E-mail's Weakest Links. (Special Advertising Feature).

While many organizations are dealing with security issues by instituting software solutions as a method of prevention, they are forgetting about the "big issues." However, by outlining possible risk points and methods associated with prevention, organizations can stay ahead of the security game:

* Educate employees about security and their role in the prevention of security breaches.

* Analyze your network infrastructure and possible intrusion points.

* Institute third-party tools and software packages, which relate to your infrastructure and enable policy enablement and content-management.

Security begins with the employee. Many of the attacks taking place today feed on employees and their lack of knowledge about security. Employees should understand the methods of intrusion, security risks and how to eliminate the chance for intrusion. Existing security infrastructures must be severely scrutinized in order to prevent the infiltration of viruses and hacker intrusions into corporate networks. In addition, a well-documented security procedures plan should be developed.

Corporations are particularly at risk with the use of collaborative messaging platforms and active use of e-mail. E-mail is the preferred method of communication, especially for the exchange of documents and files, making it a virtual breeding ground for viruses. Having an employee understand more about the type of files that should be exchanged through e-mail and the ones that are at the most risk can assist in limiting the transfer of viruses.

Policy enablement and content management are also important methods of dealing with security breaches.

Policy enablement refers to the analysis of your network structures and the identification of possible risk points. By identifying these points, an organization can then implement restriction processes and limit the access to case-sensitive areas by requiring user authentication, passwords, etc.

Content management is another effective method for the management of e-mail and content that is being transferred through your messaging servers. Tools that enable the content management server to reject unsolicited mail by certain given criteria, such as file name or type, can be strong allies to IT managers.

Sybari's technology protects the server, which is the heart of the whole network. About 6 million Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino e-mail users worldwide have implemented Sybari's best of breed GroupWare security solutions at companies like Merrill Lynch, the U.S. Department of State, Deloitte & Touche, Sony, Pirelli, Ericsson, Compaq, Nortel, Target, Dell, Texaco and Visa.

Herbert Molina is vice president and general manager, of Sybari Software Latin America (www.sybari.com).