Spyware is software that threatens the security and privacy of computer users. Spyware is usually installed on a computer without a person’s knowledge. It ranges from unwanted pop-up ads to programs that can record keystrokes or even take over your computer. Spyware can slow computer performance, change a computer’s configuration, and reveal personal data such as account information or passwords. Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server (FPE) can help you to combat spyware coming through your Exchange servers.
Although most of the antispyware configuration settings are bundled together with the antivirus settings under the antimalware settings, the following spyware-specific settings are available in order to help you best configure FPE to scan for spyware:
- Engine updates for the Microsoft Antimalware
engine should be enabled if you have enabled antispyware scanning.
The Microsoft Antimalware engine is the only scan engine that
checks for spyware, so you want its engine and definition updates
to be up to date. For more information, see Configuring engine and
definition updates.
- Depending on which scans you want to run, you
must enable antispyware scanning for the transport, realtime, and
scheduled scans. (Spyware scanning is not available for the
on-demand scan.) For more information, see Configuring the
transport scan, Configuring the realtime
scan, and Configuring the
scheduled scan.
- Similarly, for each scan job, you must set
the action that you want FPE to perform when spyware is detected.
You can also set an action for antivirus scanning, and in cases
where a file is detected as containing both a virus and spyware,
the antivirus action setting takes precedence. For more information
about the action setting, see Configuring the
transport scan, Configuring the realtime
scan, and Configuring the
scheduled scan.