses for work projects and social agendas, is the area where e-mail can be better managed and therefore create a more organized workflow, Turner said.
While doing without e-mail may not be an option for many companies, clamping down on spam is critical and not just to reclaim bandwidth. Spam has turned as insidious as viruses. Security vendors are starting to see spam used as a mechanism for delivering malicious content in the form of viruses, worms, trojans and the like.

Double trouble
Besides cutting productivity, adware and spyware can also cause computer problems and worse. "They can cause instability in PCs, operations to crash, slow performance," says Chris Williams, a senior analyst at Ferris Research. "And [malware] can log your keystrokes and report those back to a Web site, so your network log-in is being compromised."
How can a company shore up its servers and desktops against this rising tide of malware? First, say experts, educate employees on spam and viruses. But education can go only so far; technology is also needed. Here are five steps in the defence against malware:
1) Restrict user privileges: The fewer system privileges on a user's desktop, the fewer opportunities there are for viruses and spyware to take over, says Andrew Jaquith, an analyst at The Yankee Group. "The biggest reason companies have spyware problems is that user privileges are set too high," he says.
IT may also choose to block certain types of attachments, such as executable or Zip files, and prevent access to certain Web sites. The DOE's Carlsbad office now uses Websense software to block access to adware- and spyware-heavy sites, such as gambling sites. It also relies on an e-mail firewall from Tumbleweed Communications with built-in McAfee antivirus and spyware filtering tools.
2) Apply patches immediately: Installing security patches and updates is critical, regardless of how much antivirus protection you may have. JetBlue Airways in New York, for example, has layers of antivirus and antispam defences, but its IT staffers also apply new security patches promptly, says Lesen Wang, IT e-mail systems administrator at JetBlue.
"Even with an antivirus program, a virus can get through," he says. Two years ago, for example, JetBlue's desktops were infected by the Blaster virus because they hadn't been patched, but the airline's servers, which had received regular updates, remained unaffected.
3) Switch to alternative e-mail packages: While not guaranteed to be shielded against viruses, nonstandard (that is, not Microsoft) software is less likely to be targeted by virus writers.
For example, Brett McKeachnie, network systems administrator at a state school, reports that the school, which uses Novell's GroupWise, never had a virus problem and didn't realize it was receiving viruses until it installed iSolation Server, an e-mail security product from Avinti.
"Avinti put [iSolation Server] into the mail stream, and the next thing you know, we've got 40 to 50 viruses hitting the filter," McKeachnie says. However, not everyone at the school uses GroupWise -- some are on Outlook -- so the school remains vulnerable to virus attacks and, of course, spam.
4) Build a multilayered defence: There are several approaches to antivirus and antispam protection, none of which is 100 percent effective. So using two or more is a useful strategy, experts say.
Techniques for blocking spam include maintaining blacklists of spammers' Internet addresses and employing the challenge/response strategy, which attempts to catch spammers by asking a suspicious sender to resend the message, the assumption being that an automated spam program won't reply. Another option is Bayesian filters, which "learn" to recognize spam from samples that an IT administrator or an end user feeds it. The filter then uses probability scores to decide whether an e-mail is likely to be spam.
Signature-based scanning is the most common approach for identifying viruses, but it doesn't help when there's a brand-new virus on the loose. The "zero hour" problem -- the time lag between the initial release of a new virus and the point when an antivirus software vendor can issue a patch update -- is the biggest problem with signature-based products, especially since the gap can be as long as eight hours. Companies relying solely on pattern-based antivirus protection are vulnerable to new viruses during that time.
One technique that attempts to close this gap is blocking technology that shuts down access to certain systems if it detects any initial virus activity. For example, JetBlue used Trend Micro's signature-based ServerProtect, but it opted to add IronPort Systems' C-Series antivirus and antispam device, which includes a blocking technology called Virus Outbreak Filter. The filter quarantines suspect e-mail if it detects a new virus outbreak based on data from IronPort's SenderBase e-mail monitoring network.
Yet another approach to blocking viruses is heuristics scanning, which detects viruses by analyzing a file's structure, behaviour and other attributes instead of looking for a pattern match in the code.
The bottom line, experts say, is that two or more defensive technologies -- whether in different products or combined in one -- are better than one.
Just as using two types of antivirus or antispam software can increase your odds of catching malware, so, too, can locating defensive products at different points on your network. Firewalls, SMTP gateways, HTTP gateways, e-mail and file servers, and desktops are all good places to defend.
Monrovia Nursery, a plant and flower wholesaler, recently added its fourth layer of security: an antispam and antivirus gateway from MailFrontier. The new gateway complements an existing firewall -- which blocks attachments such as Visual Basic scripts -- and antivirus software from Symantec on its e-mail servers and desktops. "It's another layer of protection," says Ray Martin, Monrovia's IS technical manager. "Redundancy and variety are good when it comes to e-mail security."
The main point of a multilayered defence, says Richi Jennings, a Ferris Research analyst, is to cover all the potential points where a virus could enter. Too often, he says, companies think they're immune to viruses, when in fact they've failed to cover a key point of entry.
"You may feel you have a clean architecture, with virus scanning on the perimeter of the network," Jennings says. "But if you've forgotten a vector -- such as a laptop that has a virus and gets plugged into the company network -- then suddenly you've got a bunch of infected machines because you didn't put antivirus on the desktops."
5) Use an outside service: If you want a multi-tiered defence without having to purchase individual products and implement them, an outside antivirus and antispam service may be the answer. Companies such as MessageLabs and Postini will intercept and clean your e-mail of viruses and spam before sending it to your e-mail server, thus sparing you the software and hardware expense of scanning and processing your own e-mail.
Internet service providers may offer antivirus and antispam filtering services to corporate clients. For example, virus and spam filtering at Bata Canada, a unit of shoe manufacturer and retailer Bata International, is handled by Bata's service provider.
A significant advantage, according to Eli Gabbay, manager of IT technical support at Bata, is the ability to offload some of the administrative chores to the service provider. "I found [antispam and antivirus software] to be very complicated. . . . There's a lot of work for me to do to maintain it," he explains. "Now the only thing I need to do is put any spam that gets through into a folder, and the provider adds it to its database." Typically, antivirus services use signature-based scanning in combination with other approaches to optimize their success rates. And they clean up the e-mail before it ever reaches their customers' servers. Some users are also turning to antivirus and antispam service providers to clean up their e-mail before it even hits their firewalls.
Euro RSCG Worldwide, an international advertising and marketing firm with 233 agencies, turned to MessageLabs for help in dealing with a rising flood of spam that threatened to overload its e-mail servers.
"We had more spam coming in than legitimate e-mail," says CIO John Tanner. "It got to the point, last August, where we were going to have to increase our hardware by 33 percent."
The agency tried blocking spam at the firewall with blacklists, but that approach resulted sometimes in blocked mail from prospective clients whose addresses or e-mail servers had been hijacked by spammers. So the ad agency tried the MessageLabs service, which culls spam and viruses before sending the clean mail on.
Of course, the company still uses antivirus software on its servers and desktops to be safe. But so far, spam has ceased to be a problem. "I don't have to manage any hardware or software. I don't have to worry about upgrading hardware because spam has increased," says Tanner. "Spam has disappeared from the planet for us."

GFI has today released a new version of GFI MailSecurity for Exchange/SMTP, its email content security solution. Version 9 provides administrators with far greater ease of use and highly reduced maintenance requirements while retaining the product's proven multi-layered defense system - in the form of multiple virus engines, content and attachment checking, spyware and exploit detection, and Trojan/executable scanning. Through its new quarantine filters, search options and web-based configuration, GFI MailSecurity 9 will help administrators ensure that their email servers are secure and efficient with a minimal amount of effort. "With its multi-tiered protection, multiple virus engines, email exploit engine, Trojan engine, and more, GFI MailSecurity offers high level email security without compromising performance. The latest version extends GFI MailSecurity's operational power: Version 9's advanced quarantine filters and rules make administering the product a snap. Its enhanced efficiency, coupled with its solid lines of defense, grants administrators additional time to focus on other tasks rather than having to be glued to their email security solution," explained David Vella, GFI Product Manager.Ability to set up custom quarantine filters - for faster sorting of quarantined mailGFI MailSecurity 9 enables administrators to configure a series of search folders (similar to the Microsoft Outlook Search Folders) within the product's 'Quarantine Store', permitting them to manage quarantined emails better and faster. For example, a folder can be set up for emails related to a particular user that were quarantined by virus checking and another for that same user's emails quarantined by attachment checking, allowing administrators to prioritize which folders they check first: It may be more important to examine the attachment checking folder first as this is likelier to contain emails that must be approved and forwarded to users.The latest version of GFI MailSecurity also provides the facility to conduct searches within all emails that it quarantines. Such searches can be performed among inbound or outbound emails to or from a particular user, for instance. Searches can also be carried out based on sender, recipient and the reason for quarantine, freeing the administrator from the need to go through allquarantined emails one by one. Web-based configuration - enables remote management from any location The product's web-based configuration allows administrators to configure and monitor the product remotely from any computer that is equipped with a browser - meaning that one can monitor and manage GFI MailSecurity from anywhere in the world. This module also permits remote management of quarantined emails. Other new featuresGFI MailSecurity 9 also includes these new features:* Full threat reporting for quarantined emails - When an email is quarantined, GFI MailSecurity gives a full threat report, detailing all threats identified per email.* Scanning engine speed improvements - The engine now makes full use of multi-processor machines and scans a great volume of mails at a faster pace than ever.

Indialinks one the India’s largest web hosting provider & official .IN Accredited Registrar, today announced the launch of a new service called SpamGaurd. Spam today has become an annoying factor for the people who use the internet to communicate, business,education, research and purchase goods online. Nearly 10 billions spam emails are send out everyday and the figure is expected to rise to 30 billion by 2005. Spamguard is a cost effective, reliable and time saving solution to increase the corporate productivity. It makes your inbox Virus and Spam free. With its advanced features like Challenge Response, DNSBL/RBL based filtering, White/Black Listing, Custom Filters, Mail tracks, Mail trends, Web based Control Panel and many more, Spamgaurd gives you the directive to monitor, filter emails and avoid spam. "Today dealing with spam mails is a primary concern and has become an high-priced affair, which avails time and resources, leading to deprivation in the efficient productivity and monetary loss, features like content filtering and challenge responses, help to put by bandwidth, which can be used for other business needs." says Mr. Bhavin Chandarana, CEO of IndiaLinks. This service empowers organizations to achieve high detection rates of spam mails , allowing users to safely delete spam without reviewing, helps in time management and saving of other resources.One can thus receive emails from your friends,families and authorized contacts immediately without wasting time in filtering or downloading hundreds of spam mails. Also no new software or hardware is required, and the service requires no additional IT administration.