Assured: The Isode Blog

M-Switch Anti-Spam False Negative Rate Graph Update

As mentioned in previous posts (Blog post May 9th 08 and Blog post May 14th 08) we have been paying particular attention to the False negative rate of the copy of M-Switch Anti-Spam running here at Isode's offices. We wrote a whitepaper on our findings:

“Measuring the False Negative Rate for Isode’s M-Switch Anti-Spam.”

The whitepaper included graphs showing the daily quantities of Spam we received and the daily False Negative rate going back over 4 months (up to 30th April). We always intended to keep these graphs up to date so that they would continue to track M-Switch's performance and today we've updated them to include May's figures.

We will continue to update these graphs, at the end of each month, so that they always show current data.

Measuring the False Negative Rate for Isode's M-Switch Anti-Spam

A key feature of any anti-spam solution is how effective it is at removing spam. A perfect anti-spam system would have a zero false positive rate and a zero false negative rate. In practice, this is not usually achieved, and systems will invariably trade off the two measurements.

A new whitepaper on the Isode website describes how false negatives can be measured and looks at false negative rates from the beginning of this year for Isode's M-Switch Anti-Spam.

"Measuring the False Negative rate for Isode's M-Switch Anti-Spam"

The graph below shows the false negative rate from January 2008.

HF Radio & Network Centric Warfare

Modern military communications are a key component of Network Centric Warfare. HF Radios are used extensively for military communications, and, although very slow, provide effective long distance communication in a wide range of situations.

A new whitepaper on the Isode website looks at how HF Radio fits with Network Centric Warfare, and looks at approaches for integrating HF Radios to maximize their effectiveness.

"HF Radio & Network Centric Warfare"

Instant Messaging and Presence for Secure Environments

Instant Messaging (IM) and Presence applications are now in wide use. In a new free-to-access whitepaper on the Isode website we consider their application in environments where security is of paramount concern, such as Government and Military deployments.

In particular the paper looks at:

• Distributed deployment
• Relationship to Directory
• Security Labels and Clearance
• Strong Authentication and Digital Signatures

The paper shows how an XMPP based solution can address these areas and looks at standards that need to be put in place to meet the security requirements discussed in this paper.

The first version of Isode's XMPP server, M-Link, was released with Isode R14.2 last month.

"Instant Messaging and Presence for Secure Environments" can be found here.

First International LDAP Conference

The first International LDAP Conference, organised by the German Unix Users Group, takes place in Cologne on the 6th & 7th of September this year (more information here).

Isode's Kurt Zeilenga is giving the conference's introductory presentation, a report on current directory standardization activities, and we'll be posting a report on the conference as soon it's over.

We published a new LDAP whitepaper today on our website. 10 new LDAP RFCs were published in June 2006 (RFCs 4510-4519) to provide a new LDAPv3 specification and to replace RFC 2251 and a number of related specifications. The goal of the new whitepaper is to guide those with some basic knowledge of LDAP quickly through all of these documents. The paper, The LDAP Standard Specification, can be found by following the link.

Getting X.400 messages to and from end users

A reasonable chunk of Isode's business comes from X.400 messaging systems, a popular protocol in military, aviation and EDI markets. In a new whitepaper published today we take a look at what an X.400 Message Store, such as Isode’s M-Store X.400 does, and where and how it should be used.

In order to do this, the paper looks at general requirements for sending and receiving X.400 messages, and looks at the various approaches that can be taken.

The whitepaper which, like all Isode whitepapers, is free and can be reached without registration can be found here.

New Whitepaper: SNMP and Isode Servers

We provide a number of GUI tools (like MConsole) with our servers, allowing for sophisticated monitoring and control and where systems admins are dedicated to monitoring Isode components, these Isode GUIs are more than adequate.

In live deployments a system administrator will be expected to monitor many applications, servers and network components. Using a different monitoring system for each component in order to perform an 'overwatch' of total system performance is not proactical.

The solution to this is to use a general purpose monitoring tool, the most popuklar of which make use of SNMP (Simple Network Monitoring Protocol), which is supported by many network components and applications. A wide range of Management Consoles, such as HP Openview, use SNMP.

In this whitepaper we look at the role of SNMP in managing systems using Isode messaging and directory servers, explaining why SNMP support is provided, the sub-agent architecture used by Isode products, and approaches to deploying SNMP monitoring.

We have replaced the SNMP support in M-Vault and M-Switch for R14. This is based on a sub-agent model using AgentX (RFC 2741), simplifying deployment and increases accuracy of status reporting.

