Gateway AntiVirus

eSoft's Gateway AntiVirus goes in-depth when searching for viruses.

Deploying anti-virus capabilities at the gateway is an important part of a secure network. Installing anti-virus products on each desktop in the organization is a smart move, but administrator's who stop there are leaving their networks wide open to attack. Hundreds of new virus variants are released every day and virus authors check their malware against the major anti-virus products before distributing. If a virus happens to get onto a desktop machine undetected, the first thing it does is disable any anti-virus software leaving the machine susceptible to even more malware. Worse yet, some viruses exploit security holes in the desktop anti-virus software itself.

By deploying a gateway anti-virus solution that scans both inbound and outbound emails as well as web and FTP traffic, businesses can stop viruses and other malware before they ever enter the network.

“In my testing, the InstaGate did an admirable job of detecting and blocking viruses. I was unable to download my test viruses using HTTP or FTP.”
— Matthew D. Sarrel, PC Magazine

Why eSoft's Anti-Virus?

eSoft's anti-virus solution is second to none. Because eSoft appliances have a hard drive, they are able to scan files in-depth and they can also hold many times more signatures than competitors. While SonicWall and Fortinet have fewer than 25,000 anti-virus signatures between them, eSoft's anti-virus has more than 300,000 signatures including signatures for detecting suspicious files that likely shouldn't be allowed onto the network.

Scanning In-depth

The bulk of the hundreds of viruses received daily in eSoft's Threat Prevention Lab are variations on existing viruses, but modified slightly or packaged differently. It is very common, for example, to find a self-extracting zip file that will automatically execute a file inside, which is a self-extracting rar file, which automatically runs another self-extracting zip file, which finally runs the intended virus.

eSoft extracts packed and compressed files even when they are nested several layers deep. Every embedded file gets scanned against eSoft's known-viruses database, and is examined using heuristics and suspicious file checks. In stopping new and emerging viruses as well as variants on known viruses, if your anti-virus solution doesn't scan in-depth, you aren't protected. eSoft's Gateway Anti-Virus provides full protection for these threats.

Comprehensive Signature Database

There are those who say that you only need a few thousand anti-virus signatures to stop the most current viruses. Those people are wrong. Viruses live a very long time and if you look at the evolution of any given virus, you will usually find its roots in a virus that was first seen months or years ago. Commonly, old Word documents get dug up that are infected with some years-old Macro virus and then sent to a trusting colleague or business partner.

eSoft stops over 300,000 known, identified viruses with specific signatures that can catch future variants as well as past incarnations that resurface. The protection offered by eSoft's comprehensive anti-virus solution is unparalleled in the small business gateway space. Beyond even this, eSoft uses a number of heuristics and suspicious file detection techniques to stop never-before-seen pieces of malware from entering your network.

Frequent Updates

“Nothing malicious has ever made it through.”
— Tim Taylor, IT Director, Good Times Restaurants

No anti-virus software is worth a penny unless it has around-the-clock updates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. eSoft's anti-virus signature database is constantly being updated 24 x 7 with anywhere from dozens to hundreds of updates every day. eSoft's Threat Prevention Team works hard to collect the latest viruses and get signatures out to eSoft customers with the shortest possible turnaround time.

Graphical Reporting

However good the protection is, its nice to see it working and eSoft makes this easy with its award-winning ThreatMonitor™ graphical reporting interface.

Administrators can customize date ranges and view the number of attachments received, viruses, phishing attempts, and exploits blocked, the top viruses blocked, recent blocks, top offenders sending viruses, and more.