Email attachment filtering

[FTTN subscriber]

I wasn't being modest when saying I can't take credit.

Everyone person in the computer security business worth his/her keep knows about encryption and/or compression being common techniques for masking malware signatures. Protection via blocking encrypted/compressed attachments is mostly a desirable next step. If there're few deployments, it could be because of a low benefits/costs ratio. Kelsey did point out that few viruses use email as a vector nowadays (though he might not have considered other malware).

Anyhow, the first to come up with an idea isn't necessary the same person who strikes gold. To do that, one must come up with an implementation that corners the market, and be able to defend legally the claim of originality. The latter is especially an onus few could bear. The person(s) who came up with SpamAssassin probably gave it away for free.

Having said all that, I wish you every luck if you decide to take on this project yourself.

[virtualmike]

How much will this cost me?

[vbrobert]

How much will this cost me?

I am trying to get a hold of my cousin who went to West Point with a guy in Israeli intelligence. I think I can get you in on the ground floor for around $125,000. I am concerned that Procmail may do the job for free though

[Guest]

I'm not sure if OP is willing to pay that amount. My guess is he's willing to pay $0.

vbrobert if you think this is huge, why not create something in kickstarter?

[FTTN subscriber]

The "magnitude" of this feature is in the eyes of the beholder.

OTOH, the design, implementation and testing shouldn't take more than a month or two, depending on tools and plumbing already available. The biggest hurdle is probably Sonic Management's approval. :)

[virtualmike]

I'd rather that Sonic continue to focus on the connectivity. If Sonic diverts resources to develop and deploy this functionality, there'll be a cost.

As much as I like the service and the corporate philosophy, I really do not want to pay Sonic to do something I'm quite capable of handling myself.

[FTTN subscriber]

> I'd rather that Sonic continue to focus on the connectivity. If Sonic diverts resources to develop and deploy this functionality, there'll be a cost.

Even if the cost is small? It's doubtful that this functionality requires more attention than SpamAssassin. Security is a moving target that Sonic and its users alike need to tackle anyhow.

> As much as I like the service and the corporate philosophy, I really do not want to pay Sonic to do something I'm quite capable of handling myself.

Think of the reduction in Sonic Support workload that may result. Other Sonic users aren't necessarily as capable of handling security matters as you are.

[virtualmike]

I don't think it's Sonic's responsibility to manage my email and attachments, nor anyone else's except me. If Sonic has provided a place where inbound mail can land so I can fetch it, then it has done its job.

If some users don't feel comfortable with implementing the appropriate tools on their computers to deal with malware, then they can find and pay for assistance with this issue. There are plenty of search engines to find advice, and many of them have family members who can assist.

How can you assess the ease or difficulty for Sonic to implement such a feature you aren't intimately familiar with its internal architecture? And why would Sonic customer support spend any significant time helping customers to secure their systems at home?

[FTTN subscriber]

> I don't think it's Sonic's responsibility to manage my email and attachments, nor anyone else's except me. If Sonic has provided a place where inbound mail can land so I can fetch it, then it has done its job.

But Sonic does screen messages for spam and viruses. Do you have a problem with that?

> If some users don't feel comfortable with implementing the appropriate tools on their computers to deal with malware, then they can find and pay for assistance with this issue. There are plenty of search engines to find advice, and many of them have family members who can assist.

Filtering attachments at the mail server doesn't obviate anti-malware on one's computer. It's an additional security measure, so malware won't reach the user, to begin with.

It's pretty bold to assume protection on the local computer is entirely adequate. Who can be sure they're always one step ahead of ever-changing malware?

BTW, a person requesting a security feature isn't necessarily without protection. S/he may just want more.

> How can you assess the ease or difficulty for Sonic to implement such a feature you aren't intimately familiar with its internal architecture?

I can't, though I feel I made an educated guess. Sonic Management is ultimately who decides if it's technically and financially feasible.

> And why would Sonic customer support spend any significant time helping customers to secure their systems at home?

Say a user gets infected with a trojan, resulting in a slow connection (and other problems). Would you bet against him/her contacting Support, asking "Hey, my network speeds are a fraction of what they were. What's up?"

Sonic Support would first have to answer the call, determine if it's Sonic's problem, before sending the user on his/her merry way. Do you think this call, however brief it might be, would have happened without the infection?

[justchangethepassword]

I am going to have to side with Mike on this one although I don't want to discourage ideas. Virus scanning wasn't recently implemented. It is still there as a feature kind of like how Dial Up is still available to users that have Fusion but dial up isn't being actively worked on.

Kelsey said, there are millions of messages that go through daily. Each item and sort would take additional time. There would have to be more training for each new Customer Service Representative and backup system, logs, and Everytime someone wondered what it did or why they were not getting the messages they want would be tremendously costly for such a niche. So far the niche market seems to stand at a count of one. This is something that you can totally do yourself as mentioned by Mike and vbrobert

Tech Support is usually able to find the source of slow speeds rather quickly. They can usually see the data usage immediately and if that is maxed out they will let you know that you are using your available bandwidth.

Sonic users are very reluctant to allow Sonic to filter thing even if it risks security. See viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1866&hilit=Opt+out+servers