Thinking of buying an e-mail firewall?

[Black Cluster]

I found really informative and great article to share ....

Have a ncie reading ...

Full Article

We've all received dodgy emails, offering us things we don't want, wouldn't know how to use, or couldn't possibly explain to our other half when the credit card bill came through. Spam is a high-visibility threat to our networks, servers and peace of mind, and we're going to look at various anti-spam products very soon. But there's more to securing your e-mail systems than just getting rid of spam, and in this article we're going to look at some of the functions of a true email firewall that set it apart from a basic anti-spam device.
Protecting your e-mail isn't going to be particularly effective if you have no basic network security. As a matter of course you should already have perimeter firewalling in place. Intrusion protection is often a feature of an e-mail firewall or anti-spam appliance, but if you already have IPSs in place, it'll be redundant. The same goes for antivirus software. If you've already got an AV setup, it's not such a good thing that the e-mail firewall you're looking at has it too – regardless of what the salesman tells you.

Of course, you may prefer to use what's on the e-mail firewall and get rid of your stand-alone systems, but if you don't, you'll need to find out if you can turn it off, and if that has any implications on the effectiveness of the rest of the system. Managing signature updates for two AV systems is a chore you could do well without.


Spam filtering

The basic spam filter is designed to pick up all those e-mails that are the digital equivalent of junk mail. They are annoying, sometimes offensive, and clutter up your mailbox. And just think how much more efficient the Royal Mail would be if it didn't have to process and deliver all those fliers that you don’t want anyway. But e-mail spam is potentially more dangerous than its paper equivalent when it tricks your users into divulging personal details, pops a virus onto their PCs, or sets them up as a zombie attacker in a DDoS attack. Both the e-mail firewall and the anti-spam device should be able to provide a reasonable level of protection against these.

[Lightning_Girl]

Thanxs for the info

[IKnowNot]

Black Cluster

Could you tell us exactly why you posted this?

I found NO, repeat, NO useful information whatsoever in this article.

It was social engineering at its finest, but instead of attempting to gain information it attempts to gain ......... I don’t know, maybe ... recognition, or ...... just filling space?

A lot of buzz words, phrases, references to current critical concerns, but no information!

I know I’m drunk ( just got back from a wedding ) but any hints to what I missed?

[nihil]

IKnowNot

Maybe I am just in my week-end stupor, but I think that the only problem here is the title?

The guy who wrote the article seems (to me ) to be talking about "spam filters" not "firewalls"?

If you look at firewalls like ZoneAlarm, a lot of AVs and so on...........they monitor your e-mail in a firewall sort of way?

http://www.internals.com/

Look at mail control................an interesting "firewall" concept, in that it stops outgoing mails

AVs, particularly those using heuristics and "sandbox" technology, check incoming stuff. That is what I understand by "firewall".

Sure, you can use a firewall to filter out spam by blocking IPs etc, but that is not true firewall activity................it is spam filtering?

just a thought

[Black Cluster]

IKnowNot

Thanks for th feedback. I call you again to re-read {I thinkyou did not read all becaus you are drunk } the full article {Full Articel Link}. I found it vice versa, informative and gives the main guidelines to identify the ways emails is used to to harm people and some of the countermeasures .... like filtering out spam and encrypting emails and Authentication ...I hope I could explain my standpoint

I agree with nihil that the title is to some extentions is misleading .... Despite the fact that the arctice talks entirely about spam filtering .. the authore chosed to title it as a firewall driven article ....

Cheers ...

[IKnowNot]

On the suggestion of Black Cluster I reread the article. Yes I’m drunk, getting drunker.

Filtering out spam, whether you do it in-house or outsource it, is definitely a good thing to do. But don't just install an anti-spam appliance and sit back, thinking that your e-mail is now 100% controlled. There are other vulnerabilities that an anti-spam service won't do a thing about. So if you want full cover, you'll need to look at something that goes that extra bit further. Some so-called e-mail firewalls offer very little extra apart from spam filtering, so make sure you know what else is on offer and just how useful it is to your business.

But what the hell is the author saying??

Example:

At home here I use a Firewall ( I created using iptables ) at the exterior. Inside, each computer has it’s own firewall ( pf on the BSD, iptables on the Linux, ZA on the XP, etc. )
Each M$ box ( several different flavors ) have Trend Micro Internet Security running, ( *Nix boxes IBID using other software. ) with the firewall shut off ( don’t like putting all my eggs in one basket and don’t like or trust the M$ firewall ) but have spam filtering enabled, the mail agents ( Netscape, Thunderbird, etc. ) also have spam and “ junk” filtering enabled. All DNS quarries go to an internal DNS server which has a black list directed to loopback.

Without going into more detail on my system, ( such as IDS, yes, I’m paranoid ) how would this apply to my system? Which firewall?

OK, say I knew nothing about security, say I was an “ average “ user reading this. How would this article apply to me? What would I gain out of it? Something about firewalls and spam ..?? .. sounds right, doesn’t it?

NO!

The article says nothing! It does not say how to impalement, does not say where to implement, does not say what programs implement, ....... it says nothing! Just uses allot of catch phrases.

How can the average user benefit from this article?

How can a member of AO benefit from this article?

[Black Cluster]

I agree with you that this artciel is by no means a tutorial ... this is just as a diagnostic artcile ... listing some bad and good practices .....

I think senior members can get the most out of the article .. as this article may give some hints and new ideas for security implemntations .. you know ... Not everything is this life is desgined to be beneficial for all people .. it is always targeted at a particular chunk of people ...

Cheers