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| Websense Extends Protection from Web Sites with Bad Reputations Websense has delivered new software designed to protect organizations from suspicious Web sites, adding to their existing protection against proven malicious sites. With a few clicks of the mouse, Websense customers can now protect themselves from unknown and rapidly evolving Internet threats through a new set of Web site categories. The new Websense software – Websense Web Security Suite 6.3.1 - uses the preemptive classification intelligence in the patent-pending ThreatSeeker technology to provide organizations extended protection from potential Web security threats. Specifically, Websense is giving customers access to its advanced Web Reputation system – developed in Websense Security Labs - in the form of three new Web site categories available to organizations using Websense Web Security Suite. These new categories allow organizations to manage their level of Web security based on risk tolerance. Websense is responding to the growing number and sophistication of threats that exploit the changing, dynamic and ubiquitous use of the Internet. No longer are e-mail borne worms and viruses the top concern. The Web continues to be the number one delivery method for malicious code designed to steal information and disrupt business operations. "Today's threats are faster and more complex than ever, with easily accessible 'kits' designed to exploit software vulnerabilities that are available to novice hackers for less than $20", said Dan Hubbard, vice president of security research, Websense. "In 2006, there was a 100 percent increase in sites designed to install keyloggers and other forms of crimeware. The latest version of Websense Security Suite protects our customers from Web sites that have a high likelihood they will contain malicious content." The new categories protect organizations from Web sites that are hosting known and potential exploit code and Web sites likely to contain little or no useful content, including sites hosting spam accounts and "domain parking" and "click fraud" sites that are primarily used to generate advertising revenue. The categories also protect from Web sites that camouflage their true nature or identity and Web sites that include elements suggesting latent harmful intent. As evidenced by large Web-based attacks such as the recent Super Bowl and ANI exploits, traditional security software and reputation-based systems that look only at simple site attributes are not equipped to discover and protect against these dynamic threats. "When Websense discovered malicious code on the Miami Dolphins' Web site days before the Super Bowl, anti-virus signatures were not available and most reputation systems continued to give the site a 'good' rating", said Ken Hamilton, president and founder of Total Tech. "Websense technology gives our clients the upper hand in protecting against these outbreaks." Unlike Internet protocol reputation systems that rely on simple email and domain name attributes, Websense's Web Reputation system uses intelligence from its patented and patent-pending ThreatSeeker technologies to adjust the reputation of sites in real-time. Since a Web site can rapidly host malicious content from hackers, despite its having a historically "good" reputation, Websense provides Real-Time-Security Updates to keep customers' protection up to date. Websense also makes it easier for customers to apply policies to these new categories. Administrators can use their familiar policy console to activate these new categories with a few clicks of the mouse. Other reputation-based security filtering products require complicated tuning and tweaking that pass the configuration burden on to administrators. With Websense, customers are in a better position to protect themselves from dynamic threats, without additional administrative burdens. "Websense scans more than 10 million names, IP addresses and locations per day", added Hubbard. "More importantly, Websense combines that information with information gathered from scanning content on approximately 85 million Web sites per day, so our customers receive security updates within minutes." write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Computing News :: home page |