Anti-malware protection

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Applies to: Exchange Server 2013

The Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 anti-malware protection feature helps combat malware in your email messaging environment. Malware is comprised of viruses and spyware. Viruses infect other programs and data, and they spread throughout your computer looking for programs to infect. Spyware refers to malware that gathers your personal information, such as sign-in information and personal data, and sends it back to its author.

There are several anti-malware protection options in Exchange 2013:

  • Built-in anti-malware protection in Exchange 2013: You can use the built-in Exchange on-premises anti-malware protection feature in order to help you combat malware. This basic anti-malware protection can be turned off, replaced, or paired with a cloud-based service (such as Microsoft Exchange Online Protection) to provide a layered defense. For more information about typical questions and answers regarding the product's built-in anti-malware capabilities, see Anti-malware FAQ. For information about configuring your anti-malware policies so that they are tailored to best meet the needs of your organization, see Configure anti-malware policies.

  • Cloud-hosted anti-malware protection: The service leverages partnerships with several best of breed anti-malware engines, thereby providing efficient, cost effective, multi-layered anti-malware protection. EOP anti-malware protection features are included in Microsoft Exchange Online. For more information about these features, see Anti-malware protection in EOP.

  • Third-party anti-malware protection: You can also use a third-party anti-malware protection program. In this case, you may want to disable the built-in anti-malware protection; for more information, see Disable or bypass anti-malware scanning.

For more information

Download engine and definition updates

Rescan messages already malware scanned by the hosted filtering service

Anti-Virus Software in the Operating System on Exchange Servers