Email Viruses
Summary: OIT scans incoming email for viruses and cleans up infected messages. This protection is available only to messages sent to @UCI.EDU addresses.
Overview
The number of computer virus infections has been steadily increasing over the past several years and is continuing to rise. Many computers don't have virus detection software and don't have the most recent security patches to prevent virus infection.
What OIT is doing to help.
OIT installed Anti-Virus software on the computers that process all email sent to "@uci.edu" addresses. OIT also installed the virus protection on enterprise mail servers used to provide OIT Mailbox Services.
Scanning Email Messages
The first line of defense against viruses is the ClamAV package. Any viruses detected by ClamAV are rejected and never accepted by UCI servers. The senders of the virus will receive notice from their servers that the email was not accepted by UCI.
The next line of defense is the MailScanner package that processes email messages as they travel through the Mail Transport Agent (MTA) machines. A second scan by ClamAV is done by MailScanner If ClamAV detects a virus, MailScanner notifies the recipient. More information on MailScanner may be found at the MailScanner web site. Examples of the types of messages sent to the recipient are available. Additionally, MailScanner will remove attachments that are barred due to their file extension.
ClamAV
ClamAV is an open source anti-virus software package. More information about ClamAV may be founda the ClamAV web site
Details of MailScanner Implementation
- All attachments will be scanned by Sophos for viruses.
- All the attachments with the following extensions
are blocked.
Extension Description .bat MS-DOS Batch File .chm Compiled HTML Help .cmd DOS Command File .cnf Microsoft NetMeeting "SpeedDial" file .com MS-DOS Command File .cpl Windows Control Panel Extension .exe Executable File .hta Hypertext Application .ins Microsoft IIS Internet Communications Setting .its Internet Document Set .job Windows Task Scheduler Object .js JavaScript Source Code .jse JScript Encoded Script File .lnk Windows Shortcut .mad Microsoft Access Module Shortcut .maf Microsoft Access .mag Microsoft Access Diagram Shortcut .mam Microsoft Access Macro Shortcut .maq Microsoft Access Query Shortcut .mar Microsoft Access Report Shortcut .mas Microsoft Access Stored Procedures .mau Media Attachment Unit .mav Microsoft Access View Shortcut .maw Microsoft Access Data Access Page .mda Microsoft Access Add-in .mdz Microsoft Access Wizard Template .mhtml Archived Web Page .pif Windows Program Information File .prf Windows System File .pst Microsoft Exchange Address Book, Microsoft Outlook Personal Folder File .reg Windows Registry Data File .scf Windows Explorer Command .scr Windows Screen Saver .sct Windows Script Component .shb Windows Shortcut into a Document .shs Shell Scrapt Object File .tmp Temporary File .vbe VBScript Encoded Script File .vbs VBScript Script File .vsmacros Visual Studio .NET Binary-based Macro Project .vss Microsoft Visio Stencil .vst Microsoft Visio Template .vsw Microsoft Visio Workspace File .wmf Windows Metafile .ws Windows Script File .wsc Windows Script Component .wsf Windows Script File .wsh Windows Script Host Settings File .xnk Microsoft Exchange Shortcut The extension list is a subset of a list provided by Microsoft that is deemed unsafe.
Attachment Manager List and Attachments Restricted by Outlook 2003
SPAM/UCE Detection and Removal
Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE), also known as "Spam", is being received by the Internet community at an ever-increasing rate.
Anti-SPAM/UCE features have been added. Information on Spam detection and how to filter these messages out is available.
