We are very happy to announce that the Forefront Server Security Management Console (FSSMC) Hotfix Rollup 3 shipped on July 30th. Here are the new features and some important information for the rollup. For a complete list of the fixes included in the rollup and to obtain it, see the following Knowledge Base article “Hotfix Rollup 3 for Microsoft Forefront Server Security Management Console”:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973919

New features in the Rollup

  1. Antigen version 9 with Service Pack 2 incorporates new anti-spam technology through a partnership with Cloudmark. FSSMC Rollup 3 now supports Cloudmark engine update redistribution and Engine Version Reports.

    Note Rollup 3 only supports Redistribution Jobs for Cloudmark engine updates and not signature updates. The Cloudmark anti-spam engine receives its signature updates directly from the vendor’s site and not through Microsoft. This means that the signature updates are not distributed through the FSSMC. An engine update refers to updating to a new version of a scan engine (which replaces the old version), whereas a signature update refers to new signatures being added to an existing scan engine.

    For more information about this feature, visit the following Microsoft Web page:

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/forefront/serversecurity/dd940095.aspx
  1. FSSMC now can automatically provision the scan engines on managed Antigen and FSS servers. It does so by using the scan engine updates that are deployed to the managed servers through the Signature Redistribution Job. This feature gives customers the latest protection against malware by extending the updating capabilities of Antigen version 9 and Forefront Server Security (FSS) products. This feature can quickly notify users of the availability of a new threat scanning engine, or a planned change in the existing scan engines. These notifications advise administrators on how to make appropriate changes to their product configurations before any changes take effect. The notifications are registered in the Antigen and FSS event log entries and can also be configured for e-mail delivery through the "Virus Administrators" notification group.

    For more information about this feature, visit the following Microsoft Web page, and then click the Engine Revision Overview and FAQ hyperlink:

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/forefront/serversecurity/dd940095.aspx

Important Information:

When upgrading from a previous version of FSSMC, you must re-deploy the FSSMC Deployment Agents to your managed servers. For information, see Deploying Agents under Getting Started in the FSSMC User Guide.

Holly Kipp

CSS Senior Security Support Engineer