Microsoft Server 2000® and Server 2003® Integration and Support Services

Protecting vulnerable Email systems has become a priority service of MCR Technologies. With hackers and spammers attacking Microsoft Exchange® and the SMTP (email) protocol with increasing frequency, we can employ several software tools and procedures that are very effective in protecting your email systems.

• Are you still running SendMail?
• Tired of Spam?
• Qmail- a Versatile Solution

MS Exchange® and Outlook®
Microsoft's powerful and flexible Email and Collaboration software is easily the most popular office communication platform in use today.  Not only have MS Exchange® and Outlook® evolved into must-have programs for many of our clients, they are the underlying software for many of the collaboration tools that we now take for granted. Because Exchange and its desktop agent Outlook affect the operation of many basic Windows applications (such as Microsoft Office®), they have become the prime targets for viruses and hacker attacks. And then, of course, there is Spam.

The benefits of Microsoft Exchange in any business or organization are many, and in most cases they easily outweigh any downfalls. But older versions of Exchange, in particular, suffer from a couple of potentially serious problems when they are exposed to the Internet; the most troubling is an inadequate implementation of SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and the lack of compliance to several Internet Standards. These are the vulnerable points in MS Exchange that hackers frequently attempt to exploit.  So if you are still running Exchange for NT (versions 4.x and 5.x), you may be very vulnerable to virus exploits and "attacks" by spammers.

Upgrading older Exchange servers to Exchange® 2007  will provide greatly increased security from viruses and hacker attacks, as well as providing basic anti-spam filtering.  Exchange 2007 has also been enhanced to provide better collaboration capability, better mailbox security, easier administration and new technologies to support mobile devices such as PDAs.  MCR Technologies can provide the expert assistance you may need to move your email systems to this new platform.

If you do not plan to upgrade in the immediate future, but you would like to enhance the overall security of your email systems, a good solution is the installation of a secure SMTP relay service between Exchange and an Untrusted Network (such as The Internet). MCR Technologies has found that utilizing the Open Source program Qmail as a relay, or "front end", is a very effective way to secure your MS Exchange system. And because Qmail also supports "plug-in" modules to help you fight spam and viruses, it can become one of your prime defense weapons against digital evildoers.

If you are running MS Exchange, ask us about these powerful software products to help you secure your email systems.

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Qmail
One of the tools MCR Technologies uses is the Open Source program Qmail. (www.qmail.org) The Internet community has recognized that overall, Qmail will outperform all competitors (including SendMail) in security, performance, reliability, simplicity and value (its Free!). Developed by Dan Bernstein, a math professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, the code base, amazingly unchanged over the last five years, has withstood the test of time and hacker attacks. Prof. Bernstein is still offering cash rewards to anyone that succeeds in breaking his software, which, to date, no one has collected.

Qmail is not only a popular replacement for SendMail, it has also proven itself as a highly scalable solution for a wide variety of companies-- Yahoo!mail, Verio, USnet, and Ohio State University are just some of the companies and organizations that utilize Qmail because of its secure and flexible design. And, as noted above, we have found that it can be used very effectively to secure MS Exchange systems.

Qmail as a SendMail Replacement
Found on most basic UNIX and Linux distributions is the venerable SendMail program. Long the international standard for Email, this software, which traces its basic design back to the very genesis of the Internet, is now quite vulnerable to hacker attacks.

Shoring up the security of SendMail can be difficult, and can take a considerable amount of time and effort. For the most part, these measures may be only marginally successful. This is not surprising, since the original authors of the program did not anticipate hackers and a constant barrage of viruses and spam.

MCR Technologies recommends that users of SendMail consider replacing it with Qmail. We have developed tools and procedures that make the transition quick and almost painless, and largely invisible to your users. With Qmail's modular design and flexibility, we can provide a scalable and secure solution that is easy to manage, and very adaptable to future requirements.

SpamAssassin
Fighting off the constant barrage of Spam has become, unfortunately, a major hassle for many. There are a number of software packages and/or Internet services MCR Technologies can deploy that are very effective in reducing what gets into your inboxes.

If you are using Qmail, or are considering deploying this program to secure your Exchange email system, its modular design lets us plug in applications to enhance its functionality. One excellent example is the program SpamAssassin.

SpamAssassin uses a number of technologies to dramatically reduce the plague of email spam that so annoys us today. SpamAssassin employs a suite of Rules Filters based on heuristic tests and can utilize Bayesian Logic to identify and flag spam before it enters your inbox. The software also queries " Black Lists" to identify spam from known sources, while "White Lists" are employed to insure email from your valued correspondents is always allowed through. SpamAssassin can also be configured to constantly "learn"-- adapting itself to the ever-changing tactics of the spammers to sneak into your inbox. And because SpamAssassin is an Open Source program, it is free.

If you have any questions about your Email systems, call or email MCR Technologies.