While the IT industry is in many ways moving toward an outsourced model, with the widespread adoption of the cloud and XaaS, marketing has been moving in a similar direction as well. And while PR agencies have been around for quite some time and it has been normal to look to outside agencies for help with creatives, over the past several years a new kind of service provider, the Email Service Provider, or ESP, has emerged from the shadows. Not to be mistaken for cloud-based email security services, ESPs are in the business of sending mass email (typically opt-in), not blocking it. Unfortunately, for many, their first exposure to these companies (outside of an inbox full of enticing offers) has been via news around data breaches, first, in 2010 with Silverpop and now Epsilon.

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Tags: cloud, cloud security, email, phishing, security, spear phishing

Protecting your network against spam and other Web threats can save you plenty

The Web is a wondrous place filled with valuable information and harmless entertainment. It’s also a dark place filled with phishing scams, malware, viruses and spam (unsolicited or “junk” email). It’s kind of like walking around in a new city, you never know when you are going to cross “that street” and find yourself in an unsafe neighborhood. We all know not to send our banking information to the “kind gentleman” in a foreign country who needs help exchanging his royal inheritance; but it’s not always that obvious that you encountering a criminal.

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Tags: Cisco, network, network security, phishing, security, small business, spam, viruses