Some General Questions About Email | Disable Email Scanning
I want to disable BitDefender TS2016 from scanning or being involved in my email application (a desktop client), as I receive almost little suspicious email, and the various corporate, educational networks which serve my email generally perform a lot of filtering already.
1. My email client has been operating slowly because of the scanning (I run multiple security programs so this probably doesn't help), but my question is about... what type of security reduction would I have if I exclude email from being scanned?
2. I have a suspicion some people would say this is unacceptable (since many horrific threats originate in email), but virtually no emails ever make it through my spam filter that aren't trusted, and my previous malware issues were always browser related.
3. An addendum question is, generally, how does email-scanning work? Does BitDefender scan the attachments or executables inside the file? I assume it's not possible to execute code by simply sending someone an email that they read? (is this possible?); Should't I disable auto-opening email then from untrusted accounts?
4. I use a desktop client, but what about when I open webmail? How does BD work then?
*Really just looking for some general comments surrounding this topic and how BitDefender works specifically regarding email.
Thanks!
Comments
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Hello.
1. No wonder here, as the security solutions halt the progress of the threads while they are being scanned to ensure no infection gets passed them. As for security reduction, should you receive a ****** or infected file via email there wont be any warning.
2. If you keep an eye out from whom it has been sent and take care to scan any attachments before opening them its not that big of a risk, this being a personal opinion.
3. Scripted emails activate only when you open them, Bitdefender will scan all emails/attachments/pst files. Auto-opening emails is not advisable as even your best friend can get a infection.
4. On the webinterface all the information is on your email host's server and not on your local machine, should anything in that email try to jump onto your machine Bitdefender will actively block it.
You can add a exclusion to the process and the application's folder to exclude your email client from any Bitdefender interaction.
http://www.bitdefender.com/support/how-to-add-exclusions-(exceptions)-in-bitdefender-2016-1467.html
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Ah ok that makes some more sense. To summarize:
1. I actually had never considered the notion that just VIEWING an email could allow some sort of Javascript to execute (apparently this was once common in Outlook desktop client). When running through email the client always views the next message for me automatically displaying it; this is much faster.
You're saying that technically merely doing this opens the machine to malware?! (on the one hand I'm not at all surprised, but at the same time I hadn't ever considered this a serious risk - so many people view emails automatically scrolling through them. I assume the probability is small but non-zero that just doing this could well allow malware an entry vector. I understand you're saying this is why BD can scan it before it 'displays'
2. Alternately, if I disable auto-view for email (so the next message does not 'load' into the email viewer of the client, I can attempt to verify it 'by eye').
3. Since I don't receive all that much email in general, I'm not sure which method is better. While there is a slight delay with the scanning (even when its just BD doing it alone), I do like the convenience of auto-viewing the next email message.
Is there a way for BD to scan the emails as they arrive, rather than 'on-the-fly' as I click on them to view them? Also - is BD anti-spam separate from AV mail scanning?
4. I understand your point though that trusted emails are just as likely to transmit malware all the same.
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If you just scroll through your Inbox without the preview enabled you should be safe, but you never know what advancements the future brings.
The Anti-Spam module handles just as the name implies, spam.
The incoming and outgoing email scan is handled by the On Access Scan. All incoming and out going emails are being scanned the second they reach your machine. However some of them show a malware behavior only when triggered/viewed.
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