5 steps for E-mail Security Assurance. CONCLUSION

Email security is an ongoing endeavor. Because spam, viruses and fraud are a profitable business, the resources and tactics employed by those who generate this scourge are ever changing. As a result, your email security vendor needs to be committed to innovation. IronPort Systems leads the industry in technical innovation—with the largest research and development team in the industry and the world’s most demanding networks as customers. IronPort has a full range of products that use its advanced email security engines, packaged in affordable and easy to use 1U appliances. These appliances allow administrators to “plug it in and make spam and viruses go away”. Regardless of whether or not you select an IronPort appliance, there are five essential steps to safer email:

1. Use a leading edge spam filtering system that combines reputation and content analysis.

A leading edge spam filter should be accurate enough to avoid the need for an end user quarantine or end user white-list and blacklist controls. These end user facing features just create work for end users and tickets for the IT team.

2. Traditional signature based anti-virus systems are not sufficient.

These systems are widely deployed and yet the world is still plagued by email viruses. The IT team should look for a solution that includes an outbreak control mechanism—it can pay for itself in one outbreak. IronPort Virus Outbreak Filters leads the industry in response time.

3. Scan outbound email.

Healthcare and Financial Services companies have very specific email filtering requirements. All other industries have light requirements, but some safe guards need to be employed to stop good people from doing bad or dumb things.

4. Protect your identity and reputation.

Conversational bounces expose the directory. Delayed bounces lead to blacklisting or DDoS attacks. IronPort has a unique “secure bounce” solution that mitigates this problem. Segment outbound mail. Put commercial mail on one outbound IP, employee mail on another, delayed bounces on a third. This practice will protect your reputation on the Internet.

5. Look to the future and stay ahead of the game. Set up a Sender ID record for outbound mail, and look for a solution that supports outbound DomainKeys (DK) signing. Lack of authentication will look increasingly suspicious in the coming 12 months and will lead to disruptions in outbound mail delivery. Look for a vendor that has the R&D resources to stay ahead of email threats. Spam, viruses and fraud email is “good” business and is fueling innovation. Look for a vendor that can out innovate the “bad guys” and keep your email system running trouble free.

1. Stopping Spam
2. Stopping Viruses
3. Protecting Your Identity
4. Outbound Scanning
5. Fixing Email