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Category: Gmail

Our New Email Analysis and Education Tools Helps Keep Your Employees Safe

Phishing-Scams

As you know, we take cybersecurity and the protection of your accounts and data very seriously. That’s why we are always striving to provide you with tools and resources to help keep you and your employees safe from cybercrime.

The most common threat we are seeing is phishing messages delivering malware or stealing credentials. Even though your company might be protected with spam filtering, there are instances where these malicious messages could still appear in your employee’s inboxes. And it’s important we both arm them with as much education and resources as possible to understand and identify these phishes.

We have a new tool that we’d love to demonstrate for your or talk more about. It’s called Catch Phish, and it’s an email analysis and training tool. It connects right to your employee’s Outlook as a clickable application on every message. When clicked, the tool quickly, but safely, scans the important details of the message to find potential threats such as suspicious links or attachments, sender details, or message details such as threatening language or deactivation scares.

This tool is included in our cybersecurity training packages and can help provide the much needed cybersecurity education to all levels of staff.
 
Do you have 30 minutes to talk about reducing your risks with Catch Phish and our other cybersecurity awareness training tools, then contact us for assistance.

Xerox Scan to Email G-Suite (Fix Error 017-714)

Recently had trouble getting a Xerox VersaLink C7025 multifunction printer to Scan to Email correctly and found a couple solutions to the problem that I wanted to share. It all started when I configured the SMTP settings for the scanner to use G-Suite to send emails using the following article – “Send email from a printer, scanner, or app” but got the error 017-714 report from the printer. Did some searching online and found the following answer:

Using Google Insecure SMTP Server

As per the same article, the multifunction will work by using the following settings:

  • Device Email: clients scanner email address
  • SMTP Server: aspmx.l.google.com
  • Outgoing Port: 25
  • Connection Security: None
  • SMTP AUTH: None

This is great if the client wants the scans emailed only to people in their own domain. This will not allow sending to anyone outside their domain, which was not what this client wanted, so I contacted Xerox support and worked my way up to Level to support who pointed me to the following more secure answer:

Using Google Secure SMTP Server

The first thing to do is to make sure that Less Secure Apps setting is allowed for the Device Email account. This can be checked at – https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps  but you might find that it has to be changed in the G-Suite Admin Console (disabled by default on all accounts). Once logged into https://admin.google.com,  click on Security then on Basic. Choose the option to allow each user to chose their own setting then go back to the less secure app setting page and change to allow for only that account. Now the multifunction can be configured as follows:

Xerox Scan to Email G-Suite

If your company has software that needs to be automatically updated or would like to sign-up for remote monitoring and maintenance, then contact us for assistance.

Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Outlook

Had a small client recently that wanted to move from standard hosted email service (via WHM / cPanel based server) to Google Apps. In doing the Google Apps migration I found that they had a mix of POP3 and IMAP configured throughout the organization, so using the G Suite Migration for Microsoft® Exchange like I would for larger migrations that are based in IMAP only was out of the question. I found the Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Outlook® which was better suited for doing the job in this small mixed environment.

Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Outlook

If your company is going to use G Suite aka Google Apps migration needs to be performed, then contact us for assistance.

Google Apps SPF / DKIM setup

A Sender Policy Framework (SPF) record indicates mail servers that are authorized to send mail for a domain. Email recipient servers perform a check with DNS to see if the mail came from an authorized server. If not, then the email is most likely SPAM. SPF DNS records lets the recipient server perform this verification.

A DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) record adds a digital signature to emails your organization sends. Email recipient servers perform a check with DNS for the to see if the DomainKey matches the sender. If so, then the email is considered unmodified and from a legitimate sender. DKIM DNS record lets the recipient server perform this verification.

Configure Google Apps SPF

If you use Google Apps for email, you’ll need access to your DNS provider to add an SPF record. In most cases, you simply login and create a new TXT record with the value of:

v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all

Google provides detailed instructions on how this is done. Be sure to save your changes.

