Virus Detection on Email Server
Virus Detection on Email Server
The spread of computer virus via email is getting common nowadays. This kind of virus (or sometimes called “worm”), usually disguised in the form of an email attachment, contains malicious codes that would get executed when a user opens it. Worse still, such virus-containing emails would not only come from unknown or suspicious sources, but also apparently from friends or colleagues, mainly because their machines had been infected already.
To protect known computer virus coming from the Internet, ITSC has installed a commercial virus detection software: Sophos Anti-Virus onto our email firewall.
Virus Detection
- Incoming Mail
With virus detection on email server, incoming messages detected with known viruses will be rejected automatically and the sender will be notified (receive a bounce back message). It is expected that the risk of those notorious email viruses like “Sobig” and “Klez” would be significantly minimized.
- Outgoing Mail
There might have cases that user do not aware any of their documents were infected (e.g. user’s machine is not equipped with up to date anti-virus tools) and send to others as mail attachment. With the latest virus detection feature, the outgoing mail would not be delivered and user shall receive a bounce back undelivered message e.g. virus “<name of the virus>” found.
Is it 100% safe?
Most of the known viruses should be detected with the anti-virus software on email server (or any anti-virus tools installed on your desktop computer), however there is always a risk of new viruses going undetected. The following precautions are advised:
- Be very careful when handling email attachments.
- Update the Virus Definition Database on your computer on a regular basis.
- Outlook users are advised to apply the critical security updates of Windows Updates.
More Information
More information about anti-virus in campus can be found at our web site Anti-Virus in Campus.