Getting Ready for LiveArchive UI – What You Need to Know!
ExchangeDefender will be launching the LiveArchive Web UI during our webinar next week and we are looking forward to showing you how to launch it with a single command! In the meantime, this blog post is intended to give you a heads-up about the requirements and functionality so you can make design decisions.
Docker & Design
In a recent post, we discussed why MariaDB/RDS is required for the LiveArchive Web UI: it’s where we store the message metadata such as sender/recipient/subject/etc. These elements drive the UI and enable users to locate messages, search, and complete eDiscovery and email recovery tasks.
ExchangeDefender has organized the entire LiveArchive Web UI into a single container that can run on your own docker on a workstation or NAS in your office, across a wide variety of virtualization products and services, as well as public cloud like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. This makes ExchangeDefender Web UI easy to update, easy to manage, and easy to tweak to your requirements.
There are two ways to configure and start the container: preconfigured with environment variables or on-demand browser configuration. If you start the container without the environment defined you will be presented with a web configuration wizard that will prompt for S3 and RDS credentials. If this is the first time you’re deploying LiveArchive Web UI or just want to test it, this is the best way. Once you close your browser all the configuration vanishes and nobody else has access to your mail.
After you’ve configured everything to your liking and are looking to put the service into production, place the appropriate information in the container environment variables, and the container will always launch in production mode and bypass the wizard configuration.
Authentication
ExchangeDefender Web UI was designed to facilitate your email backup and eDiscovery needs. Our experience in compliance archiving and long-term email archiving has allowed us to work with countless organizations and one thing they all have in common is that they all have their own unique access and control needs.
ExchangeDefender Web UI by default presents all the available mailboxes and each email address has its own path. Using this predictable data storage process your Web Application Firewall can easily be configured to include or exclude data by path alone.
We designed the solution so it can be launched quickly, accessed, and managed without a lot of technical skill, and so it can be quickly modified/optimized for production. LiveArchive offers a lot of solutions to modern email problems and the flexibility means you can run different LiveArchive Web UI for different personnel or different tasks.
Resources & Customization
ExchangeDefender Web UI is completely free and open source. This means you can download it, modify it, and use it freely.
It also means that the solution will live even after ExchangeDefender as an organization is gone. You will not find any references or callbacks to our network and all the protocols are fully documented. This enables you to truly craft a failover email solution that can be completely disconnected from the Internet and placed into cold storage / safe.
Resource-wise the container is a little more than a web server and you can run hundreds of users with even the minimal 1 cpu / 1gb ram. This is possible because the SQL workload and data storage are handled by other services.
We hope you’re as excited about the launch as we are. Please join us for the webinar to see how it’s done and we’ll even help you set yours up right after the event! Just think of a good subdomain to point to your new LiveArchive backup platform.
‘LiveArchive Web UI’ Launch Webinar – Join Now!
The new ExchangeDefender LiveArchive has been delighting our clients for months and we’ve got a surprise for you coming in February with a huge new feature pack we can’t wait to show you:
ExchangeDefender LiveArchive Web UI is the free, open-source, host-anywhere platform that will make it easy to access and perform eDiscovery tasks with your LiveArchive backups. Instead of just staring at a directory in S3, you can have a beautiful interface to quickly locate, view, and export messages. You can host it anywhere that offers container hosting or on your PC, you have the entire source code that’s free forever that you can customize and build on, and it’s free!
We’ve even rolled out similar user interface elements so that the experience will feel familiar to users of Microsoft M365 or Google Gmail:
During the launch webinar, we will go over the features, execute a full deployment so you can see how easy and quick the process is, and go over the security best practices. In less than an hour, you will have all the expertise needed to position, price, deploy, and manage the entire LiveArchive backup system.
Webinar Digest 8/16: Unveiling 7 New Features in ExchangeDefender
Watch the full webinar episode >> Click here!
In a dynamic and informative session, our recent webinar shed light on the latest advancements in email management and security. Hosted on August 16th, participants gained a comprehensive understanding of key features and innovations that are set to reshape the way we interact with our email systems. Here’s a recap of the highlights from this engaging event:
1. Seamless Integration: LiveArchive Meets Inbox
A major focal point of the webinar was the integration of LiveArchive, our innovative business continuity solution, directly into the Inbox interface. This strategic move not only enhances user experience but also provides a streamlined pathway to essential features, ensuring business continuity even in the face of disruptions.
