i-FILTER® and m-FILTER® Ver.5.10 versions set to be released on April 26 to feature enhanced coordination between automatic inspection of password locked attachment files
～Support for inspection of password-locked files and registration of illegal URL categories for of all received e-mails so that all URLs listed in the e-mail can be browsed～

TOKYO, Japan (April 24, 2018) – Digital Arts Inc. (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan, CEO: Toshio Dogu, hereinafter referred to as “Digital Arts”, Code 2326), a leading provider of information security software, will release a security feature that automatically scans password-locked ZIP files to determine whether they are infected with malware. Additionally, in order to improve the scanning abilities, Digital Arts has improved the e-mail security software m-FILTER Ver.5.10 for businesses and government agencies, strengthening its cooperative function with internet security software i-FILTER by enforcing automatic security scanning and real-time blocking with improved accuracy regarding fraudulent e-mail detection. It is set to become available on April 26.

In recent years, attacks targeting corporations and government agencies have become more and more sophisticated, and among them, attacks by malicious e-mails with malware are rapidly increasing. Particularly, as attaching files is necessary for business, and not only that but many must be zipped and password protected for security reasons, it becomes difficult to detect a disguised password-added ZIP file that might contain malware. There are also email attacks that have URLs listed in the e-mail body text without attachments or text that infect the computer with malware via the Internet.

We at Digital Arts are working to ensure that we can respond promptly to targeted attacks by sophisticated e-mail schemes such as this. Therefore, m-FILTER Ver.5.10 forcibly inspects all password-added ZIP files to assess and block malicious e-mails. In addition, we will strengthen cooperation with our own internet security software i-FILTER. This will make it possible to block various kinds of e-mail attacks with the new function, and also to judge all the URLs in the e-mail body text and attached files with i-FILTER collaboration feature. All these capabilities bring us a step closer to our goal of a safer and more secure internet environment for all.

Forced inspection of password-protected ZIP files

m-FILTER decompresses password-protected ZIP files and judges the attached file for malicious malware. If it detects a suspicious e-mail, it will quarantine it so that the recipient receives only secure e-mails. With the previous version, ZIP files with passwords were excluded from inspection, but with this new feature it will also check attachments with password-protected ZIP files to prevent risk of targeted attacks and unauthorized access by email with malicious intent.

【1】m-FILTER receives an e-mail with a password protected ZIP file

【2】Sends a notification e-mail to the recipient that m-FILTER has received a password- protected e-mail, prompting the recipient to enter the password

【3】The recipient accesses m-FILTER management screen from the notification e-mail

【4】The recipient enters the password of the ZIP file

【5】m-FILTER decompresses the attached file with the password and carries out inspection of the attached file

Strengthening collaboration with i-FILTER

In the conventional m-FILTER, only the body and the attached file of the e-mail were quarantined by m-FILTER and the URLs in those quarantined e-mails were scanned with i-FILTER. Therefore, un-quarantined mail was not scanned with i-FILTER and there was a danger of being guided to a malicious site. In m-FILTER Ver.5.10, all URLs in received e-mails will be scanned by i-FILTER. i-FILTER will scan the URL against its database and make a judgment using the URL category in the e-mail. By doing this, the accuracy of judgment in detecting malicious e-mail will be dramatically improved, and users will be able to open URLs in all received e-mails with confidence.

In addition, since URL categories in quarantined e-mails can be confirmed on the management screen, it becomes possible to decide whether to quarantine it or not as an administrator.

At Digital Arts, in order to further strengthen attack countermeasures from the outside and to prevent information leaks from the inside, m-FILTER simultaneously realizes the detection of known threats’ signature type and the detection of unknown threats through a fake e-mail detection function. We plan to enhance the function of m-FILTER’s functionality in response to customers’ needs in archiving and preventing spam e-mail.