Monthly Archives: February 2009

Schulte RBL issued incorrect Blacklist warnings

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This morning we received a few notices from our Free/Paid Monitoring users that they were listed on the Schulte RBL, but when they used our Free Blacklist Lookup Tool they were not listed there. We just visited the Schulte RBL website this morning to see if they had any reported problems yesterday and they have posted this warning:

2009-02-27 note
—————

Late last night a DNS server configuration error on one of the
authoritative DNS servers for rbl.schulte.org caused a temporary
error in RBL blacklisting status data for all queries to this
particular DNS server. The problem was identified and resolved
as soon as I was made aware of it. No new bad DNS data should be
served from this machine. However, remote servers may cache this
information.

If you continue to have problems with this RBL listing your IP, please contact us at support@mxtoolbox.com with your IP and domain name and we can manually update your account.

MxToolBox is not affiliated with any Blacklists, we just provide a public tool that can be utilized to see if you are on a Blacklist. If you are on a Blacklist, rest assured as we do offer Blacklist Protection! For more information please feel free to visit our website or email us at info@mxtoolbox.com.

We’re always looking for new Blacklists to add, so if you want to suggest one to us, please send an email to support@mxtoolbox.com.

For information about other Blacklists that have shut down or Blacklists that are having problems, view this forum post.

Verizon set to Take Steps to Curb Trojan and Virus Activity on their Network

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According to Spamhaus.org, Verizon.net is one of the largest ISP networks that allows Virus and Trojan activity on their Network. Verizon, however, says it plans to put measures in place to prevent it from being used as a home to so many spammers. According to Security Fix Spamhaus currently includes 225,454 U.S. based Internet addresses on its CBL. Of those, nearly one-quarter — almost 56,000 — are assigned to Verizon.net.

Fore more details on these findings and the plan that Verizon plans to take to combat this activity, visit the Security Fix website here.

At MxToolBox we always encourage our customers to secure their network by locking down port 25 to only allow outbound traffic from their mail server and to test to make sure that their server cannot be used as an open relay. If you are listed on the CBL it is more than likely because of a virus or trojan that is sending out spam from your network without your knowledge. We would highly recommend installing Ad-Aware, Spybot Search & Destroy, and an anti-virus package in on all Windows workstations as well as the mail server. This will ensure that you are scanning for this activity and help prevent you from having an issue.

If you still continue to have issues sending mail, we highly encourage you to contact one of our blacklist specialist which can tell you about our Business Enterprise Blacklist Protection Email Services.

MxToolBox is on Twitter! Make sure to follow us so that you stay up to date on any changes to our system, new blogs, new information etc.

Internet Explorer Security Flaws

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There is a report of a more serious (more serious than “usual”) flaw that has been discovered in Internet Explorer (IE).   You can read about it by clicking on this link.

“Users of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer are being urged by experts to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed.

The flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer could allow criminals to take control of people’s computers and steal their passwords, internet experts say.”

We highly recommend that you should use another Internet browser, such as FireFox at least until this bug is patched by Microsoft.  Firefox should work for almost any website. When you install Firefox, it will ask if you want to copy over your IE settings, favorites, etc. – that’s safe to do.  If you already have Firefox installed, you can go to File/Import to get your most recent IE settings copied over.

You may be asked if you want to make Firefox your “default browser” – answer yes – you can always change this back to Internet Explorer later.

The recommendation is to only use Internet Explorer if you need to access a website that isn’t Firefox compatible – some financial sites, Microsoft itself, etc. or others that don’t display properly in Firefox.

MxToolBox is on Twitter! Make sure to follow us so that you stay up to date on any changes to our system, new blogs, new information etc.

JAMM DNSBL Blacklist Removed

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We have received reports that the RBL (Real Time Blacklists) JAMM DNSBL has gone down. We have removed it from our database and no more alerts should be received.

