McAfee Email Scan Properties
Why you should
use the email extension:
Most of the fastest-spreading viruses, worms, and other hostile agents
that have emerged in the last few years have proliferated via e-mail.
E-mail offers a fast and omnipresent medium that virus writers can use
to distribute infected attachments, which they often trick users into
opening and activating. Newer viruses, as VBS/BUBBLEBOY demonstrated,
might even be able to work without users having to open or read even the
e-mail message itself.
The Microsoft Exchange
and Outlook e-mail clients are particularly vulnerable to infections of
this sort because of their powerful macro and script interpretation capabilities.
As with the rest of the Microsoft Office application suite, the Exchange
client software makes extensive use of macros, marked-up text, script
commands, and similar capabilities that lend themselves to virus attack.
Use the VShield E-Mail Scan module to run background scan operations on
your e-mail system and to maintain a constant level of vigilance between
the scan operations you run with the E-Mail Scan extension. Under most
circumstances, this should protect your system's integrity.
If you have a large
backlog of mail on your server that you have not yet scanned, if you log
off from your Exchange server, or if you stop the E-Mail Scan module at
any point, you should use the E-Mail Scan extension to scan your mailbox
to ensure system integrity. Viruses could easily remain in old e-mail
messages stored on your server or in e-mail messages that arrive during
periods you are logged off from your e-mail system.
Good anti-virus security measures incorporate complete, regular scan operations
on your mailbox because:
• Good security is redundant security. The VShield E-Mail Scan module looks for virus code as your e-mail arrives on your server, or as executable attachments run after they’ve downloaded to your system. The E-Mail Scan extension, however, can scan old e-mail stored on the server that the E-Mail Scan module will not see, look for viruses in e-mail that arrives in between times you log in to your Exchange server, or can scan your mailbox if you’ve temporarily disabled the VShield E-Mail Scan module.
• Preventative maintenance means safety. With fast e-mail connections between powerful, web-enabled, scripted client software, it takes only a moment to get infected, sometimes even before you open your mail. Regular scan operations can often catch infections before they spread or do any harm.