Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 was released late last month, and has been around long enough now that it is seriously time for you to plan its deployment into your Exchange infrastructure. With the problems that were encountered with RU4, many admins have been gun-shy and skipped RU5 altogether, but RU6 includes a number of fixes for system crashes and other issues, and with SP2 still lacking a release date, prudent admins should deploy this rollup on their systems.

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Ask one hundred executives what one piece of equipment they couldn’t live a day without and 97 of them will probably say their Blackberry. That the other three will tell you to ask their assistant to get back to you with an answer notwithstanding, the ‘always available’ access to email offered by Blackberries, iPhones, Androids, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and other smartphone platforms has elevated email from an important business application, to a 24×7 mission critical service, and much like electricity, it is expected to just work. Given the importance of email, and the need to maintain these devices, it is absolutely essential to keep up with the security patches released by the vendors.

Last week, Research in Motion released KB26132, which details a significant security vulnerability in the WebKit rendering engine used by the web browser in Blackberry software version 6.0 and later. This was shown at the Pwn2Own 2011 Contest and has been very publicly disclosed. If a user browses to a malicious or compromised website using their Blackberry, they can encounter an exploit that can lead to remote code execution on their device. Exploiting this is accomplished by using JavaScript contained in a website to exploit the vulnerability in the Blackberry’s  browser. JavaScript is not the source of the vulnerability, but is required to exploit it. Exploiting the vulnerability can not only lead to remote code execution, but this code will have read-write access to data stored within the media storage section of the phone’s built-in memory, or any media card inserted into the phone.

Continue reading Blackberries Need Patching Too

The end of the year is upon us, and for most of us this means time off from work to celebrate Christmas with our families and take a much needed break.  But before we shut down our computer and head out the door there are a few extra things that email admins need to think about.

Patches and Security Updates

Before taking an extended break is a good time to double check that your email servers are up to date with the latest security updates.

This includes updates for the server operating system, the email server application, and any other components on the servers such as backup agents, faxing software, and antivirus agents.

Even if your patching is automated it might pay to manually apply the latest updates now so that any problems that arise can be dealt with while you are still at the office.  You don’t want to get a phone call while you’re relaxing because the server was knocked offline by an automated update.

Backups

A lot of businesses use the end of the year to take a full backup of systems to store as a long term archive.  This is best performed while you are still available to assist with any issues and make sure that the backup is 100% successful and can be relied upon later for recovery if necessary.

At the same time some businesses halt their backups over the holidays if no staff will be present to change backup tapes.  For Exchange servers it is important to ensure that enough transaction log space is available for the server to run without backups for a week or more.

Support Calls

Nothing is worse than getting phone calls on your holiday for simple questions or problems.  If the business is still operating over the Christmas period and you might get phone calls from the Help Desk or on call staff then you can save yourself from being bothered by putting the right documentation and systems in place. Continue reading Christmas Checklist for Email Admins