Book details of 'E-mail Virus Protection Handbook'

Title	E-mail Virus Protection Handbook
Author(s)
ISBN	1928994237
Language	English
Published	October 2000
Publisher	Syngress Media Inc

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'E-mail Virus Protection Handbook':

Reviewer amazon.com wrote:
All of the big viruses of recent times (think "Melissa" and the "Love Bug") have used e-mail protocols to propagate themselves--often taking advantage of the address-book features of e-mail clients to identify their victims. The E-mail Virus Protection Handbook explores how you, as an administrator of an e-mail server (and perhaps some of the network resources that surround it), can protect your users from productivity loss that results from e-mail virus infection. This book is best suited to administrators of smallish networks who have responsibility for (and direct control over) firewalls and network-wide antivirus strategies, as well as e-mail readers on the client side. The authors of this volume (and there are several) begin by explaining how and why e-mail viruses work--they point the finger mainly at software that's designed for slick presentation of mail instead of for security, as well as at uninformed end users. Then, they begin to explain what various countermeasures, including antivirus software and firewalls, can do, and offer specific configuration advice. They also explore means of configuring popular e-mail servers and clients for maximum resistance to viruses. Overall, this book is carefully researched and should provide system administrators with the information--both practical and background--that they need to protect their systems from some of the more insidious threats around. --David Wall Topics covered: Malicious code that's spread through e-mail clients, servers, and protocols, and how to defend against it. Specifically, the book deals with antivirus software--both network-wide and for single clients--and configuration policies for Outlook 2000, Outlook Express 5.0, and Eudora 4.3 on the client side. Server coverage includes Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Red Hat Linux 6.0, Exchange Server 5.5, and Sendmail. Personal firewalls, like BlackICE Defender 2.1, get attention, too.
Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
In the introduction, the technical editor for the book tells the story of how he sent off his Visa number to an email address, and subsequently had fraudulent charges made against it. He then supposes that the reader will, at that point, have lost faith in him. In my case this was quite wrong. We all give out credit card information very freely, in many situations that are less secure than the one described. No, I lost faith in him two paragraphs down, where he states that he now knows "today's cutting edge technologies" that ensure against such a thing happening. He then mentions SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), DNS (Domain Name System), packet sniffing, and encryption, which have little relation to online credit card fraud, and no connection at all to viruses. Chapter one describes, rather tersely, a range of components and factors involved in email, some recent email viruses or worms, and a bit of virus terminology. There is also a little material on technologies loosely related to email security. However, there are also great gaping holes in the coverage, and a great many confidently stated errors. Servers aren't always "one to a box," viruses don't always have a payload (and trojans always do), and Melissa wasn't the first email worm to spread between users. Chapters two and three list some security weaknesses, and possible provisions, in Outlook 2000, Outlook Express 5, and Eudora 4.3. The PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) program is also recommended, and some points are made about its operation and use. The chapters are not well organized, and quite unclear in places. The advice is not always useful: chapter two states that the recommendation that you not open any attachment you haven't requested has no merit, but suggests that you not open any attachment that hasn't been encrypted with PGP. Since fewer people use PGP than use email, requesting and confirming is easier than checking PGP signatures. Some of the risks of using Web based email are discussed in chapter four, but the material concentrates on packet sniffing and other esoteric attacks and only peripherally notes that your email resides on someone else's machine (and is therefore subject to any security problems that they have). The installation processes for the McAfee, Norton, and PC-cillin antivirus programs are listed in chapter five. The overview of active content in chapter six is incomplete, contains numerous errors in the risk analysis, and is not clear about protection methods. Chapter seven superficially describes some commercial versions of the security grab bags known as personal firewalls. Chapters eight to ten look at email server software, respectively discussing Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Red Hat Linux 6, MS Exchange 5.5, and Sendmail. Chapter nine is the most detailed and useful, the others basically suggesting that you shut everything down. Some content filters are briefly described in chapter eleven. Very little in the book relates to viruses as such, and even less to email viruses specifically. On the other hand, the text is not sufficiently comprehensive to be considered as a general work on email security. For those who are managing email systems and have given no thought to security, this work may point out some initial actions to take. If you are using these specific programs and versions. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2000
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Book description:

E-mail has been called the killer application of the Internet with so many web-based commerce applications, business-to-business transactions, and Application Service Providers dependent on the e-mail client/server relationship. Now, because of that reliance, it is possible for e-mail software to become killer applications in an entirely different sense-if they're down, they can kill your business. E-mail Virus Protections Handbook will help systems administrators and the end-users secure their e-mail. It shows how to encrypt e-mail messages, use antivirus and personal firewall software, and secure the operating system from attack. Know what's lurking in your e-mail!