Adding addresses to the spam filters “Allow List”

Log into the McAffee Contol Console

Your login here will be your email address and, most likely, your email password….

If your email password doesn’t work, click the Forgot your password or need to create a password? link.

Click Email Protection -> Policies

This is where you make changes to the policies that affect your incoming and outgoing mail.

You may see more than one Inbound Policy, but the one to edit is the Default Inbound.

Then click the Allow/Deny tab, and then Sender Allow.

Enter the domain, the full email address, or some letters in the domain you want to allow.

4macsolutions.com, *.4macsolutions.com, or woneal@4macsolutions.com are examples. DO NOT enter *.com, or something very general, because that would allow way too much spam! Give the system a second to verify the address (the box will turn from red to black) and then hit Add.

IMPORTANT

You MUST hit save or your changes will be lost!

While you are here, if you want to stop some messages from coming through….

The same rules as above apply here. Enter email addresses or domains, you want to keep from your inbox. Be careful here, because you will not get any notice that a message was recieved from these senders.

IMPORTANT

You MUST hit save or your changes will be lost!

Advanced settings…. While you are here….

The “spam filter” is really a full content filter. If you want to increase the security/privacy of the messages you send, you can enable additional filters, or set up your own. The included filters, shown above, can actually recognize credit card numbers, social security numbers, profanity, racially insensitive messages, and sexual overtones. If you want to be sure you aren’t ticking off your customers, these are easily enabled. You can deny the delivery of such messages, or quarantine them for review, and more. You can also “silent copy” messages from anyone in your domain to yourself to make sure your employees are on the up and up!

How to view email headers in any email program

Do you have a spam problem and you need help to understand why you got it or what happened? Do you have a message failure or bounce error? The tecnician helping you with this problem will probably ask for this information.

Hotmail

• Select the spam message
• Click the down arrow next to to the reply arrow
• Select "View message source."

Apple Mail

• Select the spam message
• Click View > Message > All Headers

Outlook

• Double-click to select the spam message and open it in a new window.
• Click File > Info > Properties.
• The header is displayed under "Internet Headers."

Thunderbird

• Select the spam message.
• Click View > Headers > All.

Yahoo!

• Select the spam message.
• Click "Full Headers" below the email.

Gmail

• Select the spam message.
• Click the down arrow next to the reply arrow.
• Select "Show Original."

How to add a signature to your email

In Mail, you can add prepared text (a "signature") to the end of email you send.

You can add one signature to all messages automatically or create several and choose one when you compose a message.



To create a signature:

Choose Preferences from the Mail application menu and click Signatures

Create a Signature

Select the Signature tab.

Press the + button at the bottom of the middle column

Enter your signature. It’s a good idea to separate your signature from the body of your email with a space followed by two dashes (" –"). This tells some automatic email systems to ignore the information below the signature line. In my signature, above, every message is automatically signed with a line feed, Thanks, Will O’Neal, and my company information below that.

Select the signature you created and drag it to your account

Select the signature you just created in the middle column and drag it to the account you want to associate it with.

Set the default signature for the account

Once the account has a signature associated with it, select the account in the first column. Then select which signature is the default signature from the drop down menu below.

Click the red close button to save and accept the changes. Now every message you start from now on will have the signature block automatically inserted.

Securing Wireless Networks

Cyber Security Tip ST05-003
How do wireless networks work?

As the name suggests, wireless networks, sometimes called WiFi, allow you to connect to the internet without relying on wires. If your home, office, airport, or even local coffee shop has a wireless connection, you can access the network from anywhere that is within that wireless area.

Wireless networks rely on radio waves rather than wires to connect computers to the internet. A transmitter, known as a wireless access point or gateway, is wired into an internet connection. This provides a “hotspot” that transmits the connectivity over radio waves. Hotspots have identifying information, including an item called an SSID (service set identifier), that allow computers to locate them. Computers that have a wireless card and have permission to access the wireless frequency can take advantage of the network connection. Some computers may automatically identify open wireless networks in a given area, while others may require that you locate and manually enter information such as the SSID.

What security threats are associated with wireless networks?
Because wireless networks do not require a wire between a computer and the internet connection, it is possible for attackers who are within range to hijack or intercept an unprotected connection. A practice known as wardriving involves individuals equipped with a computer, a wireless card, and a GPS device driving through areas in search of wireless networks and identifying the specific coordinates of a network location. This information is then usually posted online. Some individuals who participate in or take advantage of wardriving have malicious intent and could use this information to hijack your home wireless network or intercept the connection between your computer and a particular hotspot.
What can you do to minimize the risks to your wireless network?

