Terrorist email attacks are something every large organization must protect against or face putting their entire network at risk. For the Ignacio School District in Colorado, the district’s technology director wanted to prevent hackers from penetrating the email system. To do so, he needed to better understand Ipswitch’s (News - Alert) IMailServer’s security features and how best to implement them.

Rick Smith, technology director for the school district, said that the district had become the target of hate-mail around the time of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The district was dealing with end users receiving messages and hackers breaking into the system so that it appeared as though its users were sending hate mail out to other people.

With the emergence of the hate-mail attack, the district became somewhat crippled as it did not have a security screen in place that could help them to pinpoint the source in order to stop the activity.

“The FBI became involved because it suspected the attacks may have come from a terrorist source,” Smith said. “We sent all of our hard drives to the FBI so the recovery process was a massive undertaking.”

When the IMail Server from Ipswitch was first implemented, the district didn’t see the need for the security element, and therefore never learned to use these features. With the growing threat and increasing problems, it was time for the school district to take advantage of IMail’s email server features.

To ensure his district could take advantage of the features and secure their e-mail completely, Smith attended a two-day training seminar conducted by Ipswitch. The course explained everything about IMail Server, from installation to ongoing administration and maintenance.

“The instructor had us working in a lab setting and showed us exactly how to protect our email systems,” Smith said. “He also showed us how to administer the system remotely so I actually made program-setting changes to the system during the class.”

The training from Ipswitch paid off immediately for the district as hackers were prevented from doing any further damage to the e-mail system. Now, the school district knows how to ensure its system is set up for maximum protection and what to do if a hacker breaks through.

IMail Server was an optimal choice for the school district when it first set out to implement an efficient solution as it designed to be a reliable, affordable and easy-to-use messaging solution.

In addition to the extensive training the company offers to its clients, Ipswitch also offers IMail Server clients access to the email server channel that offers consistent updates to the latest offerings from the company, product demonstrations, featured articles and so much more that lend to the overall value of the solution. 

Beyond the security training Smith so desperately needed, the seminar also informed him of several other features that the school district will eventually consider.

 

 “We have to prioritize which features we can implement,” Smith said. “But IMail server has proven that it is much more than a simple email package. Administrators can do a whole lot more with the software while still keeping things simple for end users.”