SUBJECT LINE: Exchange & Outlook UPDATE, Exchange Edition, April 25, 2003
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Exchange and Outlook UPDATE, Exchange Edition--brought to you by Exchange & Outlook Administrator, a print newsletter from Windows & .NET Magazine that contains practical advice, how-to articles, tips, and techniques to help you do your job today. http://www.exchangeadmin.com
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April 25, 2003 -- In this issue:
1. COMMENTARY
- Information Rights Management and You
2. ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Couldn't Make the Microsoft Mobility Tour Event?
- Microsoft TechEd 2003, June 1-6, 2003, Dallas, TX
3. RESOURCES
- XADM: How to Secure the Internet Mail Service and Clean Up After Unsolicited Commercial E-mail or Spam Abuse
- Featured Thread: Upgrade Error
4. NEW AND IMPROVED - Web Site for OWA Add-Ons
- Submit Top Product Ideas
5. CONTACT US
See this section for a list of ways to contact us.
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1.
COMMENTARY
(contributed by Paul Robichaux, News Editor, [email protected])
* INFORMATION RIGHTS MANAGEMENT AND YOU
Rights management has become a hot--and contentious--topic lately. To oversimplify a complex subject, the goal of most kinds of Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems is to let the content creator control what can be done with protected content. Companies that generate content (including the recording and movie industries) favor DRM, which incorporates strong copy protection in every digital version of a song or movie. These folks generally believe that peer-to-peer (P2P) networks and broadband connections will result in the death of their industries. Others believe that this type of copyright protection is far from the original intent of the US Copyright Law and is too restrictive. This group blames the spread of DRM restrictions on software companies such as Microsoft and Apple Computer, which are adding DRM support to their media-oriented products.
Another kind of rights management is coming. Microsoft Office System 2003 will include support for Information Rights Management (IRM). The idea is simple: Individuals or companies will be able to apply fine-grained control over what can be done with the content they create. For example, a user will be able to protect a confidential corporate document so that only a certain set of people can open the document or flag a sensitive email so that recipients can't forward it. This capability is tremendously useful for several reasons.
First, IRM will supplement the conventional strategy of using access controls on files and folders. ACLs work well (after all, they've been around for almost 40 years) but leave open the possibility of copying sensitive materials from a workstation or user that has legitimate access. Because ACLs apply protections to a document's location rather than to the document itself, a document copied to another location can easily be modified or redistributed. Microsoft has attempted to address this problem by providing password protection for documents, but the easy availability of third-party password crackers has rendered that solution fairly ineffective.
Second, IRM will permit controls that don't currently exist in most applications. For example, users will be able to set an IRM-protected document to expire after a certain period of time or permit others to read, but not copy, a protected item. These protections might not be absolute; for example, a protected document can still be copied by photographing its onscreen image with a digital camera. As various military and intelligence agencies learned long ago, a sufficiently motivated person can often find a way to subvert information-security controls. However, IRM will help raise the bar to make this subversion more difficult than it is now. Microsoft is dividing its IRM implementation among three components:
- Windows Server 2003 will provide a rights-management server that will check the identities of machines and users. The server will issue certificates to identify users and computers and will grant users access to documents through use licenses.
- IRM-aware client applications will provide tools for creating content and applying permissions. These applications also will be responsible for using client-side libraries to enforce IRM controls on content.
- The client libraries will be a set of DLLs installed on each client computer. These DLLs will communicate with the rights-management server to get licenses for accessing specific content and will handle encryption and decryption of data flow between client and server. Astute readers might have noticed an omission above: I didn't mention Exchange Server. IRM doesn't involve Exchange in its protection processes--messages are protected before they leave a client's Outlook session and remain protected when stored on the Exchange server--but IRM does have important implications for Exchange administrators, mainly because users who want the additional security that IRM provides will be pressuring you to implement it. IRM's interaction with Exchange is similar to the way that Secure MIME (S/MIME) mail works, but you can store IRM-protected email on any version of Exchange. (Of course, you'll need a Windows 2003 system for the IRM rights-management server, and clients will need to run Windows 2000 or later to support Outlook 2003.) As Office 2003 gets closer to release, users will certainly start asking you about IRM and its effect on your messaging environment.
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2.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
(brought to you by Windows & .NET Magazine and its partners)
* COULDN'T MAKE THE MICROSOFT MOBILITY TOUR EVENT?
If you were too busy to catch our Microsoft Mobility Tour event in person, now you can view the Webcast archives for free! You'll learn more about the available solutions for PC and mobile devices and discover where mobility marketplace is headed.
http://www.winnetmag.com/seminars/mobility
* MICROSOFT TECHED 2003, JUNE 1-6, 2003, DALLAS, TX
Realize your potential at TechEd 2003, Microsoft's premier technical conference. Includes the latest in-depth sessions on the entire .NET developer-language family. Register by April 25 and save $400!
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=14025
3.
RESOURCES
* XADM: HOW TO SECURE THE INTERNET MAIL SERVICE AND CLEAN UP AFTER UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL E-MAIL OR SPAM ABUSE
Each week, Microsoft posts several Exchange Server how-to articles to its Knowledge Base. This week, learn how to secure the Exchange Server Internet Mail Service (IMS) and how to clean an Exchange server that someone has used as a spam relay.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=324059
* FEATURED THREAD: UPGRADE ERROR
A forum reader has run into an error during an upgrade from Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange 2000 Server. To offer your advice or join the discussion, go to the following URL:
http://www.winnetmag.com/forums/rd.cfm?cid=40&tid=57890
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NEW AND IMPROVED
(contributed by Carolyn Mader, [email protected])
* WEB SITE FOR OWA ADD-ONS
SpellChecker.net announced the launch of the OWA Toolkit.com Web site. You can go to the site to purchase OWA Toolkit software add-ons for Outlook Web Access (OWA). The available products include OWA Signatures, Secure Log Off, Compress Attachments, Inbox Refresh, Advanced Message Search, Advanced Browse & Attach, Mark as Read/Unread, and Message Highlighting. Pricing starts at $150 for the first add-on; reduced pricing is available for subsequent products. Contact SpellChecker.net at 310-287-2001, extension 801.
http://www.owatoolkit.com
* SUBMIT TOP PRODUCT IDEAS
Have you used a product that changed your IT experience by saving you time or easing your daily burden? Do you know of a terrific product that others should know about? Tell us! We want to write about the product in a future Windows & .NET Magazine What's Hot column. Send your product suggestions to [email protected].
5.
CONTACT US
Here's how to reach us with your comments and questions:
* ABOUT THE COMMENTARY -- [email protected]
* ABOUT THE NEWSLETTER IN GENERAL -- [email protected] (please mention the newsletter name in the subject line)
* TECHNICAL QUESTIONS -- http://www.winnetmag.com/forums
* PRODUCT NEWS -- [email protected]
* QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR EXCHANGE & OUTLOOK UPDATE SUBSCRIPTION? Customer Support -- [email protected]
* WANT TO SPONSOR EXCHANGE & OUTLOOK UPDATE? -- [email protected]
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Thank you for reading Exchange and Outlook UPDATE, Exchange Edition. ________________________________________________________ Copyright 2003, Penton Media, Inc.
