Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

Server Management has had a web site redesign, and along with the new look, a change in policy. My monthly messaging column is now online!

Here's my July column:

Open an e-mail or receive an instant message (IM), and all you’ll see is an e-mail address and a name and perhaps a signature with extra information. So how can you ensure that the person at the other end of the line is who they say they are? In these days of e-mail distributed malware and phishing scams, the identity of the sender is more important than ever.

Digital signatures are one way of helping ensure message integrity. It’s easy enough to set one up to use with most common mail solutions – though there’s still no standard for signed instant messages. You’ll need a personal or a corporate digital certificate to create a digital signature as this allows your mail tool to certify that your message came from you or your business.

You'll find more here.

Latest issue of Server Management is through the door, with my second messaging column (on Blackberries) - and a posterised picture of me in the list of regular contributors, listing me as Messaging Editor.

Simon Bisson, messaging editor, is a freelance IT consultant and writer, and a veteran of messaging from Usenet to IM. He has run the technical side of a national ISP and worked as a consulting architect on many larger web applications.

Go me.