Do you scan the messages for viruses?

Emails are often a delivery channel for viruses, malware and other online threats. It is therefore crucial that emails are scanned for malicious content before they reach users' inboxes. EuropeanMX ensures that both unwanted messages and their dangerous attachments such as viruses, malware, ransomware and spyware are actively blocked.

Steps before the virus scan

Viruses often use spam emails as a method of spreading, which is why most email viruses are recognized as spam and blocked before they reach our anti-virus systems. This means that even unknown viruses can be reliably moved to quarantine or completely rejected. Thanks to this resource-saving and intuitive setup, even viruses that virus scanners are not yet aware of are usually safely quarantined or completely rejected.

Checking the attachments

Viruses usually try to spread in executable email attachments. In the web interface under "Incoming - Protection settings" > "Restrictions for attachments" you have the option of managing restrictions for file extensions and thus selecting which extension should be blocked by the filter by default. The following options are also available on the page:

• Block password-protected archive attachments
• Block potentially unwanted attachments
• Block attachments that contain hidden executable files

If you activate these options and block dangerous file extensions, no further potentially dangerous file attachments should be accepted by email.

Antivirus engine

EuropeanMX uses a variety of technologies to ensure comprehensive protection against malware. This includes the use of advanced databases specifically developed for the detection of zero-day email viruses and sourced from various external partners. This external information is combined with internal data, both automatically generated and provided by our analysis team. This technological diversity enables EuropeanMX to provide effective real-time protection against current virus outbreaks. Our internal spam reputation systems, including fuzzy fingerprinting, also enhance virus scanning and provide optimal protection against malware, phishing and viruses.

It is also crucial to have antivirus protection directly on the endpoints, as the time delay between receiving and opening an email allows antivirus providers to update their signatures. EuropeanMX automatically adjusts its systems based on false negative virus reports and our analysis team performs detailed analysis when required. Most of these reports concern messages that have bypassed filtering due to explicitly allowed senders or recipients.

Sandboxing

We actively analyze virus emails to detect zero-day threats and continuously improve our detection systems. We use sandboxing in our central environments for analysis, but not in real time during the scanning process. Statistically meaningful evidence of the effectiveness of sandboxing is lacking as EuropeanMX uses a technology that either quarantines or deletes any email with an attachment that contains executable content (even if it is not malicious). This is because emails should not be used to distribute executable files.