April 9, 2002

Protective Life

Dan Clemens handled Current Events for us, and then we went on to our topics:

Gary Warner gave his presentation Mail, Spam & You, which discussed the mechanics of how mail is sent, how spammers harvest addresses and select targets, and mail server vulnerabilities that make spam possible. Several products that claim to block spam were compared with tricks that each of us can use to help prevent the spread of spam in our organizations.

Todd Bailey, our host, presented on Gateway Virus Filtering and gave a very interactive demonstration of their antivirus configuration, including a detailed look at their antivirus console and how it is used to monitor compliance with antivirus policy as well as alerting on improper configurations or actual infections. A lively conversation followed with members sharing their own experiences in these areas.