Configure DKIM for Google Apps

You’ll need access to your Google Apps control panel and your DNS records to set DKIM. This is a three step process:

1. Create the DKIM key

a. Login to your Google Apps Control Panel (e.g., http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/yourdomain.com)

b. Navigate to the Gmail App Control Panel

c. Scroll down to “Authenticate email” and click on “Set up email authentication (DKIM)”.

d. Your domain name should be displayed. Click on “Generate new record”. Leave the default selector prefix as “google”. Click “Generate”.

e. Leave this browser window open, and then create a new tab or browser window.

2. Create the DKIM DNS record

a. Login to your DNS provider.

b. Create a new TXT record. The name of the TXT record should be:

google._domainkey

This creates a domain that, fully resolved, looks like: google._domainkey.yourdomain.com.

c. The value for the DNS record will be a very long string of characters, something like:

v=DKIM1; k=rsa; t=y; p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCG5in7gQIDAQAB

The actual length of the string will be much longer than that above. I find it simplest to copy-and-paste the information from the Control Panel page displaying the information. Save the DNS record.

3. Start Authenticating

a. Wait 24-hours for your changes to propagate, and for Google’s servers to detect the changes.

b. Login to your Google Apps Control Panel (e.g., http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/yourdomain.com)

c. Go to the “Advanced tools” tab, then scroll down to “Authenticate email” and click on “Set up email authentication (DKIM)”.

d. Click “Start authentication”.

As always, check Google’s detailed instructions if your setup is more complex.

Verify that SPF & DKIM are configured

Send an email from your Gmail account to check–auth@verifier.port25.com after you’ve completed the Google Apps SPF and DKIM setup. You’ll receive an email response in a few minutes. If everything is properly configured, you’ll receive a “PASS” for both the Google Apps SPF and DKIM settings. This means your email is now securely being delivered and can be verified as such.

Google Apps SMTP Relay

Install Windows Server 2012 SMTP Relay Feature

1. Login as an administrator.
2. Go the the start screen and type “Server Manager”. Click on Manage and choose “Add roles and Features”.
3. Click “Next >” (Check the box to skip this in the future)
4. Make sure “Role-based or feature-based installation” is selected then click “Next >”
5. Choose the appropriate server then click “Next >”
6. Make no changes to the “Roles” page then click “Next >”
7. On the “Features” page scroll down and check the box by “SMTP Server”
8. Click “Add Features” (required for SMTP Server) then click “Next >”
9. Click “Install” then wait for the install to finish then click “Close”.

Configure Windows Server 2012 Google Apps SMTP Relay

1. Go the the start screen and type “Server Manager”.
2. In the Tools menu select “Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Manager”
3. Expand the tree until [SMTP Virtual Server #1] is shown then right click and choose “Rename” (as appropriate)
4. Right click again and choose “Properties”.
5. Click on the “Access” tab then click the “Connection…” button
6. Select “All except the list below” then click “OK”
7. Click on the “Relay…” then select “All except the list below” then click “OK”
8. Click on the “Delivery” tab then click the “Outbound Security” button
9. Select “Basic Authentication” and type in the username and password of Google Apps user
10. Check “TLS encryption” then click “OK”
11. Click the “Outbound connections” button then change “TCP port” to 587 then click “OK”
12. Click the “Advanced” button then fill in the FQDN of the internal server (add custom DNS for future changes)
13. Fill in “Smart host” with SMTP.gmail.com – the name of the Google Apps SMTP server then click “OK” twice

Warning! You have an open relay now. Use this setup to check the email notification system. When you see it’s fully functional go back to the “Access” tab and narrow down the “Connection” settings to the necessary systems. When no other system needs to relay, just check “Only the list below” and grant “127.0.0.1” access.

Configure Google Apps SMTP relay service

1. Login to Google Apps Admin Console
2. Click on Apps
3. Click on Google Apps
4. Click on Gmail
5. Click on “Advanced settings >>”
6. In “Search settings” type SMTP relay then click the Configure button
7. Give the relay a name
8. Leave the “Only registered Apps users in my domains” option set
10. Select “Require TLS ecryption”
11. Click ADD SETTING
12. Click SAVE CHANGES at the bottom right

If your company is using Google Apps and needs a SMTP relay setup for use by a network device like a multi-function printer, then contact us for assistance.

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“They share freely and give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will be remembered forever.”
For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. - 2 Corinthians 9:8-10