Blue Coat Systems has introduced the Blue Coat ProxyOne appliance which brings the same enterprise-class Web security experienced by 88-percent of FORTUNE Global 500 companies to small and medium businesses (SMBs).
This appliance was launched together with Blue Coat Cloud Service, a scalable Internet-delivered service that leverages proven technologies and a collaborative Web Pulse community of over 70 million users. Delivered through a subscription module, the first of which is the Web Security Module, now Blue Coat’s enterprise-class technology is available to a broader group of organisations, providing comprehensive and real-time Web protection that can be deployed and managed from anywhere.
Blue Coat Asia Pacific’s Director of Product Marketing, Jonathan Andresen says, “For all companies in Malaysia, Web security has been out of reach.” This is worrisome considering that oer 70-percent of SMBs use social networks, where a majority of security threats, lurk, and “… there are no solutions to manage, control or protect themselves. Therefore there is a need to bring this solution to market,” Andresen reiterates.
More worrisome than SMBs using social networks is the alarming rate at which services that used to be on the Web, are now also being offered through social networks. For example, booking plane tickets via an airline’s Facebook page; social sites are aggregating all these functions into one portal which makes it easier for cybercriminals to target and exploit.
Andresen also points out more and more companies are struggling to put their traditional applications onto Facebook. “Out of 80 categories which we use to categorise Web links, about 50 are related to FaceBook,” he says.
Blue Coat’s Web Security Module aims to address the overly social Web with real-time protection, a combo of a community-driven WebPulse service and inline malware scanning technology plus advanced analysis techniques to examine the Web ecosystem and identify suspicious or malicious websites. Just discovery of malicious elements immediately protects all users without them requiring database, signature or software upgrades.
Other useful features include granular social media application controls that block access to non-productive functions within a social network site and even dynamic, location-aware Web security.
New subscription-based security and application acceleration modules will be added to the Blue Coat Cloud Service in the future, without users needing to acquire equipment or software upgrades. Andresen notes that as of now, the solution for Facebook is comprehensive and there are plans for the solution to support other social network sites. He also alluded to a new feature whereby administrators would be able to have visibility and control of actions like chatting and posting, within Web apps.