2. Long-Term Archiving Redefined: Introducing LiveArchive
Anticipation filled the virtual room as LiveArchive’s impending launch as a long-term archiving service was unveiled. Participants were introduced to this game-changing solution, designed to preserve crucial data over extended periods, elevating archiving capabilities to new heights.
3. Empowerment through Insights: Quarantine Email Reports
The introduction of Quarantine Email Reports was met with excitement. Attendees discovered how this addition empowers users with deeper insights into email management and security, enabling more informed decisions and improved communication management.
4. Crafting Policies with Precision: Enhanced Policy Creation
One of the webinar’s hands-on segments demonstrated the process of crafting allow policies for domains such as @xdreports.com and @xddiagnostics.com. This procedure showcased the delicate balance between streamlined communication and robust security measures.
5. File Sharing Made Effortless: WEBSHARE for Large Attachments
Participants were introduced to the upgraded support for large attachments through the WEBSHARE feature. This enhancement offers a more efficient and seamless method for sharing files within the platform, simplifying collaboration without compromising on security.
6. Simplified Security Configuration: Default Domain Security Policy Wizard
Navigating the complexities of security policies became a breeze as we explored the Default Domain Security Policy Wizard. Attendees gained a firsthand experience of how this user-friendly tool streamlines the configuration of essential security policies, ensuring a safer digital environment.
7. Unveiling Loopback Services: Insights and Applications
A deep dive into Loopback Services rounded off the webinar. From roundtrip latency testing to policy enforcement and delivery testing, participants gained insight into these multi-faceted services. Moreover, the critical role they play in phishing education and attack simulation highlighted their value in fortifying cybersecurity defenses.
In closing, the webinar provided an illuminating exploration of the evolving landscape of email management and security. Participants departed armed with knowledge and insights that will shape their strategies for more effective communication and enhanced protection. We extend our gratitude to all attendees for their active engagement and look forward to continually revolutionizing the way we interact with our digital communication systems.
Something old, new, borrowed, and blue!
As the throwback to the Victorian era implies, ExchangeDefender looks forward to providing your protection and prosperity. From September to November of 2023 we will be launching a ton of new features and we want to invite you to a webinar that will explain all the details you need to know:
The pricing will not change but you’ll get many new features and security settings.
We are responding to the demands and problems our clients face every day exchanging information across the Internet securely.
What worked a decade or two ago, heck even a week or two ago in some cases, is no longer adequate. That’s what you pay us for and the primary value we provide – keeping new exploits and attacks on your technology away from your server/cloud/tenant.
To get the same level of protection and monitoring you’d need a dedicated cybersecurity team for even the smallest of organizations – and we’re taking big steps to simplify that process and give you the ability to control your security without having to deal with every little detail.
We’re excited and hope you get a chance to join us for this webinar – we promise it will save you a ton of time and get you ahead of what will be a very busy quarter.
ExchangeDefender User Security Best Practices Webinar
Every month we get a ton of new ExchangeDefender users. We work harder than others to keep you safe — and we want to get you up to speed with all the unique security benefits you get with ExchangeDefender and how to best take advantage of them.
The webinar is not overly technical AND it’s a great opportunity to get any questions you may have answered by the very people that manage ExchangeDefender. Here is what we will cover:
– How to spot and manage phishing attacks
– Importance of strong passwords
– Why you need MFA/OTP and how it works
– What to do when messages bounce
– What to do when your email is down
– How to lock down ExchangeDefender
– How to deal with spoofing and identity theft
Attacks on IT are only getting more efficient and sophisticated with each passing day – and ExchangeDefender is here to help you stay secure and adopt the best practices of our most successful partners and clients.
* First webinar in series, we will post recordings in our portal on March 1, 2023 after all the live sessions have been recorded & edited.
Register for the webinar here: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/457089402282191197
WEBINAR RECAP: Earn cash rewards, new phishing filter design, and more!
