Blue Coat Enables Organizations to Control Skype
SAN JOSE, Calif., RSA Conference, February 14, 2006 – Blue Coat Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: BCSI), the leader in secure content and application delivery, today announced its ProxySG appliances have the ability to control Skype to protect against information leakage and unauthorized “back channel” communications as well as potential future malware. Using ProxySG appliances, organizations can allow or deny access to Skype in total or based on network user name and/or group.
Skype has more than 60 million registered users worldwide and is growing very rapidly. In most cases, Skype is not a network application or communications channel authorized by the organization. In many cases, Skype is used without the knowledge of the IT organization, leaving it without means to control or monitor information leakage or protect against malware. Just as potent malware security threats are beginning to come through unofficial enterprise use of instant messaging (IM), corporations are becoming increasingly concerned about eventual Skype-borne worms, viruses and other threats. Without control, organizations are powerless to stop a potential pandemic.
Blue Coat’s Skype control makes use of its recently introduced SSL proxy technology, which enables visibility and control of encrypted Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) communications between internal enterprise users and external Internet applications. The ProxySG appliances can differentiate between SSL traffic and other encrypted traffic that uses the firewall’s fully open port 80 (HTTP) or 443 (HTTPS).
“Enterprises now have the means to effectively control Skype and other backdoor avenues of communication as well as protect against threats that will undoubtedly come,” said Steve Mullaney, vice president of marketing for Blue Coat Systems. “For some organizations, Skype could represent a highly flexible and affordable means of communications, while others see Skype as undermining their ability to control information flow and a new route for security vulnerabilities.”
The Skype controlling capabilities can be enacted by adding a simple policy to ProxySG. The pre-written policy is described in a new tech brief from Blue Coat available on the corporate Website:
http://www.bluecoat.com/downloads/support/tb_skype.pdf. The capability also requires a license for Blue Coat’s recently introduced SSL proxy option for ProxySG.
About Blue Coat Systems
Blue Coat helps organizations make the Web safe and productive for business. Blue Coat proxy appliances provide visibility and control of Web communications to protect against risks from spyware, Web viruses, inappropriate Web surfing, instant messaging (IM), video streaming, and peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing – while actually improving Web performance. Trusted by many of the world’s largest organizations, Blue Coat has shipped more than 25,000 proxy appliances. Blue Coat is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and can be reached at (408) 220-2200 or www.bluecoat.com.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS:The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, including statements regarding Blue Coat Systems’ expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future, and including statements regarding the capabilities and expected performance of Blue Coat Systems’ products. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based upon information available to Blue Coat Systems as of the date hereof, and Blue Coat Systems assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These and other risks relating to Blue Coat Systems’ business are set forth in Blue Coat Systems’ most recently filed Form 10-Q for the quarter ended October 31, 2005 and Form 10-K for the year ended April 30, 2005, and other reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission