Unless you've somehow managed to avoid both the news headlines and the barrage of content from IT security vendors that followed, you'll no doubt be aware that a couple of weeks ago, there was a particularly severe ransomware attack that affected over 100,000 businesses around the globe, including the NHS. The latest evidence indicates that the recent 'WannaCry' attack originated via an exploit tool created by the NSA, however it's more common they originate via 'phishing' emails, the technique of tricking recipients into clicking a malicious link or opening an attachment, often appearing to be from a colleague or relative. So with this in mind, now seems like a great time to give you a refresher on the features at your disposal as an MDaemon administrator to help prevent the type of phishing attack that can lead to a ransomware infection, along with some additional tips on best practice. (Almost all of the security tools for MDaemon are in the SecurityPlus add-on so for the purpose of this post, I'll be assuming you've got that installed.)

BackupAssist version 10 We're thrilled to announce that there's a new version of BackupAssist available today, and with it, new features for backing up your data to the wonderfully reliable and ultra-secure data centres of cloud hosting juggernauts, Amazon and Microsoft (with more to follow). While you'll find enhancements to the base product too, the headliner for version 10 is undoubtedly the all-new backup engine that's behind the new Cloud Backup features. Brimming with potential, this new technology offers a simple, secure and efficient way to automate getting your important data off-site. Don't feel like reading? Check out my 'Early Heads Up' video from last week which also tells you everything you need to know about v10.

Set up reporting in MailStore Last week we let you know about the release of MailStore v10.1, the centrepiece of which was a simple but useful feature we've been asked for quite a bit - scheduled email reporting. You may be thinking, MailStore is German so there won't be any issues to report on!? Well, not everything about your email is under MailStore's control, so as an administrator, it's still nice to see confirmation that your 'Enten in einer Reihe' occasionally. In this blog post, I'll show you how to enable the delightful HTML report email, and let you know how to get the most from it.

MDaemon 17 Users of Orange (EE), Freeserve or Wanadoo email accounts will need to start thinking about moving to an alternative email provider, following Orange's recent announcement to close the Orange Email service on 31st May 2017. If you're an Orange Email customer and looking for a simple way to take a copy of your historic email before the service terminates, look no further than MailStore Home, the completely free version of our paid product aimed at businesses.

MDaemon 17 MDaemon has long been a favourite for small businesses who demand the security and control only a dedicated email server can offer. In this latest major release, Texas-based developer Alt-N Technologies add yet more features to boost security, plus a raft of enhancements for users of their webmail service, a desktop replacement and genuine alternative to Outlook. Here are my highlights - don't forget, you can find the full exhaustive list of goodies in the MDaemon Release Notes.

ms-survey-2016The team at German developer MailStore GmbH have again been busy grilling a little over 1000 of their beloved customers for honest feedback on their products, customer service, and support, in the bi-annual MailStore satisfaction survey.  The results (thankfully!) were really good. So good in fact, that they've pulled out all the stops, and celebrated with a rather snazzy infographic to highlight their impressive achievements and to give you a warm, fuzzy glow if you're a MailStore Server, Home, or Service Provider customer.

blog-md-excel-700x353 A popular feature of MDaemon is its ability to let administrators quickly pinpoint message activity and session information using detailed logs. Sometimes, however, what's required is more an overview of server usage such as how load is being shared across users or mailboxes for example. In this post I take a look at how you can use Microsoft Excel to query data you may not even be aware is available in MDaemon!

ba-v10-beta There's an exciting new release of BackupAssist in the pipeline so it's that time again when we reach out and ask for your help in giving it an early road test before it's unleashed on the public. BackupAssist version 10 is now in Beta, so if you'd like to grab a copy from the official Beta page, you'll get an early peek at some great new file and application cloud backup features, as well as the chance to provide your input.

mailstore-v10In the first major release since the company's acquisition by backup giant Carbonite, MailStore's development team today bring us the most secure version we've seen to date of their popular archiving software. Against a backdrop of increased Internet crime and social engineering threats, we see the German development team really zero in on security enhancements in this latest release - while continuing to make life easier for administrators.