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Content Control Tools for Exchange Server

These add-ins, mostly for Microsoft Exchange Server, control the content of incoming and outgoing messages with a variety of techniques:

  • Filtering attachments
  • Filtering junk mail
  • Filtering for objectionable content
  • Some are direct add-ins for Exchange Server; others operate externally on Internet mail going into and out of the server. Many combine content control with virus scanning, archiving and related functions.

    The whole idea of monitoring e-mail for "objectionable" content makes me nervous. I think a clear, enforceable corporate e-mail policy and ongoing user education comprise the best approach to ensuring proper use of e-mail. However, the market apparently disagrees, or there wouldn't be such a growing number of products in this area. On the other hand, filtering for obvious spam and undesired attachment types (like the .vbs files propagated by the ILOVEYOU virus), is a feature that every organization can put to good use.  

    The tools listed below are server tools; for personal junk mail filtering and content control, see Rules to filter junk mail - Other Tools.

    Microsoft released its Microsoft Exchange Intelligent Message Filter for Exchange 2003 in May of 2004. Several vendors are planning products to complement Microsoft's offering.

    To add disclaimers to outgoing email, see Disclaimer and Signature Tools

    Tools

    Antigen   This anti-virus tool for Exchange Server 5.0, 5.5, and 2000 allows you to delete quarantine attachments by name, type or wild card match and provides filtering by subject line, sender, and domain name filtering.
    Concept Manager for Power Tools   Enhancement for the same company's PowerTools product to add more robust anti-spam filtering by examining the entire structure of the message, not just keywords.
    Discovery Attender   An electronic discovery tool specifically designed to perform dynamic keyword searches in Exchange mailboxes, PST files and common file storage areas. Discovery Attender can automatically execute scans of message subject, body and attachments through customizable search criteria. Content searches are transparent to end-users and can be targeted to specific groups or users. Once critical information is located, it can be moved or copied to a secure location.
    eSafe Mail   Anti-virus, spam, and other content checking for Exchange 5.5 and 2000, including inspection of HTML mail messages.
    ExMS Directory Integrity Agent   Synchronizes the GAL or Active Directory with other databases. Also automatically rebuilds distribution lists according to criteria, searches mailboxes for specific content and acts on matching messages, archives messages meeting certain criteria, manages public folder permissions, and provides other Exchange management features.
    GFI MailEssentials for Exchange   Anti-spam, disclaimers (with variables), archiving Internet mail, Internet mail usage reports. Includes a POP downloader and personalized server-based autoreplies that can include attachments and tracking numbers. Can archive to an ODBC database. Version 14 includes Overall improved anti-spam technology, an additional anti-spam engine called SpamRazer along with improved performance and a real-time dashboard.
    GFI MailSecurity for Exchange   Protects against email viruses and other threats with multiple virus engines, content and attachment quarantine, HTML script analysis, recognition of common HTML mail exploits, and other features. Uses the Exchange 2000/2003 Virus Scanning API to check both internal and external messages. An available freeware version includes one anti-virus scanner and performs basic keyword content analysis.
    Habeas   Unique anti-spam approach that applies a trademarked and copyrighted haiku to outgoing mail headers to identify the message as non-spam. Provider promises vigorous prosecution of any spammer's use of the haiku as a trademark and copyright violation. See Embedding Habeas Headers in Outbound Mail with Microsoft Exchange Server for an Exchange 2000 event sink to add the header text to outgoing messages.
    iHateSpam For Exchange   Server-based spam filter for Exchange 2000 and 2003 using constantly updated content-based filter, whitelists, blacklists, character-set blocks, and other custom rules. Works with Active Directory to support different spam-detection thresholds for different groups of users.
    iQ.Suite for Exchange   Tool suite for Exchange 2000 and 2003 provides anti-virus protection, disclaimers, spam and junk mail filtering, content-based filtering, PGP and S/MIME encryption, encrypted archival storage and mail forwarding.
    IronMail   Secure appliance for your enterprise gateway. IronMail combines spam and fraud prevention, web filtering, virus and worm protection, policy and content compliance, email privacy, and secure email capabilities into a single platform.
    ISA Server Feature Pack 1   This update for Microsoft ISA Server adds support for two-factor RSA SecurID authentication for OWA and enforces 128-bit encrypted RPC for MAPI clients without a VPN.
    Mail Attender   Mail Attender provides comprehensive content management in PST files (personal storage folders) on desktops/servers, mailboxes and public folders. With MA Enterprise, administrators can distribute/enforce common policies, archive data and search content in multiple information stores from a central web interface. Also, can track statistical information such as total message/attachment count, size and type while tracking usage of individual users. Works with Exchange 5.5, 2000, 2003, 2007.
    Mail Storage Guard   Block incoming mail with sender address and domain blacklist and multiple DNS blackhole lists. Can redirect all messages to unknown senders to a separate mailbox. For Exchange 2000 or Exchange 5.5 and IIS SMTP server.
    MailFender   MailFender provides server-based content filtering, anti-virus and anti-spam protection for your Exchange 2000/2003 Server. Key features include a server based anti-virus protection powered by Sophos Antivirus. MailFender uses a variety of methods to protect your server against spam, including a learning algorithm, can detect up to 95% of spam. Content filtering features include the ability to add commercial and legal disclaimers, check for unacceptable language, strip attachments, run scripts and more. The administrator program allows you to configure your security policy using a user friendly administrator program.
    MailMarshal   Content scanner for Exchange Server; features include virus blocking (with third-party anti-virus products), relay blocking, disclaimers, usage reports. Free trial available.
    MailScan for Microsoft Exchange Server   Performs anti-virus and content scanning of traffic between Exchange and the Internet. Can also perform automatic compression.
