Sunbelt Software last week announced an upgrade to its e-mail security software for Microsoft Exchange that features more protection against spam, a new disclaimer feature and enhancements to the software’s management console.

Sunbelt Messaging Ninja 2.1 includes the latest version of e-mail security vendor Cloudmark’s antispam engine, as well as Sunbelt’s own scanning technology. Combining these two engines means that users benefit from both a signature-based and heuristic approach to blocking unwanted messages, according to company officials. Cloudmark’s technology includes the ability to catch image spam, which has been on the rise in the last year.

The upgrade also includes a new module for e-mail sent by Exchange 2000 and 2003 that embeds disclaimers into outbound messages, according to officials. These disclaimers, which usually pertain to legal, regulatory or corporate policies regarding e-mail or virus warnings, can be customized on a per user, group, domain or public folder basis, they say. Users can also bypass the disclaimer on a per-message basis, and the software ensures that multiple disclaimers are avoided in messages that are forwarded or responded to.

The company has also improved Messaging Ninja’s management console with this release, adding new database management tools to purge old records and compress Microsoft Access databases.

Sunbelt Messaging Ninja starts at $184.95 for five mailboxes.

Sunbelt develops security software for Windows that protects against spam, viruses, spyware, as well as vulnerability assessment software.