GFI today announced the release of GFI MailSecurity for Exchange/SMTP 8, an email content security product that uses multiple antivirus engines, exploit detection, an HTML threats engine, and content and attachment checking to scan incoming and outgoing email for viruses, exploits and attacks. Version 8 includes many key features, the most significant of which is a new Trojan & Executable Scanner.
“The threat of Trojans, used to obtain confidential information or damage a network, is on the rise. As early as 2001, an eWeek article reported that tens of thousands of machines are infected with Trojans; and in March this year, an ICSA Labs survey reported that Trojans are increasingly in use by malicious attackers. Content security products need to meet this challenge and detect unknown and dangerous executables. GFI has made the first step in this direction by introducing a revolutionary Trojan & Executable Scanner in GFI MailSecurity 8,” said Nick Galea, GFI CEO.
Trojan and executable analyzer detects unknown dangers
GFI’s Trojan & Executable Scanner can analyze what an executable does, and quarantines any executables that perform suspicious activities, such as Trojan files. Trojans are dangerous as they can enter a victim’s computer undetected, granting an attacker unrestricted access to the data stored on that computer.
Difference between the Trojan & Executable Scanner and an anti virus engine
Unlike viruses, which tend to be widely disseminated, Trojans are often “one-off” executables, targeted towards a specific user to obtain particular information. Because antivirus software is signature-based, it is unable to detect these custom-made Trojans. Indeed, any product that relies on signatures alone to detect malicious software cannot be effective in detecting such threats - even if it is a specialized anti-Trojan solution - because signature-based software can only detect known viruses and Trojans. However, this software cannot recognize or identify one-off Trojans, as these are not released in the wild and therefore their signatures remain unknown.
GFI MailSecurity takes a different approach by using built-in intelligence to rate an executable’s risk level. It does this by disassembling the executable, detecting in real time what it might do, and comparing its actions to a database of malicious actions. This way, GFI MailSecurity can detect potentially dangerous, unknown or one-off Trojans before they enter the network.
Other new features in GFI MailSecurity 8
GFI MailSecurity for Exchange/SMTP 8 also includes these new features:
Key features retained
GFI MailSecurity for Exchange/SMTP 8 has retained its unique combination of email content security and antivirus features that enable it to remove all types of email-borne threats before they can affect an organization’s email users, including:
Pricing, specifications and availability
GFI MailSecurity pricing starts at US$295 for 10 mailboxes; pricing includes a year of free antivirus engine updates. GFI MailSecurity is available as an SMTP gateway version and as a VS API version. The gateway version should be deployed at the perimeter of the network as a mail relay server and scans inbound and outbound mail. The VS API version integrates seamlessly with Exchange Server 2000/2003 and scans the Exchange 2000/2003 information stores. Both versions can be deployed simultaneously to achieve optimum protection. More product information and a trial version can be found at http://www.gfi.com/mailsecurity.
About GFI
GFI is a leading software developer that provides a single source for network administrators to address their network security, content security and messaging needs. With award-winning technology, an aggressive pricing strategy and a strong focus on small-to-medium sized businesses, GFI is able to satisfy the need for business continuity and productivity encountered by organizations on a global scale. GFI has offices in the US, Malta, UK, Hong Kong and Australia which support more than 200,000 installations worldwide. GFI is a channel-focused company with over 10,000 partners worldwide. GFI is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. More information about GFI can be found at http://www.gfi.com.