How FOPE Works with Exchange Server

Forefront Online Protection for Exchange (FOPE) provides Microsoft-hosted filtering of e-mail between an organization’s Exchange server and the Internet. Since more than 90% of Internet e-mail traffic is estimated to be spam, external filtering using FOPE can dramatically cut down on junk mail reaching a corporate network. Inbound mail (shown here as a large arrow) passes through a FOPE filtering pool and reaches a corporate e-mail server with most malware and spam removed. FOPE utilizes three antivirus engines to remove malware from e-mail before it reaches the corporate network. Additionally, FOPE offers a Domain Name System block list and a safe sender list, enabling it to filter out more than 98% of all spam. Either FOPE policy or end users can mark messages as potentially unwanted and send them to quarantine for later investigation. For outbound mail, FOPE filtering can be used to block release of confidential material according to filtering policy set by administrators. FOPE also protects a company’s e-mail reputation by filtering outbound mail to prevent spam and malware from leaving the organization and getting the organization blacklisted.