New Whitepaper: X.400 Bridgehead for Microsoft Exchange

X.400 Bridgehead for Microsoft Exchange is a new product from Isode partner Boldon James, produced in collaboration with Isode. It's primary goal is to provide X.400 protocol connectivity for Microsoft Exchange 2007; this capability was provided as a part of Exchange 2003 and earlier versions, but is not included with Exchange 2007.

In a new whitepaper now available from the Isode website, X.400 Bridgehead for Microsoft Exchange - Technical Architecture and Back-end Features, we describe the architecture of X.400 Bridgehead, and summarize it's key features. It is particularly oriented towards understanding the capabilities of X.400 Bridgehead in the context of older versions of Exchange and full X.400 Message Transfer Agents (MTAs).

The whitepaper which, like all Isode whitepapers, is free and can be viewed without registration, is available here.

New Isode Whitepaper: Sending FLASH Messages Quickly: Techniques for Low Latency Message Switching and Precedence Handling

As we approach the next major Isode release, R14, we'll be publishing whitepapers and making a series of announcements highlighting some of the benefits of that release.

Today we're publishing a new whitepaper on the Isode website "Sending FLASH Messages Quickly: Techniques for Low Latency Message Switching and Precedence Handling", which should be of particular interest to those involved with X.400 messaging.

Military Messaging systems, and other messaging systems with time critical operational requirements such as Aviation (AMHS), require that high precedence messages are submitted, transferred and delivered very quickly.

In this whitepaper we look at how messages can be handled to achieve message switching times of a few hundred milli-seconds, for both low and high volumes of traffic. The importance of Permanent Associations as a way of avoiding delays in opening a connection is described and consideration is given to Precedence Handling, describing techniques that ensure high precedence traffic gets optimum (low) latency. The paper explains why message pre-emption is not a useful approach and why DiffServ is important when there are bandwidth limitations.

The use of DiffServ to set IP packet precedence based on message precedence is one of the enhancements made to M-Switch X.400 in R14.

The whitepaper which, like all Isode whitepapers, is free and can be viewed without registration, is available here.

Web interfaces to the Directory, a new Isode whitepaper

A new whitepaper just released on the Isode website, looks at Isode's web-based interfaces to the directory and introduces two new tools that will be released as part of R14, a personal information administrator and a directory browser.

Both are currently packaged as part of the Internet Messaging Administrator but which will change over time to become general purpose directory UIs.

The whitepaper can be found at: http://www.isode.com/whitepapers/web-interfaces.html

New Military Messaging Whitepaper

A new whitepaper with special relevance to military messaging is now up on the Isode website;

Packaging Military Messaging for HF Radio and other Low Bandwidth Links

The general requirements and protocol architecture for military messaging over low bandwidth communications were described in a previous Isode Whitepaper 'Military Messaging Over Low Bandwidth Networks'. This paper examines how various server components are packaged together, looking at both software and hardware combinations, and shows how users and user agents fit into the system. The paper looks in detail at single user systems, from both hardware and software perspective.

New Isode Whitepaper: Offline Editing, Testing and Version Management of Messaging Configurations

Isode's messaging configuration is held in the directory providing a number of benefits, including client/server GUI management of configuration and the ability to share configuration data between multiple servers.

 

This core architecture provides a means for editing and management of a live configuration. In a new whitepaper on the Isode website we explain how this basic concept is extended to support offline configuration development and review, offline configuration testing and configuration version management. The paper explains the overall approach and shows how Isode tools are used to achieve this.

The whitepaper is available at: http://www.isode.com/whitepapers/offline-editing.html

New Whitepaper: ACP133 - The Military Directory Standard.

ACP 133 is the NATO Standard for Military Directory: "Common Directory Services and Procedures". The current version is "Edition B", published in February 2000. "Edition C" is being developed, and is expected to be published shortly. A new white paper on the Isode website gives a short summary of ACP 133 aimed at readers with some familiarity with directory services.

You can find the whitepaper here.

New Whitepaper: Directory Signed Operations

Directory Signed Operations are often requested or mandated as a part of Military ACP 133 Directory or other directory services with high security requirements.

A whitepaper published today on the Isode site explains what directory signed operations are, the benefits they provide, and situations where it makes sense to require their use.

You can read the paper in full here.

