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Exchange Server 2007 Email Security and Malware Protection in EBS 2008

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Hi, my name is Ozan Eren Bilgen and I am a software developer on the Windows Essential Business Server 2008 team. Today I want to talk about how EBS 2008 can help IT administrators in email security and malware protection for Exchange Server 2007.

Email is one of the most important communication tools in our business and personal life. That itself makes email a popular tool for salesmen, scammers and hackers. As of April 2008, more than 90% of emails are categorized as email spam or infected by malware. In other words, companies spend 90% of the email budget for the emails that they actually prefer to not receive at all. EBS 2008 provides email security while keeping IT budgets under control.

Email spam is usually seen in forms of fraudulent or unsolicited bulk emails. If the company network is not protected by an Exchange Spam Filter or some other anti-spam products, the mail server disk space may be filled up with spam emails and important business emails may not be delivered. High email traffic will also consume network bandwidth and slow down Internet connection speed. Unwanted emails take employees’ time and can be misleading for them. Windows Essential Business Server 2008 prevents spam emails with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Anti-spam Protection, which stops the emails before they are delivered to inbox. Thus, companies that are upgraded to EBS 2008 can save IT budgets for improving the business, and not for storing spam emails.

Another email related threat comes with attachments that are classified as malicious software (a.k.a. malware). Malware is a generic term for any software that can infiltrate or damage a computer system, such as viruses, worms, spywares, rootkits or any other type of dangerous software. A single malware incident can quickly take down a whole IT infrastructure, which makes malware protection an important part of email security. Windows Essential Business Server 2008 ships with Microsoft Forefront Server Security for Exchange Server 2007 that protects the inboxes against infected emails. FSE scans incoming emails and purges malware before the email is stored. FSE’s file filters will block attachments that might potentially be malware, such as .exe and .scr files. FSE updates malware signatures and scans inboxes periodically so that a new virus outbreak cannot affect the company network.

Anti-malware and Anti-spam security adapters in Admin Console complete the email security integration in Windows Essential Business Server 2008. Both adapters display critical issues related to spam and malware protection and launch Exchange Server 2007 and FSE 2007 management consoles for fine tuning. The adapters can restore Windows Essential Business Server 2008 default settings for email spam and email malware protection in case the user decides to revert to initial configuration. Finally the adapters display usage counters, such as the number of rejected spam emails and the number of blocked malware attachments.

Companies that do not pay attention to email security may run into problems like spam floods and virus attacks, which may threaten the company’s business and information security. Windows Essential Business Server 2008 enables secure email experience and provides easy management interfaces. Powered by Exchange Server 2007 and FSE 2007, Windows Essential Business Server 2008 gives the control in email security back to the IT administrators.

 

For more information about email protection and other ways that Windows EBS 2008 helps secure a company's IT infrastructure, see Security and Protection in the Windows Essential Business Server Technical Library.

 

Ozan Eren Bilgen

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