July 2004

This and past newsletters, and various articles are available on our web site. You can receive this newsletter via email.

SBC (Formerly Pacific Bell) had trouble with their email last month. They were under attack by spammers which shut down email for a couple of days. To resolve the problem they enabled a feature which looks up the domain for every incoming email (reverse DNS lookup). This created more problems – legitimate emails were blocked. They removed it a week later.  Many ISP’s are battling with the problem of spam. For example, AOL enforces reverse DNS lookup, which has created problems for some of our clients.  SBC is also rejecting mail from Email servers which have been listed as “open relays”, meaning that they can be used by spammers to forward spam email. These servers are tracked by “Black List” providers, who test mail servers and list any that are not secure.

Exchange 2003 (which comes with Small Business Server 2003) Service Pack 1 is out. We will be contacting you if you need it installed. Along with it, Microsoft released a free server based spam filter, which looks promising.

Spamnet, a plug-in for Outlook to block spam, also has an update. They claim to block about 80% of spam. Fee is $4 per month per machine. If you are subscribing, you should automatically have been notified and updated: http://www.cloudmark.com/products/spamnet/download/

Cisco will be using the Trend Micro antivirus software in their intrusion detection add on for Routers and switches. 

Microsoft is offering a free Antivirus program, with a 1 year subscription. It is called ‘eTrust EZ Armor LE’ made by Computer Associates.    Contact us if you would like a copy.  There are rumors that Microsoft will integrate Antivirus into the OS before long.

Site to get free CD with software: http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/cd/order.asp

Also see: http://equipped.msn.com/article.aspx?aid=14  CA Web site: www.my-etrust.com  

There is an un-patched flaw in Internet Explorer, which as far as I know has no fix currently, other than disabling Active X controls. The only known malicious use is to install a toolbar (i-lookup) which displays popup ads. http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/713878

Check Your Browser Defenses. This free site runs a series of tests on your web browser to check for known vulnerabilities. Very nice.  http://bcheck.scanit.be/bcheck/

There is a new version of Spybot Search and Destroy.  Version 1.3 has now been released and is a compulsory upgrade as all previous versions are no longer supported. 

http://www.safer-networking.org/

Tim Torian

Torian, Group, Inc.

http://www.toriangroup.com