McAfee GSSCDE-AA-DA User Guide - Page 9

How does scanning work?, Other areas to protect

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McAfee® GroupShield™ 7.0 User Guide 1 Introduction About GroupShield for Exchange „ protect the email server from harmful scripts sent within the email system. „ block messages with specific attachments. „ block messages based on words that appear either within the subject line/body of the message. „ block messages from specific addresses. How does scanning work? Central to your GroupShield software is the McAfee® Security scanning engine and the virus definition (DAT) files. The engine is a complex data analyzer. The DAT files contain a great deal of information including thousands of different drivers, each of which contains detailed instructions on how to identify a virus or a type of virus. The McAfee® Security scanning engine works with the DAT files. It identifies the type of the item being scanned and decodes the contents of that object, so that it understands what the item is. It then uses the information in the DAT files to search and locate known viruses. Many viruses have a distinctive signature. There is a sequence of characters unique to a virus and the engine searches for that signature. The engine uses a technique called heuristic analysis to search for unknown viruses. This involves analysis of the object's program code and searching for distinctive features typically found in viruses. Once the engine has confirmed the identity of a virus, it cleans the object as far as possible. For example, by removing an infected macro from the attachment in which it is found or by deleting the virus code in an executable file. In some instances, if the virus has destroyed data, the file cannot be fixed and the engine must make the file safe so that it cannot be activated and infect other files. Other areas to protect The following key areas of your network can be protected by McAfee® Security products as a part of your integrated virus defense solution: „ Internet gateway protection - Secure Content Management Appliances The major source of threats to your corporate network comes from Internet traffic, either through email or by connecting to websites that might contain potentially harmful code. Secure Content Management Appliances protects the gateway between your internal networks and the Internet. It prevents infected items from entering your network through the Internet by scanning all inbound and outbound traffic between your network and the Internet. 9

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9
McAfee
®
GroupShield
™
7.0 User Guide
Introduction
About GroupShield for Exchange
1
protect the email server from harmful scripts sent within the email system.
block messages with specific attachments.
block messages based on words that appear either within the subject line/body of
the message.
block messages from specific addresses.
How does scanning work?
Central to your GroupShield software is the McAfee
®
Security scanning engine and the
virus definition (DAT) files. The engine is a complex data analyzer. The DAT files contain
a great deal of information including thousands of different drivers, each of which
contains detailed instructions on how to identify a virus or a type of virus.
The McAfee
®
Security scanning engine works with the DAT files. It identifies the type
of the item being scanned and decodes the contents of that object, so that it
understands what the item is. It then uses the information in the DAT files to search
and locate known viruses. Many viruses have a distinctive signature. There is a
sequence of characters unique to a virus and the engine searches for that signature.
The engine uses a technique called heuristic analysis to search for unknown viruses.
This involves analysis of the object’s program code and searching for distinctive
features typically found in viruses.
Once the engine has confirmed the identity of a virus, it cleans the object as far as
possible. For example, by removing an infected macro from the attachment in which it
is found or by deleting the virus code in an executable file. In some instances, if the
virus has destroyed data, the file cannot be fixed and the engine must make the file
safe so that it cannot be activated and infect other files.
Other areas to protect
The following key areas of your network can be protected by McAfee
®
Security
products as a part of your integrated virus defense solution:
Internet gateway protection — Secure Content Management Appliances
The major source of threats to your corporate network comes from Internet traffic,
either through email or by connecting to websites that might contain potentially
harmful code. Secure Content Management Appliances protects the gateway
between your internal networks and the Internet. It prevents infected items from
entering your network through the Internet by scanning all inbound and outbound
traffic between your network and the Internet.