Managed service anti-virus protection

Mailcontroller anti-virus is a fully managed service providing customers with complete protection from viruses and malicious content hidden inside Internet email.

How does MailController anti-virus work?

MailController anti-virus is a fully managed service. This means there is no hardware or software to purchase; you simply subscribe to the service. Once subscribed your Internet email is re-routed through Opal’s data centres, where all inbound and outbound email is scanned to ensure it is free from viruses. If a virus is detected it is automatically quarantined to stop it infecting
your network.

Combined protection. MailController uses two leading commercial anti-virus technologies from Symantec and Kaspersky to scan for infected email as well as Huntsman, MailController’s own heuristic scanning engine, which is able to detect suspicious emails even before a virus definition is available.

Key benefits

• Fully managed service; no hardware or software required
• Combined protection from three anti-virus technologies
• Customer retains control and visibility via customer portal
• Infected emails automatically quarantined
• Content filtering capabilities filter emails based on attachment types or message size
• Automatically add disclaimers and annotations to all inbound and outbound emails
• 24x7 updates and network monitoring
• Huntsman’s heuristic capabilities detects viruses even before new signatures are available
• Easy subscription with no impact on email service quality

Heuristic analysis. By utilising heuristic scanning techniques, Huntsman is able to identify new virus outbreaks as they occur. By performing behavioural analysis on email and attachments it is possible to close the ‘window of exposure’ between a new virus being identified and a signature being available.

Annotations. Along with blocking viruses the MailController service allows you to add annotations to the top or bottom of your messages. This is frequently used by companies to add disclaimers to email, in order to limit legal liability. MailController enables companies with multiple domain names to select different annotations depending on the domain name used.

Content filtering. The MailController service delivers a range of content filtering capabilities to improve and strengthen email security. Features such as blocking messages containing executables or filtering email based on attachment types or message size allows businesses to remain in control of their email security policies.

Web management. MailController allows you to manage your email security policy through a secure management portal. Using the MailController portal you can view, forward and delete emails held in the quarantine queues. In addition you can view up to the minute reports on how effectively MailController is protecting your business.

Improved security.

One of the benefits of using MailController is you no longer need to allow your firewalls to accept SMTP connections from the public Internet. You can restrict your firewall to only accept email traffic from MailController. This reduces the scope for hackers and spammers to attack your networks.

Key features

• Management features
• Online customer portal
• Management dashboard
• Online management of quarantined email
• Online policy management
• Online message tracking
• View all message logs and delivery reports Anti-virus features
• 2 commercial anti-virus engines – Symantec and Kaspersky
• Heuristic anti-virus engine to detect unknown viruses
• Automatically quarantine infected email Content filtering features
• Block emails containing executables and script files (.exe, .pif, .scr, .bat)
• Block emails containing attachments, by attachment type (e.g. .tif, .jpg, .mp3)
• Block emails based on message size
• Defer emails based on message size for delivery at a later time
• Add annotations on all inbound and outbound emails
• Configure different annotations based on domain names Notification features
• Notify sender, recipient and administrator if a virus infected message is quarantined
• Notify sender, recipient and administrator if a message fails the content filtering rules
• Customer configurable notification messages
• Include in the notification a URL link to the portal with a view of the message and the reason it was quarantined

This graph illustrates how MailController anti-virus can dramatically reduce this ‘Window of Exposure’. By using a combination of antivirus technologies and its heuristic scanning engine, MailController dramatically reduces the risk of contracting a virus.