Websense Products Can Stop the Spread of W32/Mydoom
CHERTSEY, 28 January 2004-Websense Inc. (NASDAQ: WBSN), the world’s leading provider of employee Internet management (EIM) software provides solutions to protect organisational networks and their employees from sophisticated blended viruses and worms that employ advanced social engineering techniques and bypass traditional anti-virus and email filtering tools. The latest variant to plague enterprise networks, known as “W32/Mydoom” or “Novarg” began proliferating worldwide at noon PST on Monday 26 January infecting millions of PCs and halting business-critical applications.
Websense Enterprise(r), along with its desktop security solution Client Application Manager(tm) (CAM), stops blended threats like W32/Mydoom and other worms dead in their tracks.
Like several recent worm variants, W32/Mydoom preys on human nature with enticing subject names and content to dupe employees into opening infected attachments. It uses similar techniques to attract employees to download infected files available on popular peer-to-peer networks. Once the worm infects a PC, it may do one or all of the following:
* Propagate itself by harvesting employee email address contact lists
* Upload itself to KaZaA peer-to-peer (P2P) networks
* Allow the computer to be controlled remotely and can log keystrokes
* Perform a denial of service attack at a pre-defined time
Traditional security solutions cannot always protect against inbound high-risk outbreaks. As organisational network boundaries are disappearing due to the high use of remote computing options by employees, the desktop has become a critical component to secure. Websense Enterprise v5 insulates employees and an organisation’s computing environment by providing critical, multiple layers of defense across the network and the desktop. Comprehensive and complementary policies are set via a central management console to provide:
* Network protection against P2P and other potentially high-risk protocols such as Instant Messaging
* Application lockdown to prevent worm outbreaks
* The blocking of unauthorised or inappropriate applications through Websense’s application database
* Detection, reporting and management of employee installation and usage of P2P applications
Without Websense solutions, organisations must wait for the next available signature or limit network access, and may have to shut down email gateways altogether.
Websense Enterprise EIM and CAM are available immediately for organisations seeking to protect themselves from W32/Mydoom worm and similar variants, security threats or viruses. For a free 30-day evaluation of CAM or more information on protecting your organisation from a wide range of threats including virus outbreaks and internal hacking exploits, visit www.websense.com.
About Websense Inc.
Websense Inc. (NASDAQ: WBSN) is the world’s leading provider of employee Internet management solutions. Websense Enterprise software enables organisations to manage how employees use their computing resources, including Internet access, desktop applications and network bandwidth. These solutions help improve productivity and security, conserve information technology resources, and mitigate legal liability for our customers. Websense serves more than 19,400 customers worldwide, including many of the world’s largest corporations. For more information, visit www.websense.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which, if they do not materialize or prove correct, could cause Websense’s results to differ materially from historical results or those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including statements containing the words “planned,” “expects,” “believes,” “strategy,” “opportunity,” “anticipates” and similar words. These statements may include, among others, plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations; any statements regarding proposed new products, services or developments; any statements regarding future economic conditions or performance; statements of belief and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. The potential risks and uncertainties which contribute to the uncertain nature of these statements include, among others, customer acceptance of the company’s services, products and fee structures; the success of Websense’s brand development efforts; the volatile and competitive nature of the Internet industry; changes in domestic and international market conditions and the entry into and development of international markets for the company’s products; risks relating to intellectual property ownership; and the other risks and uncertainties described in Websense’s public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, available at http://www.sec.gov. Websense assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances arising after the date on which it was made.