Email Security Matters blog

A blog where users and experts exchange security news and discuss email spam trends

Vircom is proud to present its guru employees’ blog on email security.  An independent technical blog discussing email security, best practices, spam and of course, industry news.

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Latest articles

• Basic guidelines to writing technical documentation (2012-05-15T13:22:27+00:00 by Jason Carreiro)
  Writing technical documentation should not be a complicated procedure. Remember, you’re not writing a novel. You want to communicate information and procedures in a clear and concise fashion. Sometimes basic short sentences and bullet points are the best means to get your point across. It’s also important to make sure that you stay on topic. It can be very easy to add too many examples or letting related issues take over your documentation.
• Go Postal on Spam (2012-05-09T12:48:45+00:00 by Jennifer Ansell)
  You get it at the office. You get it at home. Postal spam a.k.a. junk mail. Since the late 1800’s flyers, ad-mail, unsolicited magazines and pamphlets have been cluttering up people’s mailboxes and, now, people’s inboxes as well.
• Single installer to deploy managed applications on 32-bit and 64-bit platforms (2012-05-03T13:42:01+00:00 by Mohamed Basta)
  With the advent of 64-bit hardware, Microsoft has released a 64-bit version of Windows to leverage the capabilities of these hardware platforms. The new Version has the advantages of addressing more than 4 GB of memory, being more responsive and providing better security. 64-bit Windows is backwards compatible to some degree, meaning that most 32-bit applications can run normally on it. But software companies that wish to take full advantage of 64-bit either have to make a few changes to their products or rebuild them. This leads to two versions of the same product: one for each Windows platform.
• My answer to the new CASL Canadian law? ha-ha-ha (2012-04-27T13:29:44+00:00 by Marc Chouinard)
  Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation or CASL (formerly known as the Electronic Commerce Protection Act and the Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act) was passed in December 2010. It is is awaiting proclamation and should come into force shortly. CASL was supposed to promote the efficiency and adaptability of the Canadian economy by ensuring that nobody will be able to send you marketing/promotions emails, unless you clearly agreed to receive them. The subject cannot be misleading and email marketers must identify themselves etc.
• Mass Mailings – legitimate spam? (2012-04-25T18:43:44+00:00 by Marc Chouinard)
  Remember seeing that little note as the bottom of the webpage: Our partners may contact you from time to time? It’s now become an industry standard to receive daily complaints from customers getting spam from mass mailing providers such as Vertical Response, Constant Contact or Shuremail.
• 100% spam prevention - impossible? (2012-04-20T13:56:49+00:00 by Yves Lacombe)
  On one of the security mailing lists I follow, someone had an interesting conundrum. His management wants a 100% effective spam stopping solution. "My bosses are demanding 100% spam prevention, and I'd like to find some industry papers, articles, etc ... that explains why that's not advisable (if even possible). My understanding is that spam mitigation is the goal, keeping spam down to where it's not a distraction from business."
• Safety first - Devilish Device (2012-04-17T13:54:45+00:00 by Jennifer Ansell)
  More and more people are using their smartphones for music and gaming as well as phone conversations. They’re using them with earbuds and over longer periods of time than if they were just listening to music.
• What is the best way to communicate with Support? (2012-03-30T16:54:25+00:00 by Patrick Yelle)
  With the advent in the last decade of different technologies (Social Networking, Tweets, Blogs…), it seems that clients are less inclined to pick up the phone and call to explain their issues to the support teams and get a more personalized service.
• Fake order scams jump to the next level (2012-03-28T14:55:59+00:00 by Marc Chouinard)
  Fake order confirmations are now a part of Spam Quarantine on a daily basis. But look at the latest edition of this Intuit Software Order confirmation (yes, it’s that time of year). If you’re an “instant panic” person, you might spot the first phone number and call to ask about this message, or simply express your frustration about the company.
• DNS Blacklist filtering still rules, but for how long? (2012-03-21T13:36:20+00:00 by Nicolas Riousset)
  I came across a blog post from Virus Bulletin today, explaining that anti-spam solutions “displayed significantly lower spam catch rates [in their latest test] than in other recent tests.” To explain this drop, Virus Bulletin hypothesized that “spammers are doing a better job at avoiding blacklists.”
• Local TV newscast affected by malware: Are you vulnerable too? (2012-03-13T18:34:36+00:00 by Marc Chouinard)
  On Twitter this morning I got a direct message from a local News Director, but it was a bit too friendly : "LOL... I'm laughing so hard at this pic of me someone uploaded"
• Spring into a healthier work environment (2012-03-12T14:06:18+00:00 by Jennifer Ansell)
  Where to start? For your physical health, start with the biggest things: (1) Look at your overall space first. You have to know how much room you have to fit in the improvements you need before you start thinking about what you want. (2) Ensure you have the budget/approval for the project and qualified people to help you make the changes.
• Infected by Papered Fax (2012-02-23T13:59:37+00:00 by Marc Chouinard)
  With today’s technology, there are so many ways to get infected by malware. But did you know that you can also get infected by a good old-fashioned paper fax? Anyone with a fax machine knows how annoying certain businesses can be: they ignore the phone calls and frustrated pleas of office administrators and keep on sending their junk. Here’s a typical example.
• Grand Prize Winner of Fight Email Spam Survey (2012-02-21T14:00:55+00:00 by Damien Ramé)
  We are extremely pleased with the tremendous response that we have received from our Fight Email Spam survey. As promised we have randomly selected winners of our gift card prizes and most recently, the grand prize winner of an iPhone 4s.
• Recent Winners of Fight Email Spam Survey (2012-01-23T22:51:34+00:00 by Damien Ramé)
  We are extremely pleased with the tremendous response that we have received to this point from our Fight Email Spam survey. As promised we have randomly selected winners of our gift card prizes and the grand prize of an iPhone 4s.