Kaspersky Internet Security 2009

Kaspersky Labs products version 2009 can scan network traffic for viruses using the SSL protocol.

SSL Protocol (Secure Socket Layer) allows detecting the server authenticity via browser and also provides encrypted “personal” connection channel between user computer and the server. This protocol is widely used both for web-servers and mail servers. Gmail is a vivid example of such mail server.

SSL connection protects data exchange channel in the Internet. The SSL protocol allows identifying the sides which exchange data based on electronic certificates, encrypts the transferred data and provides data integrity when transferring.

These protocol peculiarities are often misused by cyber-criminals to spread Malware as most anti-virus products do not check SSL-traffic.

Kaspersky Lab's experts recommend checking SSL-traffic if you are on a suspicious web-resource and when you navigate to another page data transfer by SSL-connection starts. Most probably a malicious program is being transferred by the encrypted protocol.

To scan encrypted connection Kaspersky Anti-Virus version 2009 substitutes the required security certificate by the self-signed certificate.

Sometimes the programs that establish connection, refuse accepting this self-signed certificate and as a result do not establish connection. Kaspersky Lab's experts recommend disable check of SSL-traffic:

• when connecting to trusted web-resource, for example with the web-page of your bank on which you manage your personal account. In this case it is important to get authenticity confirmation of the bank certificate. 
• if the program which establishes connection checks the certificate of the required web-resource without dialog with the user. For example, the program MSN Messenger when establishing secure connection with the server, checks authenticity of the Microsoft Corporation digital signature.

For Kaspersky Anti-Virus version 2009 to scan encrypted connections on your computer, do the following: 

• open the main application window 
• click the Settings button 
• in the left part of the window select Network 
• in the section Encrypted connections scan check the box Scan encrypted connections 
• click the Install certificate button, if you want to install Kaspersky Lab’s certificate as the root certificate. Later traffic scan by SSL protocol will be performed using installed Kaspersky Lab's certificate.

Certificate is installed automatically only if you use Microsoft Internet Explorer. To scan encrypted connections in browsers Mozilla Firefox and Opera, you have to install Kaspersky Lab’s certificate manually. 

• click OK 
• minimize the main application window

The dialog windows of Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 are the same but with corresponding product names and the number of Protection components.