The JAMM DNSBL was a public data base which listed suspected sources of spam which has recently closed its doors. Most RBLS (Real Time Blacklists) when they wish to dissolve will commonly blacklist the entire internet in order to get the attention of those people using them to stop attempting to contact their IPs.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.

http://www.jammconsulting.com/policies/dnsbl.shtml

MxToolBox is not affiliated with any Blacklists, we just provide a public tool that can be utilized to see if you are on a Blacklist. If you are on a Blacklist, rest assured as we do offer Blacklist Protection! For more information please feel free to visit our website or email us at info@mxtoolbox.com.

We’re always looking for new Blacklists to add, so if you want to suggest one to us, please send an email to support@mxtoolbox.com.

For information about other Blacklists that have shut down or Blacklists that are having problems, view this forum post.

Save Money and Get Expertise With Hosted E-Mail

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Peter and his son James

Peter and his son James

In these challenging times, all companies are looking for new places to cut costs and save on cash flow. One of the biggest challenges faced by every business is how to be fiscally responsible while still having the skilled people you need helping you grow your business. E-mail servers are large investments and the cost of keeping one up and running can be a big cash drain. Transitioning to hosted e-mail can be a responsible move for your company.

Everyone is looking at cutting costs right now and one of the ways that those costs can be cut where your company will benefit is through the use of MxToolBox e-mail hosting service. MxToolBox offers the world class Zimbra service that allows you to access your e-mail from any computer or smart phone. Our service will protect you from spam, keep you secure and you won’t have to worry about having your own server.

You can save money and grow during this tough time with a skilled staff at your fingertips. When you use the e-mail service from MxToolBox you not only get the most secure and best e-mail service available, you also get a team of experts who are available 24 hours a day to help with any challenges you encounter. Our technical team is not only the best in the field; they want to talk to you.

In the first in a series, we would like you to get to know our staff better. We know that we hire the best in the business, people who are technically savvy as well as outgoing and customer oriented. We want you to know them too.

Peter LeBlond is the Product Development Engineer for MxToolBox. Peter has a Bachelor of Science degree from Georgia Tech where he focused on Human Computer Interaction with a focus on Networking. Peter has over seven years of experience and he is one of the lucky few of us who uses his degree every day.

Like the rest of our team, Peter, is a key asset to MxToolBox and our customers. We hire people with the best skills so that we can offer the best service to our customers. Peter’s expertise in Human Computer Interaction means that he has the skills to make your experience at MxToolBox as good as it gets. Peter is skilled at making the computer your friend and making your interaction with our software seamless and comfortable.

Peter is a computer specialist at his core, and even when he is home Peter can be found working on his computer and investigating new software development.

Peter loves the ability to use his expertise at MxToolBox, but he also loves to solve problems and interact with customers. That means that when Peter gets a call about a challenge that a customer is having you know it is making his day to address that challenge and solve any difficulties that may have arisen. He truly wants our customers to be happy and when he can solve a problem and make someone’s day…well that’s his calling card.

MxToolBox is on Twitter! Make sure to follow us so that you stay up to date on any changes to our system, new blogs, new information etc.

A Field Day for Financial Cyber-Scammers

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We highly recommended this article to our Twitter friends and we wanted to recommend it to our Blog readers as well. It is from BusinessWeek and an excerpt is below:

When rumors swirled in late September that regulators had brokered a deal for Citigroup (C) to buy Wachovia (WFC), cybercriminals capitalized on the chaos. An estimated 5,000 Wachovia customers received a fraudulent e-mail instructing them to update their accounts in anticipation of the merger. Many gave the hackers Social Security numbers and other sensitive financial information. Wachovia posted an alert within 24 hours, and Wells Fargo (WFC) emerged as the buyer a few days later. But the damage had been done. “It’s us against these criminals,” says Matt Wadley, a spokesman for Wachovia, which is helping those duped by the fraud.

The toxic combination of a weak economy and a widespread banking crisis is offering an opening for criminals who operate online to steal valuable financial information. Cybercrime was up 53% in 2008, according to a report by security consultant McAfee (MFE). Says Nikos Passas, a professor at Northeastern University who specializes in organized crime: “With rising unemployment and a deepening recession, you have a growing number of desperate people.”

To read the rest of the article, please visit BusinessWeek here.