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  • From: "Tom Karches" <tkarches AT gmail.com>
  • To: "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] Anti-Virus and IMAP
  • Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2006 09:53:25 -0500

On 2/20/06, Carol Thomson <cthomson AT topsailtech.com> wrote:
> To follow-up the virus discussion... Can anyone explain how
> anti-virus apps (Symantec, McAfee, BitDefender, etc) do or do not
> scan IMAP email. I realize that IMAP keeps the messages on the
> server and only headers are downloaded. But what about
> attachments and saving a message to a local folder? Do those
> files only get scanned when you do a system scan or do they get
> scanned when saved? Symantec and the others only claim to scan
> POP email - do they mean real-time only?
>

We run PureMessage on our mail relays at NCSU, which scans mail for
viruses as it arrives on the server. As a policy, we also require our
faculty//staff and students to run an AV client on their desktop
computer. It has never been indicated to me that the AV client does
not scan my incoming IMAP mail. Checking incoming IMAP mail on our
desktop computers here should not be necessary as the mail has already
been scanned by the time I see it.

AV apps which run on the same computer as the IMAP email client would
have to scan the mail as it is viewed/selected in order for it to be
effective. Most IMAP clients have an "disconnected mode" account
setting (Thunderbird calls it offline) in which the entire message is
downloaded when the inbox is checked rather than downloading just the
headers. I don't know if using the offline mode is adequate to make
"POP only" AV scanners function.

--Tom
--
Tom Karches
tkarches AT gmail.com




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