Mail essentials blocks infected mail from reaching corporate mail servers

London, UK, 11th June 1999 – GFI, leading developer of e-mail security and management software, today announced that it will offer a freeware version of Mail essentials for Exchange/SMTP that is able to protect a company’s e-mail system from the dangerous new data-destroying e-mail virus, Worm.ExploreZip.

The malicious Explore worm first reared its ugly head yesterday, causing such havoc that it led major corporations such as Microsoft Corp., Boeing Co., and Forrester Research Inc.*, to shut down their mail servers to prevent wider damage. If activated, Worm.Explore.Zip copies itself into the Windows system directory, searches through its drives, selects important file extensions – such as Excel and Word files – and deletes them, with devastating consequences.

This e-mail virus also automatically responds to incoming e-mails through the computer’s e-mail client, mailing itself out to all e-mail senders. The virulent Explore worm is embedded in an e-mail attachment named “zipped_files.exe” that sets off Worm.ExploreZip when opened.

Mail essentials can, however, prevent such a damaging occurrence by detecting the body text of the virus and deleting the harmful message before it can even reach the mail server. Other anti-spam features in the freeware Mail essentials version include checking for incorrect “From” headers and addresses in the e-mail body, real time black hole list support and more. The freeware anti-spam version can be downloaded from: http://www.gficomms.com/mesindex.htm. The download contains all the Mail essentials features, valid for 60 days; however, the anti-spam feature does not expire and remains fully functional.

Mail essentials is a comprehensive security and management tool that offers the following features as well as anti-spam:

• Content checking for offensive or confidential information - Blocks undesirable e-mail before it is sent or received.
• Virus checking of all in- and outbound mail.
• Quarantining of e-mail - Allows managers to approve the sending or receiving of e-mails with certain content or attachments.
• Disclaimers - Adds a consistent, company-wide message to each e-mail that is sent out.
• Email management - Allows companies to track e-mail usage and communications (for example to know when an e-mail was sent and received by another party). In addition, it facilitates the compiling of reports on e-mail usage.
• Personalized auto-replies with tracking numbers - Enables companies to confirm to customers that their e-mail was received. Tracking numbers give customers and employees an easy point of reference.
• Automatic compression of all outbound mail to save on bandwidth.
• Archiving of e-mail to any ODBC database - Allows companies to keep a complete record of all e-mail communications and provides the possibility to periodically check e-mail content.
  

Mail essentials operates as a gateway for mail servers such as Exchange server and Lotus Notes. Because Mail essentials does not require any proprietary client software, the implementation is completely transparent to the user. More information can be found at: http://www.gfi.com/me/index.html. The full version of Mail essentials is available from $295.