fyi Microsoft Backpedals on Exchange Security Roadmap

All:

Pointer to article:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1745123,00.asp

Kobielus kommentary:
This is no surprise. Actually, it’s a good move for Microsoft and its customers.
Strong content filtering should be a mandatory feature of all messaging systems. It’s especially critical for SMTP-based Internet e-mail, which is the most universally interoperable—but also vulnerable—distributed service. With universal interoperability comes universal exposure to all the beasties—spam, viruses, objectionable images, etc.—that come in with the mail.

The notion that mail filtering should take place only at the “edge” of the network is wrongheaded. Spam is like a tsunami that never lets up: it must be held back with a layered array of floodwalls from the ISP to the DMZ to the mail bridgehead router to the departmental mail server to the desktop. Single-node anti-spam solutions, such as content filtering on enterprise mail servers, are insufficient, because they do nothing to stem the flood of spam that congests ISPs, perimeter firewalls, and enterprise network backbones. Spam-only mail-filtering solutions are insufficient because they don’t address other critical mail-borne threats such as viruses, pornographic content, and oversize file attachments. And static anti-spam filtering rules are insufficient because spammers are smart and continually revise their plans of attack to circumvent the most popular filtering rules.

To address these inadequacies with current anti-spam approaches, the industry needs to explore techniques that fit the following criteria:

• Multinode: deployable at the client, mail server, mail gateway, perimeter gateway, and network service provider levels
• Multithreat: able to block spam, viruses, pornographic file attachments, and other species of mail-borne threats
• Dynamic: adaptable to the ever-evolving character of real-world spam attacks, spamware, and spammers

The forces that flood spam, spim, spit, and other sh*t into our mail systems are relentless. Our collective resolve to stem the tide must also be steadfast. All of these threats are causing a steady rise in the “sea level” of junk mail for all of us, and we’re in continual danger of inundation.

On an even more serious note, please say a prayer for the 40,000+ victims of the horrible earthquake and tsunami in Asia. It was a lovely day and this calamity was totally unexpected and sudden. It could happen to any of us anywhere in the world near coastlines. Which, come to think of it, constitutes the majority of the world’s population. The ocean floor is much larger than dry land area on earth, and probably has as much or more earthquake activity.

Jim