Our latest webinar live session of 2022 just happened a few days ago, and we had so much to share with our partners. Topics covered included our newly launched sister company, 365 Defender, our new referral program that earns you cash rewards, and so much more. Today, we want to share with you the replay of the webinar featuring just the main highlights. You can always watch the replay video anytime by clicking here.
365 Defender – providing affordable cybersecurity services directly to small businesses
ExchangeDefender’s overall strategy for 2022, as we recover from the covid-19 global pandemic, is to focus on enhancing our current cybersecurity services and software. There has been a huge shift in the IT workforce, and IT needs for the common small business which is why we launched 365 Defender. 365 Defender enables small businesses with no IT the ability to access affordable cybersecurity services. Why did we do this? The market demand was overwhelming, especially while we were all working from home. We started getting requests directly from businesses who were in dire need of security. Further, IT and MSP providers providers are specializing in more profitable areas leaving an under-served SMB space.
New Phishing Firewall user experience
ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall has received a major face lift. We’re making it easier to control where your users go when they aren’t paying attention. The new UI enables direct access to malware scans and site security reports. It also features an improved mobile interface with the ability for logging and auditing. Soon, the firewall will also feature phishing and security user training. The new firewall is automatic, and does not require any actions by the user.
In 2022, every business needs a (good) website
We just launched brand new custom website design packages for an affordable price. Currently there are two options: a full one pager website, and a premium three-page responsive website. Pricing begins at just $199, and as a launch promo we are offering our clients the ability to spread the payments over three easy monthly payments. Why did we start offering this service? In a recent survey, tons of partners expressed their website and maintenance frustrations. We knew that we could create a package that includes the website, hosting, and maintenance.
365 Defender Referral Program
Say hello to less work, and more commission with our new 365 Defender Referral Program. Earn up to $365 commission for every referral that becomes a client. When they subscribe to a service, they’ll get a $20 credit, and you’ll get a cash reward equivalent to their final sales amount. The process is simple – sign up for free, submit a company referral, and earn cash.
Password Security Policy Enforcement & Enhancements
Over the past year we’ve been introducing enterprise security measures to help protect our clients from an increasing volume of attacks. Email is the single most abused gateway for email threats – with 91% of corporate breaches starting through email – and it’s only getting worse.
If you’ve used Yahoo, MySpace, or hundreds of popular free web sites (go to https://haveibeenpwned.com/ to see how/who exposed your data) your credentials and other information is available on the web. Hackers are using these passwords and personal information to guess their way into other sites that haven’t been breached – so if you use the same or similar password (or only change the site id, or one number or letter to make it different) then you’re making it very simple for hackers to get into your account.
And we get it. Dealing with security, passwords, and locking down online services is time consuming. But as the company whose main purpose and mission is to keep you secure – we want to help save you time and make it easier for you to be secure.
For the details on all the stuff we’ve got coming in September, we’d like to invite you to our webinar:
ExchangeDefender Security Upgrade
Tuesday, September 10th, 2019
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6898777257651237900
In the meantime, we’re going to help our partners and clients not make things “stupid easy” for hackers – by globally resetting ExchangeDefender passwords that are older than 1 year. We’ll do this on September 1st, in a very minimally intrusive way, and for those that don’t use ExchangeDefender on the daily basis (and mainly just release SPAM from quarantines) the password change won’t affect them.
Using an OTP/2FA or VPN services or all the free features that are built into ExchangeDefender to keep you secure is obviously our preferred way but as we’ve noted – the realities of SMB concern for IT security – so we need to try something else. We really hope our partners and clients can take the time to attend the September Webinar, as we believe the stuff we’ve built will help lock down your organization and make security manageable again.
ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall FAQ
ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall officially launches tomorrow, June 12th, 2019.
Every service provider and every user will be contacted with the information about the new service. Since some users may see the redirection site, we wanted to assure everyone was aware of the service, how it works, what it looks like, and what it does to protect them.
Note from Vlad: We hate changing the user experience. We understand that every time we change anything there will be an issue, folks don’t like having their cheese moved, I get it. However, this isn’t a futile exercise in self-promotion, up-selling, cross-selling, or useless noise: we are doing this to eliminate the problem that 90% of security compromises are triggered by. This implementation comes down to ethics: If I know that something is 90% likely to hurt you, and I have the means to protect you, and I choose to let you get hurt anyhow… why would you ever do business with me or ExchangeDefender? I understand we may lose some business over this, and I am willing to make less money in order to do a better job for people that trust us with their business.
Here are the answers to some questions we’ve already received:
Q: Does ExchangeDefender PF work on every device I receive email on?
A: Yes, ExchangeDefender PF automatically encodes all links sent through our system in HTML messages and redirects them through ExchangeDefender PF. This means that the link will be secured no matter which device you use to access your ExchangeDefender-protected email.
Q: Does ExchangeDefender PF protect me from non-email links?
A: ExchangeDefender only protects you from email links in HTML messages sent to your email address through ExchangeDefender. If your mail client downloads mail from 3rd party external services (Yahoo,
AOL, Microsoft, Google) that are not protected by ExchangeDefender, you will not be protected.
Q: Is ExchangeDefender PF available in ExchangeDefender Essentials?
A: ExchangeDefender PF is only available in ExchangeDefender Pro and ExchangeDefender Enterprise.
Q: Is there any way to turn off URL encoding for specific domains or users?
A: ExchangeDefender encodes the URL at the edge, as the message is being scanned for malware and other phishing forgeries.
Q: I don’t want to see the ExchangeDefender PF warning/site, can I bypass it?
A: Yes, you can simply whitelist the domain and ExchangeDefender PF will not be displayed. Whitelisted domains are automatically displayed without ExchangeDefender PF. ExchangeDefender maintains a list of known good/legitimate domains so the likelihood that you will see a dangerous (or questionable) website is very low. Additionally, your IT department or IT Solution Provider has access to organization-wide whitelist and can bypass ExchangeDefender PF to any site you need to visit.
Q: Is it possible to still get hacked/compromised even with ExchangeDefender PF?
A: ExchangeDefender PF simply applies your organizational policies to traffic and gives you additional information about the link you have clicked on. If you ignore warnings, or if you proceed to a dangerous site as a part of your organizational policy, you can still be compromised.
Q: Is there anything special I need to do on my network in order to support the redirection?
A: No, you should not have to make any modifications to your clients network in order to support this. If you do something exceptionally unusual (we would have contacted you separately, DoD requirement) and only have an allow access policy while blacklisting the rest of the Internet, redirection happens through https://r.xdref.com domain that needs to be in the safe sites.
Q: Can I turn URL rewriting off?
A: The ExchangeDefender URL rewriting code is implemented at the edge without regard for domain/user policies. In order not to introduce delays in processing, this is a global rule. If you are concerned about your clients seeing the redirection screen, whitelist the domains they typically go through. If we get complaints about it, we will look at deploying this policy further down in the scanning path which will slow down processing times for domains that opt out of the service and that feature is already in the development queue.
Q: Can I see the copy of the messages you are sending users, so I know what to expect?
A: Here is a copy of the message in PDF and Outlook format.
Q: Will the links stay live for X number of years for compliance purposes?
A: There is no expiration date for the links, as clearly stated in our Privacy Policy we do not collect or archive the links that you click on or that we encode, they will stay in your downloaded / cached / archived messages. While many regulatory requirements have message retention policy expectations, those requirements do not extend to external content, ie: you have to archive the message, you DO NOT have to archive the documents that are externally linked on third party sites. Either way, messages will continue to redirect as long as we stay in business.
Q: Can I get a list of good/bad sites for my compliance records?
A: Please contact our compliance officer at compliance@ownwebnow.com with the letter from your regulatory body and we will do our best to provide this confidential information ASAP.
ExchangeDefender: Overhaul of Phishing Protection
ExchangeDefender is thrilled to announce the new Phishing Firewall in the cloud, going into full production – Wednesday, June 12th, 2019 for all ExchangeDefender Pro and Enterprise protected clients. The old way of highlighting, underlining, inserting warnings and so on will be removed from the service at the same time because it lacks the ability to protect clients in real-time.
