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| Enterprise-class web content filtering test Websense announced the results of a recent study that compared the effectiveness of competing web filtering software. Websense outperformed competing products, scoring highest overall. VeriTest, a testing service of Lionbridge, conducted the study to compare enterprise-class web content filtering applications. Websense Web Security Suite -- Lockdown Edition Version 5.5 was tested against Secure Computing SmartFilter Corporate v4.1 and SurfControl Web Filter v.5.01.39. The study focused on web filtering, web security accuracy, effectiveness and performance. Three tests were performed: blocking effectiveness testing, specific malicious and spyware URL testing, and non-HTTP protocol testing. Lionbridge's VeriTest team tested more than 400, 000 URLs against the filtering software products for accuracy and blocking effectiveness. Overall, Websense scored 92 points, while SurfControl and Secure Computing scored 65 and 59 points respectively. Websense outperformed SurfControl and Secure Computing in terms of the number of unique categories identified. Websense identified 85 categories, whereas SurfControl identified 47, and Secure Computing identified 69. Websense also scored highest in the malicious and URL spyware testing, winning in all four categories: spyware URLs, URLs used in spyware backchannel communications, URLs used in deploying keyloggers and Trojan horses, and URLs used in phishing. According to the executive summary of the Lionbridge report: "In our testing, we found that Websense surpassed products from SurfControl and Secure computing in the areas of web filtering, accuracy and diverse categorization. We found that Websense made the fewest errors in identification and blocking. In addition, Websense far surpassed competitor performance in identifying dangerous URLs that lead to Keylogger or Trojan horse installers as well as URLs leading to spyware or malware." In the Malicious and URL Spyware Testing category, Websense outperformed its competition, blocking 244 of the 270 URLs that contained spyware. Comparatively, neither SurfControl nor Secure Computing was able to identify and block any of the spyware sites that were tested. "Websense identified and blocked more than 90 percent of the spyware URLs that were tested, outscoring the competitive products in the key areas of security, " said Meg Davis, director, product marketing, Websense, Inc. "The Lionbridge VeriTest program results illustrate how the Websense Web Security Suite provides greater protection for our customers by effectively preventing spyware and other web security threats from disrupting IT resources and infiltrating organizations' networks." According to the test summary, the Lionbridge VeriTest team found that "Websense provided the greatest selection of predefined categories, the most accurate and diverse category filter and the most accurate security categorization." Regarding non-HTTP protocol filtering, the study stated, "Websense was the only product in its 'out-of-the-box' configuration to provide easy blocking of non-HTTP related protocols, such as those used by instant messaging (IM) applications, peer-to-peer (P2P), anonymous browsing utilities and streaming media. Websense demonstrated the ability to block these applications from communicating within the test network in almost every scenario tested." The full testing results, including a description of how the test was designed, can be found athttp://www.veritest.com/clients/reports/websense/websense_content_filtering.pdf For a free 30-day evaluation of Websense software or for more information on protecting your organization from a wide range of threats including phishing, spyware, virus outbreaks and internal hacking exploits, please visithttp://www.websense.com.In addition, Websense Security Labs() offers free email security updates as new internet threats are discovered and is available at:http://www.websensesecuritylabs.com. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Networking News :: home page |