Managing Your Email Content, Part 1

In "A Viral Survival Checklist," May 2000, I explained specific steps you can take to prevent or minimize the effect of viruses that enter your organization through email. I predicted there that the virus war will continue to escalate to take advantage of new forms of system automation—and exploit any possible lapse in security—with an ever-growing risk of loss.

In recent months, several viruses have appeared that have active content in the message body instead of in an attachment. This type of attack bypasses conventional email virus scanners, which scan attachments only. To make matters worse, these viruses can cause extensive harm because recent viruses demonstrate the ability to download new code or upgrades from Internet newsgroups. Because of the need to detect, prevent, or contain this type of virus, content management is becoming a popular practice. However, content management can do more than contain the spread of viruses. . . .