Security Community Blog

Ian McShane | 02 Mar 2009 | 0 comments

As most people know, our Symantec Mail Security (SMS) Gateway products are built on the wonderous technology that came to Symantec as part of the Brightmail acquisition.

Despite having such 'catchy' names as Symantec Mail Security 8300 Series Appliance, most people still know us as Brightmail.

Infact, when i moved products from Enterprise Vault earlier this year, friends often mistook it for the cell-phone related SMS (short message system, AKA text message) rather than SMS (Symantec Mail Security)!

Starting with our 8300 series appliance line, Brightmail is back.

Here are the changes:

Brightmail Name Changes

As part of the change back to Brightmail, we are also changing the way we talk about the appliances. Instead of using the appliance model name as a product,...

Video: MSNBC - Crazy headlines in your inbox

Ian McShane | 02 Mar 2009 | 0 comments

See our Director of Antispam Engineering, Doug Bowers, discussing spam trends in this short (~1.5min) video with MSNBC.com's Bob Sullivan. "Why spammers have resorted to tactics you might normally see in supermarket tabloids".

http://tinyurl.com/6haxun

--ian

Information Risk Management : Upcoming Webcasts

Ian McShane | 02 Mar 2009 | 0 comments

It's my first day back from vacation today and whilst going through the myriad email that has accumulated over the past week and a bit I noticed these upcoming webcasts that fit nicely to the Information Risk Management (IRM) theme.

As a very very quick primer, IRM can be broadly described as follows:

1. External Threat Protection - or "Keep the bad things out"

2. Data Loss Prevention - or "Keep the important things in"

3. Archiving / Retention - or "Retain things only as long as necessary"

4. Electronic Discovery - or "Find things easily when needed"

You probably won't be surprised to hear that Symantec can cover all of those bases with the products in our Information Foundation suite (/shameless plug) :)

Keep the important things in

...

Released : SMS 8160 version 5.5!

Ian McShane | 02 Mar 2009 | 0 comments

Hot on the heels of the 8300 series software update last week, we've shipped a minor release for the Symantec Mail Security 8160 Traffic Shaping appliance - Version 5.5.

We've added the ability to synchronise logon accounts between multiple 8160 devices as well as some extensibility features around querying the local reputation of an IP.

You can read about the full contents of this release here:
http://service1.symantec.com/support/ent-gate.nsf/docid/2008062016183654

--ian

Released: SMS Appliance 7.6 Update 2 (7.6.1-14)

Ian McShane | 02 Mar 2009 | 2 comments

You might have noticed a new update pop up over the last couple of days as we've just released Update 2 for SMS / Brightmail Gateway Appliance 7.6 software - valid for both physical and virtual appliances of course.

You can read the release notes here for the contents of this update:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ent-gate.nsf/docid/2008052311182654

As always, make sure you have a nice working backup before you update to this version and don't forget my previous post where I talked about using the Virtual Appliance with VMWare Server as your test lab.

--Ian

Going Virtual

Ian McShane | 02 Mar 2009 | 2 comments

Earlier this year as part of our 7.6 Diablo release, we shipped Symantec Mail Security 8300 Series Virtual Edition.

In the simplest terms, this is an exact copy of our physical appliance but instead of hulking a 2u 8380 server to your datacentre you can just flash the image up on your ESX server (or even just VMWare Server).

Not only has it been through our stringent QA and baked in our persistence and performance labs, it's also a VMWare Certified Virtual Appliance. Huzzah! :D

The really cool thing about this edition is that, because you are licensed on a per protected user basis, you can have as many virtual instances as you need.
Control centres, scanners.. Whatever you need, where ever you need it!

Want a dedicated scanner for a certain mail domain? Do it.

Want to mirror your environment in another datacentre for DR purposes? Do it.

Running Red Hat 9, it...

That Thing We Do

Ian McShane | 02 Mar 2009 | 2 comments

I often get asked how Symantec manages to stay ahead of the game and how we are able to consistently provide the most effective anti-spam solution that money can buy.
It’s pretty cool to see how our Email Security Group (ESG) and backend systems work but, without an Access All Areas pass you’re likely to get thrown out by the men in black suits before you get too close. :)

So, with that in mind, today's guest writer is Amanda Grady, Senior Business Intelligence Analyst in our Anti-Spam Engineering group, who has kindly hustled up a great 101 overview of what goes on in our ESG Bunkers.

Our massive Global Intelligence Network, which includes millions of Probe Network accounts, as well as our 24 x 7 x 365 Email Security Group (ESG) looking at spam attacks in real-time, means we really are extremely well-placed to block any new spam attacks. Our hardworking systems and teams of real,...

Hello, World!

Ian McShane | 02 Mar 2009 | 0 comments

From the keyboard of Ian McShane, Sr Regional Product Manager EMEA

After a few months of quiet time, the Messaging Security blog is back in action.

We'll be covering a bucket load of different things here including letting you know who's who and what we do, product specific how-to's and Best Practice info, what's coming in our product lines as well as discussing industry trends and changes in the ongoing war on spam.
You can also take the opportunity to discuss your points of interest and pose questions to the decision makers here in the Mail Security BU.

So, what's new?
There have been a whole bunch of exciting changes and investment in our BU recently - not only in new technologies but also around all aspects of the Symantec Mail Security product lines, including; our 8100 series Traffic Shaping appliances, our Award-Winning 8300 series Messaging Security appliances and our Symantec Brightmail AntiSpam (SBAS)...

Symantec Mail Security 8300 Software Version 7.5 Whitepaper

SMS Guys | 02 Mar 2009 | 0 comments

The Symantec™ Mail Security 8300 Series appliance is Symantec’s response to the messaging security problem at the gateway. With Version 7.5, the latest system upgrade to the messaging security appliance platform, now have access to the first solution that integrates best of breed email security, IM security, and premium outbound content control capabilities in one appliance. This white paper provides current and prospective 8300 Series customers an overview of the underlying architecture of this gateway based appliance and a walkthrough of the key capabilities of the solution.

Download the complete whitepaper here.

Message Edited by SMS Guys on 11-05-2007 08:39 PM

October State of Spam Report

SMS Guys | 02 Mar 2009 | 0 comments

With the housing market taking a continued hit in September, in-boxes also took an increased hit as spammers exploited the recent market slowdown and subsequent interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve in the U.S. As noted in the October State of the Spam Report, Symantec has seen a marked increase in spam directed towards homeowners and prospective homeowners offering refinancing, home equity loans, and actual houses. First, the spammer needs to collect personal information from the recipient to evaluate whether they are eligible for an offer. This is information they can turn around and use to their advantage for further spamming.

Image spam levels also showed a continued decrease in September; the October State of Spam Report notes that seven percent of all spam falls into this category. This is a three...

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