With the proliferation of trojans, viruses, and SPAM attaching themselves to email messages (or attachments), it is necessary to have capable email Aware Anti-Virus (AV) products to scan messages and identify any resident malware. Because email messages and their attachments are formatted to the MIME standard, a flat-file AV scanning engine is not suitable for scanning email message stores.
Email aware Anti-Virus engines must be Exchange 2010 compliant, or use VirusScan Application Program Interface (VSAPI) version 2.6 or higher, which is able to scan email MIME content safely. Competent email scanners will have the ability to scan mail stores, attachments (including zip or other archive files) and mail queues, and to issue warnings or alerts if malware is detected. As with other AV products, a necessary feature to include is the ability for automatic updates. |