November 01, 2003

Your Systems are Infected, You Have 8.5 Seconds, Tick, Tick, Tick…Boom

In 8.5 seconds, the Slammer worm virus was powerful enough to double its infection rate i. This one virus, unleashed in January 2003, caused an estimated $1 billion in lost productivity. At that rate, a single infection in your organization could spread to 1024 users in 85 seconds. This could bring your entire organization to its knees.

The threat of virus infection grows everyday as each new virus becomes more destructive then the last. The Sobig.F virus, detected Aug. 18 of this year, was the world's most rapid spreading virus to date. Carnegie Mellon's CERT Coordination Center has reported the number of IT security incidents has grown from 52,658 in 2001 to 82,094 in 2002. This number is set to double as there have been 114,855 incidents reported in the first three quarters of 2003 ii.

Knock on wood three times and be thankful that you have kept the four horsemen at bay, but given fresh viral onslaughts each month, how long will this continue? And what are you doing to protect your organization?

Standard protective measures involve installing anti-virus and firewall programs, all necessary actions, but it is time to look at the root of the problem. With a virtual monopoly on the operating systems market, over 90% of all viruses target Microsoft software and are written to exploit its security flaws. Vulnerability in one MS program often affects all MS programs as the company continues to connect its software together (often more for marketing purpose rather than technical need). Therefore a weakness in MS Internet Explorer will affect MS Outlook. Now, more than ever, it is time to look at a safer messaging platform.

In the Windows Exchange environment, it is easy to run executable programs by simply double clicking on email attachments. The latest version of MS Outlook blocks executable attachments by default, but this can be overridden. In previous versions of Exchange simply reading an email could launch a program. Microsoft has issued security bulletins at least once a year for the last five years because of this. Although patches were made available, every IT manager knows it is not always possible to ensure each user uploads every patch especially when Microsoft releases 5 to 10 patches a month.

If your organization runs MS Exchange, especially if it runs MS Exchange 5.5, a more secure messaging platform is available that will also save money and time. More than 68 million people use Lotus Notes and Domino and migrating to Lotus Domino is easier than an Exchange Upgrade and provides advanced security. Advanced security features include virus protection. Domino Execution Control Lists (ECLs) protect your computing environment by checking any attempted action against the signature of the developer. Any developer not authorized in the ECL will trip an Execution Security Alert. This avoids the security problems with Exchange and Outlook that created entry points for "Melissa," ILOVEYOU" and other MS targeted viruses.

Domino offers an easy to manage public key infrastructure (PKI) that is the foundation for many built in security features, including digital signatures, and per-recipient encryption, access control to the individual field level, ECLs, and local data encryption for Lotus Notes clients. Exchange 2000 does not offer this.

Domino is more than just messaging as it delivers powerful collaborative applications that will make your organization more efficient. It offers more reliable performance because its superior architecture supports six-way active/active clustering, which can be used for fail over and load balancing. In Exchange, failure of one mailbox means downtime for all. Domino scales with no limitations and it supports more operating systems. Exchange 2000 can run only on one platform - Windows, which causes more hassles when considering an upgrade.

Many organizations are still using Exchange 5.5 because they did not migrate to Exchange 2000 (which shipped in the fall of 2000). Upgrading to Exchange 2000 requires a migration from Windows NT 4.0 domains to Windows 2000 Active Directory. Mainstream support for Exchange 5.5 is ending this year and since it is not possible to go directly from Windows NT 4.0 to Windows 2003 iii, most organizations are facing two complex migrations in addition to constant patching. Clearly the time is now to take a serious look at the advantages of migrating to Lotus Domino.

No one is completely safe. The four dark horses of the Apocalypse are relentless and are waiting just outside your firewall. One way to keep them at bay is to move to a more secure messaging platform. Most viruses get their start in the Exchange / Outlook environment, but you have an option. An option that is more secure, more reliable, and less costly.

i)  The Spread of the Sapphire/Slammer Worm
ii)  CERT/CC Statistics 1988-2003
iii) Exchange 5.5 - time is running out...