What is a patent?

A patent is an intellectual property right granted by the Government of the United States of America to an inventor “to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States” for a limited time in exchange for public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted.
There are three types of patents. Utility patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof. Here is the process for obtaining a utility patent. Design patents may be granted to anyone who invents a new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture. Plant patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant.

Intellectual property

Intellectual property (IP) is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized under the corresponding fields of law.^[1] Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property rights include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions.
Although many of the legal principles governing intellectual property have evolved over centuries, it was not until the 19th century that the term intellectual property began to be used, and not until the late 20th century that it became commonplace in the majority of the world.^[2] The British Statute of Anne 1710 and the Statute of Monopolies 1623 are now seen as the origins of copyright and patent law respectively.^[3]

What are the Business Benefits of Network Security?

With network security in place, your company will experience many business benefits. Your company is protected against business disruption, which helps keep employees productive. Network security helps your company meet mandatory regulatory compliance. Because network security helps protect your customers' data, it reduces the risk of legal action from data theft.
Ultimately, network security helps protect a business's reputation, which is one of its most important assets.

How Does Network Security Work?

To understand What is network security?, it helps to understand that no single solution protects you from a variety of threats. You need multiple layers of security. If one fails, others still stand.
Network security is accomplished through hardware and software. The software must be constantly updated and managed to protect you from emerging threats.
A network security system usually consists of many components. Ideally, all components work together, which minimizes maintenance and improves security.
Network security components often include:

• Anti-virus and anti-spyware
• Firewall, to block unauthorized access to your network
• Intrusion prevention systems (IPS), to identify fast-spreading threats, such as zero-day or zero-hour attacks
• Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), to provide secure remote access

What Is Network Security and How Does It Protect You?

After asking What is network security?, you should ask, What are the threats to my network?
Many network security threats today are spread over the Internet. The most common include:

• Viruses, worms, and Trojan horses
• Spyware and adware
• Zero-day attacks, also called zero-hour attacks
• Hacker attacks
• Denial of service attacks
• Data interception and theft
• Identity theft

What Is Network Security?

In answering the question What is network security?, your IT partner should explain that network security refers to any activities designed to protect your network. Specifically, these activities protect the usability, reliability, integrity, and safety of your network and data. Effective network security targets a variety of threats and stops them from entering or spreading on your network.

Mail processing model

Email is submitted by a mail client (MUA, mail user agent) to a mail server (MSA, mail submission agent) using SMTP on TCP port 587. Most mailbox providers still allow submission on traditional port 25. From there, the MSA delivers the mail to its mail transfer agent (MTA, mail transfer agent). Often, these two agents are just different instances of the same software launched with different options on the same machine. Local processing can be done either on a single machine, or split among various appliances; in the former case, involved processes can share files; in the latter case, SMTP is used to transfer the message internally, with each host configured to use the next appliance as a smart host. Each process is an MTA in its own right; that is, an SMTP server.
The boundary MTA has to locate the target host. It uses the Domain name system (DNS) to look up the mail exchanger record (MX record) for the recipient's domain (the part of the address on the right of @). The returned MX record contains the name of the target host. The MTA next connects to the exchange server as an SMTP client. (The article on MX record discusses many factors in determining which server the sending MTA connects to.)
Once the MX target accepts the incoming message, it hands it to a mail delivery agent (MDA) for local mail delivery. An MDA is able to save messages in the relevant mailbox format. Again, mail reception can be done using many computers or just one —the picture displays two nearby boxes in either case. An MDA may deliver messages directly to storage, or forward them over a network using SMTP, or any other means, including the Local Mail Transfer Protocol (LMTP), a derivative of SMTP designed for this purpose.
Once delivered to the local mail server, the mail is stored for batch retrieval by authenticated mail clients (MUAs). Mail is retrieved by end-user applications, called email clients, using Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), a protocol that both facilitates access to mail and manages stored mail, or the Post Office Protocol (POP) which typically uses the traditional mbox mail file format or a proprietary system such as Microsoft Exchange/Outlook or Lotus Notes/Domino. Webmail clients may use either method, but the retrieval protocol is often not a formal standard.
SMTP defines message transport, not the message content. Thus, it defines the mail envelope and its parameters, such as the envelope sender, but not the header or the body of the message itself. STD 10 and RFC 5321 define SMTP (the envelope), while STD 11 and RFC 5322 define the message (header and body), formally referred to as the Internet Message Format.

Blue arrows can be implemented using SMTP variations.