The company will today launch the latest version of its gateway, Mail Security for SMTP 4.0. The branding has changed slightly from 3.1, which was called Antivirus for SMTP Gateway, to reflect enhanced spam filtering and content controls.
The major tweak to the notification feature means email servers and inboxes will no longer be hit with floods of inaccurate and annoying You sent me a virus-type messages when a major email worm is on the loose.
Even if you have notifications turned on, the software will not notify with a mass-mailer, said Symantec group product manager Chris Miller. The software will still send notifications, if the administrator lets it, for non-mass-mailer viruses.
In version 3.1, administrators could choose to have the notification feature turned on or turned off, but in earlier versions of the software it was a built-in default, Miller said. Administrators have had the ability to turn it off for a couple of years.
Most recent mass-mailer worms spoof the From: field of the emails they use to propagate, meaning notifications are uniformly sent to the wrong person. This means the feature ate bandwidth, storage and time, and added to user confusion.
The software can also now delete entire emails when mass mailer viruses are located in attachments, rather than just deleting or quarantining the attachment. This way less storage is used and the user has less spam to deal with.
Version 4.0 also improves the whitelisting feature of the anti-spam component, Miller said. Administrators can whitelist by top or third-level domain using wildcards, and can the software can automatically create whitelists based on outgoing mail.
The LiveUpdate feature, normally used for updating virus definitions, now will also download new spam heuristics, typically every two to four weeks or as Symantec adds new ones to deal with new spam techniques, Miller said.
This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire
