01
Dec
Threat report: Apple users becoming #1 target, Shellshock bug and more…
Cyren's quarterly Internet Threat Trends reports are a MUST READ for IT professionals and MSP's alike and this one is no exception.
You could be forgiven for not recognising the Cyren name as they've recently rebranded from Commtouch, however Cyren are a huge player in the world of Internet security and provide the technology used by industry giants such as Google, Microsoft, Intel and T-Mobile.
Their real-time threat protection and antivirus engine also powers both MDaemon Messaging Server and SecurityGateway for Exchange.
Alt-N Technologies, BackupAssist, MailStore....they were all there. And that's not all, we were even fortunate enough to bag a couple of inspirational guest 
Today's nugget of MDaemon wisdom comes from conversations I've had with a small number of customers reporting they're unable to send outbound email to specific recipients.
Upon closer inspection of the error in the SMTP (OUT) log, there's a message reading "SSL negotiation failed".
October, as you'll probably know, is the unofficial 'silly season' for IT gatherings in the UK.
It's around this time each year, vendors, exhibition companies and industry bodies go all out competing for the attention of the IT support companies and MSP's they'd like at their events.
If you have ever suspected that a slow performing server is down to slow access to a hard drive you may have started searching the web for a tool to help diagnose the root of the problem.
What you might not know is that Windows has a very handy built-in tool for doing just that and can provide some excellent real-time statistics.
As with a lot of new technologies the real power comes from when they are used by the masses.
Sender Policy Framework or SPF is no longer a new technology and is generally widely used to help preserve email domain reputation for large organisations, but it's as well-known about in the Small to Medium sized business end of the email market.
Spammers know this and have started to target domains that do not have valid SPF records as they can most easily be used to spoof and send spam claiming to be from valid companies. Often these types of spoofed email are used in phishing attacks to then harvest more valuable data, so the smaller companies that can adopt the use of SPF the better.
A long time ago in a galaxy far away....well....ok, just a long time ago, I learnt that in order to diagnose the email delivery problems of our customers, understanding the role of DNS would be absolutely fundamental.
Not only that, but I quickly realised the value of the 'NSlookup' DNS tool which is included within Windows.
Independent analyst and security director for EncSec, Graeme Batsman has appeared in, and advised, publications including SC Magazine, The Independent, Microsoft, Metro, Experian and 
First launched back in 2008, SecurityGateway is the brainchild of Texas-based