Committee Meeting - August 20, 2015

Darren Bondy
Secretary to the Committee
August 27, 2015

Present: 

Bruce Campbell (Chair), Darren Bondy (Secretary), Steven Bourque, Bob Hicks, Bill Ince, Paul Miskovsky, Carl Nagel, Jason Testart

Guests:

Chris Calzonetti

Regrets:

Trevor Bain, Andrea Chappell, Marko Dumancic, Erick Engelke, Dave Kibble, Dawn Keenan, Robyn Landers, Sati Singh

Agenda

  1. Chair’s remarks [10 min.]
  2. Approval of the minutes of the meeting of August 6, 2015 [5 min.]
  3. Email Security Initiatives (Jason Testart) [20 min.]
  4. Other Business [10 min.]
  5. Roundtable discussion – all [30 min.]
  1. Next CTSC Meeting

[Will be held Thursday, September 3, 2015, at 1:30 p.m., in EC2 111.]

Chair’s Remarks (Bruce Campbell)

  • None.

Approval of the minutes of the previous meeting

The minutes from the meeting on August 6, 2015, were accepted as distributed.

Email Security Initiatives (Jason Testart)

Jason Testart provided an update on Email Security Initiatives.

  • At the beginning of the month we started blocking zip files as a result of several Cryptowall infections.
    • Cryptowalls were embedded in zips, were installing after being opened and encrypting all files.
  • We were able to recover most data because of snapshots from the NetApps.
  • At the time of these attacks we did not have a more appropriate way to handle the threat so we blocked all zip files; this was intended to be a temporary solution but has lasted longer than we anticipated.
  • 2 days ago, we lifted the block on zip files and replaced it with a SpamAssassin rule.
  • We are looking at acquiring a product in the Email Security Gateway class to provide protection against these threats.
  • The technology investigation will commence soon by IST, with extensive consultation taking place during the rules/implementation phases; this group will be consulted during those phases.
  • A lot of higher education institutions have been using this type of solution for some time now; leading solutions in this space are Proofpoint and IronPort; we will be posting an RFP.
    • Hoping to have something deployed by the end of 2015.
  • The project is being led by Mike Patterson and updates will be provided to CTSC as the investigation continues.

Other business

Steven Bourque discussed the concept of removing the greylisting for mailservices.

  • Communication will be planned and sent out before trying this.

Roundtable Reporting

There was no roundtable report at this meeting.

Next meeting

The next meeting will be held on September 3, 2015 at 1:30pm, in EC2 111.