Integrated, Industry-leading Virus Protection

Email-borne viruses, worms and trojans continue to pose a substantial threat to enterprise operations. The Proofpoint Virus Protection module, a component of the Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway and Proofpoint Protection Server, allows enterprises to effectively and efficiently combat this threat with an industry-leading solution. Proofpoint Virus Protection™ combines Proofpoint's efficient message handling and robust policy management features with the world's leading anti-virus engines. The result is an always-up-to-date anti-virus solution with convenient, centralized administration, high-performance message analysis and flexible anti-virus policy management.

World-class Anti-virus Engines

Proofpoint provides several options for its Virus Protection Module through strategic partnerships with leading anti-virus vendors, giving customers a choice of enterprise-class anti-virus solutions to be installed and configured within the Proofpoint Protection Server or Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway. These world-class anti-virus engines are the same as those used in their respective commercial products, ensuring that your company is strongly protected against dangerous viruses and other types of malicious code.

Efficient Message Analysis

The anti-virus engines are designed to efficiently scan messages and attachments for potentially malicious code. Because the Virus Protection Module is fully integrated into Proofpoint's messaging security platform, each message is opened just once and virus scanning is performed in parallel with other forms of message analysis (such as spam and content compliance scanning). This in-memory processing minimizes latency and improves the system's overall scalability—delivering optimal, enterprise-grade performance.

Continuous Virus-detection Updates

As our anti-virus vendor partners create new virus definitions, the Proofpoint Dynamic Update Service provides updates to deployed Proofpoint Protection Servers and Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateways via a secure channel. The Dynamic Update Service guarantees that Proofpoint Virus Protection is always up-to-date, providing the maximum defense against viruses - and minimizing the burden on IT administrators. Proofpoint's anti-virus partners provide some of the fastest product-ready anti-virus updates in the industry and the Proofpoint Dynamic Update Service makes them available to you immediately.

Integrated, Centralized Administration

Proofpoint's anti-virus module is fully integrated into Proofpoint's message processing platform, providing complete control over virus protection through a unified interface. The Proofpoint Messaging Security Console lets you configure all aspects of virus protection - including virus filtering activity, detection and cleaning processes, disposition options and reporting - with the same interface used for spam and content compliance administration. Administration duties can also be optionally delegated to other groups. For example, while IT may manage general email and anti-spam settings, a corporate security group could selectively manage anti-virus settings.

Flexible Policy Management and Message Disposition

Proofpoint Virus Protection makes it easy to define and enforce virus-related security policies for your organization. Administrators have flexible configuration options to determine how messages should be handled based on the results of the virus analysis. For example, repairable messages can be repaired, annotated and forwarded to the original recipient, while irreparable messages may be stripped of their attachments and sent to the quarantine for further investigation.

In addition, administrators can quickly and easily write policies and rules for specific viruses, such as automatically deleting certain types of messages (such as SoBig and MyDoom).

Additional Zero-Hour Protection

To defend against new viruses at the very start of a virus outbreak, organziations can add the Proofpoint Zero-Hour Anti-Virus™ module. Adding Proofpoint Zero-Hour Anti-Virus ensures that your systems are protected during the initial stages of a new virus attack, before updated anti-virus signatures are available.