Secure Messaging Service
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do I need Secure Content Management?
McAfee Secure Content Management solutions deliver integrated, flexible technology, allowing businesses of all sizes to optimize resources, increase productivity and prevent security policy compromises. With comprehensive anti-virus, anti-spam and content filtering technologies, McAfee Secure Content Management solutions enable you to control, manage and understand your Internet traffic.
What requirements do I need to meet in order to use Secure Messaging Service?
1. You must have your own mail domain, such as mybusiness.com. The mail domain is exclusive to your business and is not shared or available to the general public.
2. You must have your own mail server. This server can either be hosted by your ISP, or in-house. However, it must be a server dedicated to e-mails from your mybusiness.com domain.
Why do I need to own a mail domain?
Secure Messaging Service requires customers to own a mail domain so they can reset the domain’s Mail Exhange (MX) record to direct their mail to McAfee for filtering.
Will Secure Messaging Service work with our existing mail system?
Yes! No matter what e-mail platform you use, Exchange, Outlook, Lotus Notes, or something else, Secure Messaging Service is 100% compatible! You simply redirect your incoming and outgoing e-mails to the McAfee Network Operations Center (NOC) for scanning of viruses, spam and inappropriate content before the e-mails enter or leave your mailbox.
How do I start using Secure Messaging Service?
Unlike traditional security software, Secure Messaging Service is a managed service and does not install onto desktops or servers. Instead, to start the service, users redirect their company’s mail exchange (MX) record to McAfee’s Network Operations Center for quick detection and cleansing. Inbound and outbound traffic will be scanned for spam, viruses and inappropriate content, preventing proprietary content from leaving your system, and unwanted content from entering.
Will our e-mail addresses need to be changed?
Absolutely NOT. Your company e-mail addresses will not need to be altered with any domain prefixes. You will simply be asked to re-route your mail exchange (MX) record to McAfee’s Secure Messaging Service IP address for detection and cleansing.
Will our e-mail delivery be interrupted during our Mail Exchange redirection?
Implementing Secure Messaging Service will not interrupt your e-mail service. Once you sign up for and redirect your MX record to Secure Messaging Service, it will take the Internet Registry (Internic) a few days for the MX record change to take full effect to propagate throughout the Internet. In general, if you sign up today, you will be fully covered by Secure Messaging Service within a few days. However, as the MX record is being re-routed, you will not miss any e-mails or notice any delays.
Will we notice any delay in receiving mail?
Not at all. We use our award-winning products on the most stable and proven network in the world. We have an abundant supply of carrier-grade hardware and networking infrastructure. We can process an unlimited amount of traffic; our processing time for scanning and cleaning viruses is unmatched - under one second! Therefore, you will not notice any delay in receiving cleaned e-mails to your mail server with Secure Messaging Service.
What parts of the message are scanned for viruses, spam and inappropriate content?
Secure Messaging Service scans the message body, header, subject line, to/from addresses, attachment and file size for viruses, spam & inappropriate content.
What happens when a virus, spam or inappropriate content is detected?
When Secure Messaging Service detects a virus, it quarantines the virus laden e-mail. If an end-user wants to access that message, the virus is cleaned before the message is released to them. Spam and content violations are quarantined as well. The Administrator and users have the ability to review their quarantines, and forward messages they don’t consider to be spam. Uncleanable messages and content violations cannot be forwarded out of the quarantine. A configurable digest is defaulted to be sent on a weekly basis, to inform users or quarantined items. Access to these messages in the quarantine area is restricted to your mail administrator and securely stored.
Does McAfee Secure Messaging Service provide Anti-Phishing protection?
Yes. Secure Messaging Service includes specific rules which help to identify phishing attacks by looking for certain phishing-specific characteristics that can be present in e-mail. Together with The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), McAfee has compiled a thorough database of phishing attacks and uses the knowledge from these attacks to create these effective filtering rules.
How often is McAfee’s virus library updated?
Secure Messaging Service is backed by McAfee AVERT, the top-ranked anti-virus research center in the world, employing over 150 researchers in offices on five continents. . SMS is instantly updated as soon as McAfee AVERT detects and creates new virus definitions so that our customers are constantly protected against the latest identified threats.
What is the reliability of the McAfee network?
The McAfee Secure Messaging Service is extremely reliable, delivering 99.999% uptime. A fully redundant, geographically separate processing center is available 24x7 to process mail should anything happen to the primary server. The system processes billions of messages per week and guarantees no messages get delayed or buried in a disk queue due to in-memory-scanning technology.
Does McAfee store our messages? How is confidentiality assured?
Non-quarantined messages are never written to disk; therefore there is no record of it in the system. Messages that are quarantined are securely stored for your users or mail administrator to review. The quarantine automatically deletes messages over 2 weeks old. McAfee adheres to a strict privacy policy, so your messages are never compromised.
What occurs when McAfee Secure Messaging Service detects a virus-infected e-mail? What about spam and inappropriate content?
An e-mail that is detected with a virus, or spam or banned content is quarantined. The quarantined message may be released from quarantine at which point the virus will be removed.
How long will McAfee hold my mail if my mail server is down and how soon will I receive my e-mail after my mail server is restored?
If your mail server is down, McAfee will continue to store your mail for as long as seven days During this period we will attempt to send your e-mails every hour; so, you will receive e-mail shortly after your mail server is restored.
My ISP manages my mail server and I connect to my ISP with a POP3 client. Can I still use Secure Messaging Service?
Yes. The mail will still be sent to your ISP. Your mail takes just a quick detour through the Secure Messaging Service scanning servers before being routed to your mail servers.
What changes do I have to make to my system(s) to use Secure Messaging Service? Will I have to change anything on my firewall?
Your domain administrator will make a single change to your DNS record by redirecting your Mail Exchange record to McAfee. This will allow for all of your domain e-mails, inbound and outbound, to be routed through the Secure Messaging Service scanners first for detection and cleaning prior to your receipt or transmission. In addition, port 25 on your firewall should be set to only accept mail from McAfee, otherwise that door remains open and spammers can still take gain access to abuse your users and network.
Most of our employees have desktop virus protection, why would we need Secure Messaging Service?
While it is very important to have up-to-date virus protection on the desktop, virus entry points are changing, with an increasing number of viruses entering via the Internet and via e-mail. Moreover, the most destructive viruses enter through unprotected e-mails. Secure Messaging Service eliminates this threat before it reaches your network. In addition, unlike desktop anti-virus solutions, Secure Messaging Service does not install onto desktops nor require any additional investment in hardware, software, or administration training. However, Secure Messaging Service can still work in unison with desktop solutions, like McAfee Managed VirusScan and McAfee Desktop Firewall.
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