Nemx Power Tools for Exchange Server

March 2004

We would like to take this opportunity to share with you some tips and let you know about additions and improvements to Nemx Power Tools and SecurExchange and how these can be of benefit to you in your fight against the recent spam and virus attacks that you may have been dealing with in the past few weeks.

Power Tools - Concept Manager:

Concept Manager works through the use of a Policy file very much like anti-virus definition files. The policy is managed and provided by Nemx and is updated monthly. Recently we have been providing these updates weekly due to the high volume of spam and unsolicited email. In the past, these updates have required the download and installation of the complete version of Nemx Power Tools. As of today Concept Manager Policy updates are available from our web site at http://www.nemx.com/products/powertoolsinternet/download.asp . Self updating policy updates are currently in test mode and should be available within the month.

For those not familiar with Concept Manager, it is an add-on component to Nemx Power Tools that is used to detect and filter junk mail or inappropriate content with greater consistency, accuracy, and reliability. It accomplishes this by understanding the meaning or key concepts within a message, because no matter what tricks spammers use, the meaning of the message is always the same.

Netsky and Bagle Virus:

The recent Netsky and Bagle viruses has increased general email traffic by upwards of 50% in the past few weeks and has created headaches for email administrators throughout the world. In a one week period Nemx has provided updated virus definition files 9 times many days providing multiple updates to combat the recent Bagle virus. In most cases updates to customers occurred before other Exchange anti-virus vendors like Sybari, Symantec, and GFI. Virus definitions for Nemx Power Tools or Nemx SecurExchange are self updating and current definitions are always available from our website at http://www.nemx.com/products/securexchangeantivirus/download.asp .

HOW TO:

Content Filtering rules can be used to automatically delete a particular virus infected or general mass mailing type email message. See the following “How To” link on our website at http://www.nemx.com/products/powertools/howto/deleteinfectedmail.asp .

Nemx SecurExchange Anti-Virus is an extremely cost effective add-on to Nemx Power Tools and can be used to augment your present virus protection by providing a perimeter barrier around your Exchange system. Taking this approach offloads mailbox servers, ensures timely virus definitions, and does not require any additional hardware or software.

Spam NDR Attacks:

Recent virus attackerss and an increasing number of spammers are using an approach of “made up” email addresses to deliver their messages to your Exchange system. This approach results in an extremely high volume of undeliverable emails (NDRs) being sent to your administrator, bandwidth being gobbled up due to falsely returned NDRs to the spoofed originator, and server crashes due to low hard drive space being stolen by Exchange 200's NDR management processes.

A simple rule in Nemx Power Tools – Address Manager can prevent these attacks from crippling your system and make NDRs a thing of the past.

1. Create a rule of *@<yourdomain.com >
2. Set it to delete the message
3. Place it at the end of your list of other addresses,

We hope that this information and How Tos will help you in your daily battles with the effects of spam and viruses. If you have any thoughts on how Nemx Power Tools and SecurExchange can better your fight, by all means please lets us know. Many of the features in the product come from customers' suggestions, so keep them coming!