All of the big viruses of recent times (think "Melissa" and the "Love Bug") have used e-mail protocols to propagate themselves--often taking advantage of the address-book features of e-mail clients to identify their victims. The E-mail Virus Protection Handbook explores how you, as an administrator of an e-mail server (and perhaps some of the network resources that surround it), can protect your users from productivity loss that results from e-mail virus infection. This book is best suited to administrators of smallish networks who have responsibility for (and direct control over) firewalls and network-wide antivirus strategies, as well as e-mail readers on the client side. The authors of this volume (and there are several) begin by explaining how and why e-mail viruses work--they point the finger mainly at software that's designed for slick presentation of mail instead of for security, as well as at uninformed end users. Then, they begin to explain what various countermeasures, including antivirus software and firewalls, can do, and offer specific configuration advice. They also explore means of configuring popular e-mail servers and clients for maximum resistance to viruses. Overall, this book is carefully researched and should provide system administrators with the information--both practical and background--that they need to protect their systems from some of the more insidious threats around. --David Wall Topics covered: Malicious code that's spread through e-mail clients, servers, and protocols, and how to defend against it. Specifically, the book deals with antivirus software--both network-wide and for single clients--and configuration policies for Outlook 2000, Outlook Express 5.0, and Eudora 4.3 on the client side. Server coverage includes Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Red Hat Linux 6.0, Exchange Server 5.5, and Sendmail. Personal firewalls, like BlackICE Defender 2.1, get attention, too.The E-mail Virus Protection Handbook is organised around specific e-mail clients, server environments, and anti-virus software. The first eight chapters is useful to both users and network professionals; later chapters deal with topics relevant mostly to professionals with an emphasis on how to use e-mail filtering software to monitor all incoming documents for malicious behaviour. In addition, the handbook shows how to scan content and counter email address forgery attacks. A chapter on mobile code applications, which use Java applets and Active X controls to infect email and, ultimately, other applications and whole systems is presented.
The book covers spamming and spoofing: Spam is the practice of sending unsolicited email to users. One spam attack can bring down an entire enterprise email system by sending thousands of bogus messages or "mailbombing," which can overload servers. Email spoofing means that users receive messages that appear to have originated from one user, but in actuality were sent from another user. Email spoofing can be used to trick users into sending sensitive information, such as passwords or account numbers, back to the spoofer.
* Highly topical! Recent events such as the LoveBug virus means the demand for security solutions has never been higher
* Focuses on specific safeguards and solutions that are readily available to usersE-mail has been called the killer application of the Internet with so many web-based commerce applications, business-to-business transactions, and Application Service Providers dependent on the e-mail client/server relationship. Now, because of that reliance, it is possible for e-mail software to become killer applications in an entirely different sense—if they're down, they can kill your business. E-mail Virus Protections Handbook will help systems administrators and the end-users secure their e-mail. It shows how to encrypt e-mail messages, use antivirus and personal firewall software, and secure the operating system from attack. Know what's lurking in your e-mail!
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