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E-mail viruses are attacking more networks than ever before, and now some experts believe that the old line of defense isn't enough. Historically, IT personnel have been attacking security in a piecemeal fashion, installing a firewall to protect against hackers, antispyware and antispam solutions for viruses and an Internet Protocol Filter (IPF) to guard against malicious internal activity. These were all separate solutions for separate problems.
Today, these problems have become interrelated. Known as blended threats, they can enter your system as an e-mail with an attached virus. This e-mail may also contain a link to a phishing site. Your employee links to the site and unknowingly downloads spyware to their computer.
Take a multilayered approach to security at your gateway
First, and most important, protect your gateway. Stop spam at the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server. Then protect the mail server itself with real-time virus protection, spam prevention, a firewall and content filtering tools.
You have an array of tightly integrated software and hardware packages from various manufacturers to choose from. For best results, install an antispam/antivirus product that uses real-time Internet Protocol Blacklisting, Bayesian filtering, signature-based scanning and Heuristic scanning in a cocktail approach. Many of these products can also detect any viruses transmitted internally, preventing users from sending viruses to one another.
Overlap vendors
Shore up network security by overlapping lines of defense from different vendors. Traditional antivirus products work by matching attachments of incoming e-mail to known virus signatures. Every time a new virus is found, vendors have to publish a new update. Inevitably, one provider's update will reach you before another's, increasing your protection. Also, the redundancy in two brands of scanning software could result in one catching what the other missed.
Protect from within your network
There's good reason to go beyond protecting just the gateway. Notebook mobility makes it possible to hand-carry a threat right around your perimeter and straight into your network. Be sure that your wireless access points (APs) are protected with Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) keys. WEP is designed to provide the same level of security as that of a wired local-area network (LAN). WEP keys are part of the encryption system that provide secure data transmissions between wireless APs and PCs and restrict access to authorized users. By requiring WEP keys, only authorized wireless PCs can use the network and e-mail sent from these users is subject to the same screening processes as those wired to the network.
Don't overlook desktop protection
Be sure to take precautions on each PC. Make sure that each station is running up-to-date antivirus and antispyware programs.
Educate your staff on security policies
Finally, educate users in what they should be doing or not doing to protect themselves and your business as a whole. Proper and consistent handling of suspicious e-mail can significantly reduce the risk of spreading viruses.
For more information, contact your account manager, %%AM_FNAME%% %%AM_LNAME%%, at %%AM_PHONE%%.
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