Blue Coat Gateway Spyware Prevention First To Include Inbound And Outbound Spyware URL Filtering Categories
24 January 2005 – Blue Coat Systems, the leading provider of proxy appliances, today continued its leadership in delivering gateway spyware prevention by introducing two new URL filtering categories for applying policy to inbound spyware installs and outbound spyware communications. Blue Coat is also delivering pre-defined spyware reports that give administrators granular visibility of spyware traffic and infections.
Leading research firm Gartner states that anyone doing general web surfing can fall prey to spyware[1], and with an increasing number of commercial web sites distributing spyware, simply blocking all known sources of spyware will result in common web use being severely restricted. Blue Coat is proactively addressing this by bolstering its existing anti-spyware solution with two separate URL filtering categories – one for applying policy controls to known spyware sources and one for applying policy controls to known destinations where spyware attempts to “phone home.” This enables organisations to apply policy controls that could limit inbound spyware traffic without completely blocking access to sites that may have spyware advertising, while also blocking outbound spyware communications.
Visibility is also important to any enterprise anti-spyware solution for obtaining and measuring infections across the organisation, as well as gauging and maximising the effectiveness of the solution. Blue Coat has enhanced its existing enterprise anti-spyware solution with multiple pre-defined reports that quickly and easily enable administrators to track spyware activities across the enterprise – spanning departments, groups, and individual users. Blue Coat reports graphically show spyware traffic traversing the network, spyware-infected client computers and spyware blocked at the gateway.
“Spyware was generating 25 per cent of our help desk calls, forcing us to spend hours each day reacting to spyware by manually installing multiple software packages at the desktop,” said Jeffrey Pelot, CTO of Denver Health. “With Blue Coat at the gateway, I have been able to nearly eliminate all spyware from landing on desktop computers in the first place, and as a result, our help-desk calls have been drastically reduced.”
Blue Coat’s existing gateway anti-spyware solution utilises advanced proxy-based controls designed to stop “drive-by” spyware installations, a critical area of spyware prevention when signatures, patterns or known spyware URLs do not exist. This Blue Coat technology and the new URL filtering categories are also complemented by the power and performance of Blue Coat’s ProxyAVâ„? solution that scans web content for known spyware signatures. Reporting capabilities round out the solution by giving administrators visibility into spyware infections, activity and removal across the network.
“Organisations are wasting countless IT help-desk hours dealing with spyware in a reactive manner,” said Nigel Hawthorn, UK marketing manager for Blue Coat Systems. “Blue Coat continues to advance enterprise spyware prevention as the only vendor to offer two separate URL filtering categories for spyware sources and destinations, as well as increased visibility with pre-defined spyware reports.”
[1] Gartner Report “A Field Guide to Spyware Variations” by John Girard. July 9, 2004.
Availability
Blue Coat’s enterprise spyware prevention with two new URL categories and enhanced reporting is available today from Blue Coat and its global network of reseller partners. For preventive spyware protection, Blue Coat recommends using the integrated ProxySG and ProxyAV appliances to identify spyware activity, stop spyware installs, block spyware Web sites and scan for known spyware signatures. More information can be obtained at www.bluecoat.com or by calling 0800 085 2356.
About Blue Coat Systems
Blue Coat (Nasdaq: BCSI), enables organisations to keep “good” employees from doing “bad” things on the Internet. Blue Coat wire-speed proxy appliances provide visibility and control of Web communications to address today’s new business risks — such as inappropriate Web surfing, viruses brought in via back door channels such as instant messaging and Web-based email, and network resource abuse due to peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing and video streaming. Trusted by many of the world’s most influential organisations, Blue Coat has shipped more than 18,000 proxy appliances. Blue Coat is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and can be reached in the UK 0800 085 2356 or www.bluecoat.com