New Whitepaper: Military Messaging Over Low Bandwidth Networks

Military Messages often need to be transferred over low bandwidth networks such as HF radio and other "constrained communication channels". The two military specifications which have evolved to deal with such a messaging environment are ACP 142 and NATO's STANAG 4406 Annexe E. This paper describes scenarios that require these special technologies, gives an overview of the technologies describes Isode's approach to implementing them.

You can read this whitepaper in full on the Isode site.

New whitepaper from Isode: LEMONADE Profile - The key standard for mobile messaging

LEMONADE is the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) technology being standardized for support of Mobile Email. Isode has been an active participant in the LEMONADE working group and we'll be incorporating the Profile in to the next major release of our messaging servers (R12).

The LEMONADE Profile is approved, and it is anticipated that it will be published shortly as an Internet Standard. A new whitepaper on our website, "LEMONADE Profile: The Key Standard for Mobile Messaging", explains what the LEMONADE Profile is about and why it will be the central specification for Open Standards mobile messaging.

You can find the whitepaper at: http://www.isode.com/whitepapers/lemonade-profile.html

New Isode Whitepaper: Why X.400 is good for high reliability messaging.

X.400 was specified in the 1980s, with the expectation that it would be the universal standard for email. While this did not happen, X.400 is still used for many applications, particularly where high reliability is required.

A new whitepaper on the Isode website summarizes the key features of X.400 that make it good for applications needing high reliability, with particular focus on capabilities not available with Internet email.

You can read the whitepaper here.

New Whitepaper: How AMHS users benefit from directory

A new, free, whitepaper has been published on the Isode website today.

The paper looks at how an AMHS end application, such as an AMHS Terminal sending and receiving flight plans, will utilize and benefit from the directory. The paper assumes a very basic understanding of AMHS and ATN Directory.

For those unfamiliar with AMHS and ATN directory, a simple introduction is given in the Isode introduction to the Aviation industry. A simple explanation of the nature of the ATN Directory and its deployment in support of AMHS is given in the Isode White Paper Deploying the ATN Directory with AMHS: What you can do now.

New Whitepaper on the Isode site

Much discussion on ATN Directory has set out a big vision as to how directories can interconnect globally and solve a wide range of problems. We set out such a picture in an earlier whitepaper  'ATN Directory Vision' (http://www.isode.com/whitepapers/atn-directory.html).

A new whitepaper on the Isode site sets out a much more pragmatic and short term view and looks at:

• What products and systems an ANSP (Air Navigation Service Provider) can purchase and deploy today.
• The directory infrastructure that would result in supporting such products, and in particular how the DIT (Directory Information Tree) might be laid out.
• What products are expected to become available soon (over the next six months) that could be used with such an infrastructure.
• Consideration as to how such an infrastructure could interconnect with other similar directories and short term deployment choices that will facilitate such future interconnection.

The whitepaper is available at http://www.isode.com/whitepapers/atn-directory-now.html.

New Directory Whitepaper

In a previous whitepaper we looked at directory requirements for the support of a large distributed PKI, and set out the reasons for building such a PKI and the requirements on the associated distributed directory in order to support the PKI. That whitepaper took a "top level" view, and focused particularly on the relationship between departments and what is needed to be supported in the middle. Departments were modeled as having a single directory server, which is quite simplistic.

A new whitepaper on the Isode site "Distributed Directory in support of Large Scale PKI: Supporting Government Departments" takes a departmental view, and looks at what a department will realistically need to do in order to provide a directory service that will integrate into the complete system.

Whilst this whitepaper takes a generic approach, the models set out are written in light of the requirements of US Government departments that need to conform to Homeland Security Policy Directive 12 (HSPD12) and will interconnect using the Federal Bridge as part of the US Federal PKI.

M-Box Performance benchmarks

Our new IMAP/POP server, M-Box, was written with very high performance and scalability targets in mind. In order to judge our success in meeting these targets the product has been tested against a wide basket of commercial and open source alternatives.

A new whitepaper on the our website gives performance numbers for M-Box using the Mstone industry standard benchmark and provides reference comparison with a number of widely used IMAP servers. The whitepaper is is available here and more information on M-Box, which is available as an evaluation package, can be found here.

New Isode Whitepaper on PKI

We're seeing an increasing number of large scale, complex Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) projects comprising a number of inter-related Certification Authorities (CA's).

When PKI projects increase in complexity so do the requirements placed on directory. As the PKI is distributed, it makes sense to distribute the directory that supports these complex projects.

The latest whitepaper published on our site looks at the directory requirements to support a complex PKI and what is needed to provide such a directory service. The paper is public access and can be found here.