* Change default passwords – Most network devices, including wireless access points, are pre-configured with default administrator passwords to simplify setup. These default passwords are easily found online, so they don’t provide any protection. Changing default passwords makes it harder for attackers to take control of the device (see Choosing and Protecting Passwords for more information).

* Restrict access – Only allow authorized users to access your network. Each piece of hardware connected to a network has a MAC (media access control) address. You can restrict or allow access to your network by filtering MAC addresses. Consult your user documentation to get specific information about enabling these features. There are also several technologies available that require wireless users to authenticate before accessing the network.

* Encrypt the data on your network – WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) and WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) both encrypt information on wireless devices. However, WEP has a number of security issues that make it less effective than WPA, so you should specifically look for gear that supports encryption via WPA. Encrypting the data would prevent anyone who might be able to access your network from viewing your data (see Understanding Encryption for more information).

* Protect your SSID – To avoid outsiders easily accessing your network, avoid publicizing your SSID. Consult your user documentation to see if you can change the default SSID to make it more difficult to guess.

* Install a firewall – While it is a good security practice to install a firewall on your network, you should also install a firewall directly on your wireless devices (a host-based firewall). Attackers who can directly tap into your wireless network may be able to circumvent your network firewall—a host-based firewall will add a layer of protection to the data on your computer (see Understanding Firewalls for more information).

* Maintain anti-virus software – You can reduce the damage attackers may be able to inflict on your network and wireless computer by installing anti-virus software and keeping your virus definitions up to date (see Understanding Anti-Virus Software for more information). Many of these programs also have additional features that may protect against or detect spyware and Trojan horses (see Recognizing and Avoiding Spyware and Why is Cyber Security a Problem? for more information).

Authors: Mindi McDowell, Allen Householder, Matt Lytle Copyright 2005 Carnegie Mellon University. Terms of use

Last updated March 11, 2010

Why is Cyber Security a Problem?

Cyber Security Tip ST04-001
What is cyber security?

It seems that everything relies on computers and the internet now — communication (email, cellphones), entertainment (digital cable, mp3s), transportation (car engine systems, airplane navigation), shopping (online stores, credit cards), medicine (equipment, medical records), and the list goes on. How much of your daily life relies on computers? How much of your personal information is stored either on your own computer or on someone else’s system?

Cyber security involves protecting that information by preventing, detecting, and responding to attacks.

What are the risks?
There are many risks, some more serious than others. Among these dangers are viruses erasing your entire system, someone breaking into your system and altering files, someone using your computer to attack others, or someone stealing your credit card information and making unauthorized purchases. Unfortunately, there’s no 100% guarantee that even with the best precautions some of these things won’t happen to you, but there are steps you can take to minimize the chances.

What can you do?
The first step in protecting yourself is to recognize the risks and become familiar with some of the terminology associated with them.

Hacker, attacker, or intruder – These terms are applied to the people who seek to exploit weaknesses in software and computer systems for their own gain. Although their intentions are sometimes fairly benign and motivated solely by curiosity, their actions are typically in violation of the intended use of the systems they are exploiting. The results can range from mere mischief (creating a virus with no intentionally negative impact) to malicious activity (stealing or altering information).

Malicious code – Malicious code, sometimes called malware, is a broad category that includes any code that could be used to attack your computer. Malicious code can have the following characteristics:
o It might require you to actually do something before it infects your computer. This action could be opening an email attachment or going to a particular web page.
o Some forms propagate without user intervention and typically start by exploiting a software vulnerability. Once the victim computer has been infected, the malicious code will attempt to find and infect other computers. This code can also propagate via email, websites, or network-based software.
o Some malicious code claims to be one thing while in fact doing something different behind the scenes. For example, a program that claims it will speed up your computer may actually be sending confidential information to a remote intruder.

Viruses and worms are examples of malicious code.

Vulnerability – In most cases, vulnerabilities are caused by programming errors in software. Attackers might be able to take advantage of these errors to infect your computer, so it is important to apply updates or patches that address known vulnerabilities (see Understanding Patches for more information).

This series of cyber security tips will give you more information about how to recognize and protect yourself from attacks.

Authors: Mindi McDowell, Allen Householder Copyright 2004, 2009 Carnegie Mellon University. Terms of use