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Exchange 2010 migration: improve your email security

Friday, 11 November 2011

Businesses across the globe are constantly wary of becoming the latest victims of serious bouts of data theft. The recent chaos caused by, among others, Anonymous and Lulzsec placed the threat of hackers and the damage they can do firmly on the news agenda. With organisations as apparently impenetrable as the CIA on the list of Lulzsec's purported victims, a recent email migration report recommends that every company whose data is stored online should be aware of the threat of this falling into the wrong hands.

Given the level of danger, it is a strange and somewhat risky quirk of business at all levels that, among frantic attempts to be equipped with the latest anti-virus and protection software, paying close attention to the actual email system used is often overlooked. There are trends, however, that suggest this risky oversight is in the process of changing.

A recent article published in the Independent carried details of research commissioned by email management company Mimecast which demonstrated that concern over email security, and steps to increase protection, is on the rise. In a survey of 500 IT decision makers, 77 per cent of those who admitted they were planning to upgrade their email system stated they were doing so in order to keep up to date with the latest features and capabilities.

Email server security is increasingly moving to the forefront of organisations' attempts to protect their data. A landmark step towards more effective systems arrived a number of years ago with the release of Exchange 2003. Such was the effectiveness of this system, it quickly dominated the market.

Exchange 2003 migration was the logical choice and it's not hard to see why; among the platform's many perks was enhanced disaster recovery, which allowed administrators to bring the server online far more rapidly than ever before. This was done by allowing the server to both send and receive mail while the message stores were being recovered from backup. Perhaps most importantly for businesses, junk mail filtering was also significantly improved.

Just as there were many revolutionary aspects to Exchange 2003, the 2010 version is equally ground-breaking. Exchange 2010 improves upon its predecessor by providing improved security, new features, easier administration, larger mailboxes, improved Internet access and better storage options.

To say the business world is competitive is an understatement and this is one reason why security is so important. Imagine the nightmare scenario of a competitor discovering your mailing list, or data held by your company being copied and sold.

Any data that is lost without being backed up is an inexcusable waste. Immeasurable amounts of marketing time, money and labour disappears down the drain the second the guard is let down and information is taken, lost or accidentally destroyed. To this end, it is not enough to simply have the latest servers in place; employees must also be educated on the importance of company security.

Many users fall into at least one of the many potentially disastrous traps that arise from being rather slack while working online. A number of people, for example, have passwords that are easy to crack, or even leave their email accounts logged in; there are a number of campaigns, such as Google's 'Good to Know', which aim to tackle such basic errors that leave businesses vulnerable to an invasion or data theft.

The battle against hackers has no discernible conclusion and instead looks set to run and run. There is simply no excuse for businesses not to equip themselves in the best manner possible and a central part of this is having the latest email application in place.

If you are properly prepared, migration to Exchange 2010 should pose no significant risk. To make the transition run smoothly many businesses seek the help of an independent company, who will take responsibility of archiving (and encrypting, where necessary) existing data, provide cloud-based storage solutions and guarantee that all email systems will continue to run smoothly throughout the migration.