The ExchangeDefender Phishing Firewall (EPF) is a real-time, active pishing protection. As ExchangeDefender processes inbound mail, it will rewrite every link to proxy it through EPF when user clicks on it. If the site is safe, the user will be automatically redirected to it and will not even know that EPF is in the way. If the site is not on the safe list, end users will see this warning:
They will have the option to just click on the link and proceed, add to whitelist (at which point they are automatically allowed through in the future) or add to blacklist.
Because of the way phishing works, and all identity theft or forgery in general, it is impossible to secure email messages in transit without making annoying modifications to the message that often distort the look and feel of it. Majority of those links are in the 95% of the mail that passes through ExchangeDefender as SPAM/SureSPAM, meaning that they would never even be seen by anyone. By moving the Phishing Firewall to the cloud, we can now secure every device and provide additional metrics and advisory on top of it to protect our clients from 0-day exploits.
This feature is provided to our clients free of charge and replaces expensive “security awareness training” solutions that users typically hate and do nothing to adequately secure the client. With Exchange Phishing Firewall we enable our clients to create custom policies, maintain whitelists, blacklists, get enterprise reporting and more. It further allows us to go one step beyond – in the upcoming releases we’ll offer the ability to display a screenshot of the site as well as link intelligence data (How long ago was the domain name registered? Where is the IP you’re about to go to located? Is the domain a close spelling error of a widely recognized site? Is the forged site just a cloud hosted Google, Microsoft or Amazon cloud service instance that is holding or redirecting you to another more dangerous location?)
If you’re currently on ExchangeDefender Essentials, we encourage you to schedule a demo with our team to check this feature out as it’s significantly cheaper than antivirus or “security training” solutions and will do a far better job. If you’re on ExchangeDefender Pro or ExchangeDefender Enterprise, you will get this feature free of charge. On Monday, June 10 we will send an email notification announcing this launch to our partners, MSPs, and Service Providers. On Tuesday, June 11 we will send an email notification to end users. Finally, on Wednesday, June 12th we will go live with the service and hope to minimize the annoyance of phishing once and for all. Email is the single most popular attack vector, with 91% of the compromises starting through a phishing attack, and we look forward to protecting all our users even better.
Phishing: Beware of Strangers
This Thursday, June 6th, we will be announcing a major overhaul in the way we deal with spear phishing SPAM. No, it’s not a mind-blowing patent-pending stroke-of-genius sort of stuff, it’s much closer to what your parents told you growing up: Don’t get into a car with strangers don’t click on links or open attachments from strangers.
In a way, ExchangeDefender has had protection from this issue for years. If you had a decent IT Solution Provider implementing ExchangeDefender for you, they would have setup your SPF record and eliminated this issue – but many don’t. Or they would have turned on ExchangeDefender protection where all messages spoofing/forging your domain would automatically get junked – almost none of them do. Which is why ExchangeDefender as a service has become less of an IT tool and more of an end user suite of services to get stuff done.
When features like this are left disabled “because they might become support issues” it becomes really difficult to secure users. But I get it, IT companies have a business to run too, which is why we’ve really stepped up our support efforts and are going to be there to help folks get things done without becoming an additional problem for the IT department. Doing so has really made us rethink how we implement features and how the service behavior needs to speak the same language as the end user. Which brings me to phishing beyond forgeries.
Can you spot a stranger?One of the new phishing protection features in ExchangeDefender will allow you to flag messages that are coming from outside of your organization. You will have two settings – to modify the subject and to modify the header of the message so when you look inside of your mailbox you’ll know what came from a stranger right away. Try it:
Even from the message listing you’ll know which messages shouldn’t even be opened. But suppose you ignored even that – you can set another warning, printed inside of the message, giving the user even more of an instruction of what to do.
Warning: Message was sent from outside of the organization. Do not click on links or open attachments if you don’t recognize the sender.
Far from subtle. And it has to be – because most people check email quickly, between tasks, or are simply interrupted by it. ExchangeDefender has your back, and we’ll make sure we alert you to possible issues before they become problems. Which we hope everyone will be aboard with.
Please join us, June 6th at Noon, for our NEW webinar featuring ExchangeDefender’s Phishing and Spoofing protection, plus see what’s new with Encryption, WFS, and Wrkoo!