Features

Multi-engine Protection against the Latest E-mail Threats

Learn about the features and benefits of Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server, which helps businesses protect their Exchange messaging environments from viruses, worms, spam, and inappropriate content.

New features in SP1

Forefront Security for Exchange Server SP1 is now available, and provides support for Exchange Server 2007 SP1 and Windows Server 2008, as well as content filtering and manageability enhancements. These enhancements include:

Seamless support for organizations running IPv6
Improved content filtering with installable keyword lists that can be used to eliminate e-mail containing profanity in eleven supported languages
Improved integration with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager through new health monitoring logs and alerts that allow administrators to proactively monitor the state of their Exchange 2007 protection
Increased flexibility for scanning or blocking high compression zip files and RAR archives

Detailed Feature List

Comprehensive Protection

Feature	Description
Multiple anti-virus engines for advanced protection	Forefront Security for Exchange Server includes industry-leading anti-virus engines from global security firms such as Kaspersky Labs, CA and Sophos. Businesses can run up to five scan engines at once, and in different combinations across the server system. This provides rapid response to new threats regardless of where the threat originates. Forefront Security for Exchange Server automatically downloads the latest signatures and selects the optimal combination of engines to use, ensuring a high level of protection, and reducing the window of exposure to any given threat. Diversity of anti-virus engines across messaging servers and client devices protects against a single point of failure in the IT environment.
Premium spam protection	Forefront Security for Exchange Server customers receive Premium Anti-spam Services. Built upon the base level of anti-spam protection within Exchange Server 2007, Premium Anti-spam Services adds: • Exchange Server 2007 IP reputation filter—an IP Block list that is offered exclusively to Exchange Server 2007 customers. Premium Spam Protection also includes automated updates for this filter. • Automated content filtering updates for Microsoft Smartscreen spam heuristics, phishing Web sites, and other Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) updates. • Targeted spam signature data and automatic updates to identify the latest spam campaigns. These capabilities help ensure organizations have the most up-to-date protection against the latest spam attacks.
Fail-safe protection	Forefront Security for Exchange Server incorporates a multiple engine manager that ensures if one engine goes offline to update or even fails, other engines continue to protect your messaging environment without delaying mail delivery.
Layered protection	Forefront Security for Exchange Server provides protection at multiple checkpoints in the messaging infrastructure, including Exchange Server 2007 Edge, Hub, and Mailbox servers, helping to stop viruses, worms, and spam before they impact the network or user productivity.
Protection against new and hidden threats	Forefront Security for Exchange Server includes heuristics technologies that detect malicious code based on behavioral characteristics. It also has configurable file filtering rules that help customers eliminate file types known for carrying viruses (for example, .exe).
Multi-vendor response to new threats	The critical hours between discovering a new threat in the wild and delivering a signature to catch it leave a business highly vulnerable to attack. Dependence upon a single-engine solution only increases this risk. One security vendor may be first to deliver a signature for one threat, but last to deliver the signature for the next one, giving single-engine solutions fluctuating levels of effectiveness. With the multiple-engine solution of Forefront Security for Exchange Server, multiple vendors are responding to a new virus at once, increasing the odds for a quick response and lowering a business’ overall risk of exposure to each new threat, regardless of its origin around the world. Automatic downloads help ensure that the first valid solution to the attack gets loaded to the engine set of Forefront Security for Exchange Server.

Optimized Performance

Feature	Description
Performance optimization and control	Forefront Security for Exchange Server scans messages and attachments using in-memory scanning, significantly improving performance over more traditional techniques such as spooling to disk. Its multi-threaded scanning increases mail throughput by enabling the software to analyze multiple messages simultaneously. With performance settings, IT administrators can balance the wanted level of security against the level of server performance required to meet the changing needs of their environment.
Improved e-mail Store scanning efficiency	Forefront Security for Exchange Server uses the antivirus transport stamp in Exchange Server 2007 to ensure that, if a message is scanned once at an Exchange Server 2007 Edge or Hub server, it does not need to be scanned again later in the pipeline. The program’s incremental background scanning provides an efficient way to scan the Store for messages that are the most likely to carry the latest threats (such as e-mail that’s a few hours or days old), without also repeatedly scanning the entire Store. These features enable the IT administrator to conserve valuable messaging server resources.
Increased uptime	Unlike single-engine solutions, Forefront Security for Exchange Server has the ability to continue scanning e-mail with all available engines, even during engine or signature updates. If an update is available, each engine is taken offline independently while the other engines continue to scan e-mail messages. Forefront Security for Exchange Server also ensures that if an engine or signature update fails, it automatically comes back online with the last known good engine and signatures. These capabilities prevent message queuing and delay on the Exchange server, and help to ensure uninterrupted mail flow.
Efficient threat removal	Forefront Security for Exchange Server prevents spam and worm traffic from ever reaching mailboxes, reducing workload on the mail server and preserving disk space for business-critical information. Forefront Security for Exchange Server’s WormPurge feature automatically purges messages that match known worm signatures to reduce unnecessary mail traffic, free up storage, and improve mail server performance. Removing these messages avoids user confusion and reduces unwarranted calls to the helpdesk.
Effective mail cluster support	Forefront Security for Exchange Server supports Cluster configurations including Exchange Server 2007 Continuous Cluster Replication (CCR). This helps ensure that both active and passive nodes have the most up-to-date configuration information and signatures, so messaging traffic can remain secure even if individual mail servers fail.
Exchange Server 2007 integration	Use of Exchange transport agents and Virus Scanning API (VSAPI) helps provide tight compatibility and stability with Exchange Server 2007 servers. Forefront Security for Exchange Server utilizes the transport agents and virus scanning API technologies of Exchange Server 2007, ensuring close integration.

Simplified Management

Feature	Description
Forefront server security administration	The built-in management console enables administrators to fully configure Forefront Security for Exchange Server, either locally or remotely.
Centralized Web-based control	Forefront Security for Exchange Server works with the Microsoft Forefront Server Security Server Management Console, which provides central configuration, deployment, and updating for all Forefront server security products in enterprise environments that have multiple Exchange servers. This enables IT administrators to easily manage servers remotely, generate comprehensive reports, and receive outbreak alerts from across the infrastructure.
One-stop automated updates	Through its Rapid Update Process, Microsoft monitors all scan-engine vendor Web sites for updates and downloads, and validates new engine versions and signatures as they become available; then it posts them online for Forefront Security for Exchange Server to automatically download and install. No IT involvement is needed to keep all of the engines and signatures up-to-date. For environments that have multiple Exchange servers, Forefront Server Security Management Console automatically distributes the signature and engine updates to all Forefront Security for Exchange Server deployments within the environment.
Migration protection	Customers who purchase Forefront Security for Exchange Server to help protect Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will also be licensed to use the Microsoft Antigen for Exchange, Microsoft Antigen for SMTP Gateways, and Antigen Spam Manager to help protect their Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server environments. This helps ensure that the entire messaging environment is protected during migration to Exchange Server 2007.
Localization	Forefront Security for Exchange Server is now localized into 11 languages, making it easier for administrators to manage their messaging server security in the language of their region. Manage Exchange Server security in the regional language of choice by obtaining Forefront Security for Exchange Server in one of these 11 languages: English, German, French, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Portuguese (Brazil), and Russian.
Integrated monitoring	A management pack for Microsoft Operations Manager enables the IT administrator to monitor the health of Forefront Security for Exchange Server as part of corporate operational management practices.

Product Details

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