    McAfee GroupShield   Virus scanning, content filtering, and attachment filtering for Exchange Server. It can also scan Personal Folders and offline folders files.
    MIMEsweeper for Exchange   Attachment and content filtering on internal and external Exchange Server mail, based on policies. Supports integration with various antivirus solutions. It simplifies content security, blocking viruses, inappropriate language, illegal files and confidential information as it moves through Exchange mail servers.
    mxORB   Exchange 2000 SMTP protocol event sink for spam filtering. Supports white list, black list, and RBL filters.
    Nemx Power Tools   Nemx Power Tools Version 5.1 now includes the ability to selectively archive messages by user, group, domain, recipients, or content to a MSSQL or ODBC compliant database to ensure government, industry or corporate compliance. The release also includes enhancements to its Friendly Domains auto white listing capabilities.
    Open Relay Filter Enterprise Edition (ORFEE)   ORFEE has SURBL blacklist support, greylisting, tarpit delay, and automatic sender whitelist for improved spam filtering. ORFEE supports filtering emails on arrival, which allows delivery path analysis, keyword and attachment filtering and Attachment and keyword filtering so you can drop emails with malicious attachments or replace the attachments with a customizable warning text. Both the keyword and the attachment filtering support using Perl-compatible regular expressions and are Unicode-aware. E-mails caught by the On Arrival filtering point can be dropped, redirected or tagged (header or subject). ORFEE includes a built-in log viewer which allows easy browsing, searching and filtering the logs. Version 4.2
    ORFilter   Free Exchange 2000/2003 or Windows 2000/2003 SMTP event sink to check senders' mail server IP addresses against an open relay list. Supports SURBL and other RBL's, have scoring system, keyword check, black/whitelist etc. Version 4.1
    Policy Patrol Enterprise   All the disclaimer and signature features of Policy Patrol Disclaimer, plus rules-based message and attachment filtering, spam blocking with real-time black lists, white lists, and other methods, anti-virus using the Kaspersky anti-virus engine, off-peak delivery of large messages, reports on sent and received messages and other management features, automatic printing, customized NDRs and DSNs, automatic conversion of messages to plain text, automatic compression and decompression, archiving to SQL, XML, or CSV.
    Policy Patrol Spam Filter   Anti-spam using Bayesian filtering, header and keyword analysis (including regular expressions), real-time black lists, automatic white lists, checking for illegal HTML, remote images and more. Spam messages can be quarantined, deleted and can include a header or tag. Also offers integration with Exchange/Outlook 2003 anti-spam features (Spam Confidence Level).
    Policy Patrol Zip   Provides compression and decompression of email attachments at server level. Compression rules can be user-based and applied to incoming or outgoing mail, and internal or external messages.
    Postini   On-demand solution that protects you from e-mail threats, archives and encrypts selected messages, and ensures that the web is used appropriately within your business. All without the need to install or maintain any software or appliances.
    Praetor   Message filtering tool for Exchange Server to block spam, proprietary information leaks and unacceptable language. Also can create automatic replies and perform rule-based archiving.
    PST Policy Administrator   Automatically compacts PST files to recover deleted PST storage space and reduce the risk of corrupted PST files. PST Policy Admin keeps PST storage in check by deleting aged or large attachments and messages. Once it has cleaned up the files, it can automatically compact the data and free up additional storage to complete the storage reclamation process.
    SecurExchange   SecurExchange S/MIME is an Exchange Server component that will automatically digitally sign and/or encrypt mail that meet predefined event or message or attachment content policy conditions. SecurExchange SMIME uses the S/Mime and X.509 Certificate standard and is completely transparent to internal users, thus ensuring compliance to corporate or regulated policies and thereby protecting sensitive information outside of your organization.
    SMTPTracker   SMTPTracker extends your SMTP server with message tracking, content saving, sql logging and anti-spam abilities. SMTPTracker works with Microsoft SMTP service, Exchange Server 2000, Exchange Server 2003 and other systems based on IIS smtp service. SMTPTracker is a managed smtp event sink. Once it is installed and registered on server, it runs within inetinfo.exe process. SMTPTracker has two installation scenarios: it can be installed on front-end server (mail gateway) only, or on both front-end and back-end servers, when SCL Router Chaining feature is required.
    SPAM Smacker   Exchange 2000 or 2003 anti-spam tool using multiple approaches. Reports allow administrators to see which techniques are most effective and analyze the effect of making filters more or less aggressive. Online updates for both spam engine and filters. Group and individual overrides for mailboxes.
    SpamMover for MS Exchange 2000   Exchange 2000 or 2003 event sink that moves into a Spam folder in a user's mailbox any message that carries an X-header or subject line marking it as spam, as added by such tools as SpamAssassin.
    Sunbelt Messaging Ninja   Sunbelt Messaging Ninja helps you to fight spam, viruses, trojans, phishing, spyware and other messaging security threats like 'zero-day attacks', with an easy to manage, 'all-in-one' integrated and 100% policy-based messaging security product supplies antispam, antiphishing, antivirus, attachment filtering, disclaimers, content auditing/filtering, and archiving to Exchange server. Free trial available.
    Symantec Mail Security for Exchange   Antivirus, antispam, and content filtering for Exchange 2000 mailboxes and public folders. Formerly Symantec AntiVirus/Filtering for Microsoft Exchange.
    Trend Micro ScanMail for Microsoft Exchange Server   Beginning with version 3.0, includes server-based email content filtering and spam-blocking capabilities, as well as virus scanning.
    XWall for Microsoft Exchange   Sits between Exchange Server and the Internet to scan messages for viruses, attachments and unwanted subject lines and add a disclaimer to outgoing messages. Also handles scheduled ETRN and statistics and can keep a copy of every message sent. Can detect attachments in rich-text messages, remove rich-text or HTML formatting, block messages in different languages, block spam based on a spam DNS database,
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    More Information

