With the proliferation of trojans, viruses, and SPAM attaching themselves to E-Mail messages (or attachments), it is necessary to have capable E-Mail Aware Anti-Virus (AV) products to scan messages and identify any resident malware. Because E-Mail messages and their attachments are formatted to the MIME standard, a flat-file AV scanning engine is not suitable for scanning E-Mail message stores.
E-mail aware Anti-Virus engines must use AntiVirus Application Program Interface (AVAPI) version 2.5 or higher, which is able to scan E-Mail content safely. Competent E-Mail 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. |