  • Anti-virus Tools -- Some of these also include attachment filtering. 
  • Automatic Messaging Processing Tools
  • Compression Tools
  • Mail Tools
  • XADM How to Filter Junk Mail in Exchange 2000
  • Quarantining Malicious Outlook Attachments -- procmail script fragment for blocking messages containing potentially dangerous attachments
  • Mail-Filters.com -- Service that filters out junk mail sent to addresses in your domain before it arrives at your company mail server
  • Using Real-Time Blackhole Lists For Filtering Email
  • Server Based Antispam Comparison
  • Articles on using event sinks in Exchange 2000 to perform file scans and add disclaimers. Note the fine print -- these techniques don't work when Outlook is the client:

  • HOW TO Register a Transport Event Sink for the SMTP Service in Exchange 2000 Server -- sample checks for .vbs file attachments
  • HOW TO Add a Disclaimer to Outgoing SMTP Messages in VB

  • HOW TO Add a Disclaimer to Outgoing SMTP Messages in VBScript

  • PRB SMTP Transport Event Does Not Fire For MAPI Messages

  • Managing Spam

  • Exchange 2003 anti-spam features:

  • Microsoft Introduces New Antispam, Antivirus Features In Exchange Server 2003
  • RBL in Exchange 2003
  • Updated Jul 15 2008

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