WatchGuard Lists Most Risky Web Apps

January 26, 2011 · Filed Under Security Software, Software News · Comment 

According to WatchGuard security researchers, the fastest growing threat to corporate networks is web-based social media applications.  These applications can seriously compromise network security, expose sensitive data, and create productivity drains on employees.

There are many reasons why social media applications can pose risk to any size business. Here are a few:

  • Productivity Loss: Various research organizations have reported that the United States loses billions of dollars a year due to lowered productivity, as a result of time sinks such as social media sites.  Although social media sites can be used for collaboration and rich communications, IT administrators often lack the ability to manage and control business productivity web applications vis-a-vis gaming web applications.
  • Data loss: With most US states enacting mandatory data breach disclosure laws, businesses are increasingly concerned about data leakage, whether accidental or malicious. Unfortunately, the attributes that make social media sites a fantastic communication medium also make them a potential risk for information and privacy leakage.  By having application control capabilities, administrators reduce risks associated with accidental as well as malicious data loss. Read more

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WatchGuard launches new family of E-mail security appliances for small to medium sized businesses

November 18, 2009 · Filed Under Internet Software, Security Software, Software News · Comment 

WatchGuard, Leader of Unified Threat Management Appliances, Expands Offerings; Unveils New Family of E-mail and Spam Security Appliances

WatchGuard® Technologies, a global leader of business security solutions, launched a new family of extensible content security solutions specifically designed for small to medium sized businesses. These new appliances fall under the umbrella of the WatchGuard XCS platform and provide advanced protection against spam, viruses, spyware and malware, as well as reliable, always-on e-mail security and full featured centralized management and reporting.

“Small to medium sized businesses stand at the crossroads of being the most at risk to an e-mail based threat, and yet, the most challenged to have state of the art e-mail and spam protection,” said Bryan Nairn, Senior Product Manager at WatchGuard Technologies. “Until now, these businesses had few options for spam and malware protection. With WatchGuard, they can have a no compromise, fully featured messaging protection solution at an affordable price point.”

The WatchGuard family of XCS appliances for SMBs consists of the WatchGuard XCS 170, the XCS 370 and the high-performance XCS 570 series. All of these appliances come complete with the WatchGuard e-mail security suite, which provides advanced protection against spam, phishing, viruses, malware and other forms of e-mail based threats. Additionally, they all sport advanced management and reporting capabilities, which include archiving, on-box reporting, messaging logs, customizable granular policies and reports, TLS encryption and message redundancy.

Furthermore, these WatchGuard XCS appliances can take advantage of WatchGuard’s innovative in-the-cloud security technology, ReputationAuthority. With 99.99 percent accuracy, ReputationAuthority eliminates up to 98.3 percent of spam e-mail before it ever gets to a small business network by use of DNS blacklists, IP traffic volume, behavior analysis and content inspection. Given that spam e-mail is a major carrier of viruses, phishing and blended threats, having ReputationAuthority pre-screen and eliminate this unwanted traffic makes networks, applications and data better protected as part of WatchGuard’s defense-in-depth architecture.

For larger businesses with up to 1,000 users, WatchGuard offers the XCS 570 appliance, which provides advanced messaging security for businesses that truly require enterprise-grade protection. For these customers, the WatchGuard XCS 570 provides bi-directional protection from internal and external threats, as well as data loss prevention to keep confidential information from escaping out of organization e-mail boundaries. To keep mail from ever being lost due to failures or other events, the XCS 570 provides queue replication, a first for a product at this price point. As well, the XCS 570 includes compliance dictionaries, content filtering, outbound attachment control and scanning, outbound content scanning, optional third-party e-mail encryption, e-profiling, instant-on data loss prevention, and clustering – all making the XCS 570 an unbeatable solution for small to mid-sized organizations.

Pricing and Availability

The WatchGuard XCS series of appliances will be available worldwide from WatchGuard channel partners within 30 days. The WatchGuard XCS 170 starts at $2,475, the WatchGuard XCS 370 is $5,500 and the WatchGuard XCS 570 is $8,500; all have no per user license fees.

Source: www.watchguard.com

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WatchGuard announces Top Threats to education

November 4, 2009 · Filed Under Software News · Comment 

Education-related Threats Expected to Rise – According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 25 percent of all cyber-security breaches involve schools, and although a majority of educators believe that their campus networks are more secure now than last year, WatchGuard predicts that significant breaches, vulnerabilities and threats will continue to plague schools and universities. WatchGuard deems the following to be the leading network, application and data threats to education:

– Malware & Spyware - As students and faculty utilize the Web for education as well as entertainment purposes, many unwittingly expose themselves to drive-by downloads, or corrupted websites, which injects malicious forms of software on their computers. Once infected, they risk becoming victims of identity theft or loss of personal information via spyware and keyloggers.
– Viruses – Today, e-mail remains to be one of the primary vectors for delivering viruses. Unfortunately, a recent survey showed that 27 percent of users fail to keep their antivirus signatures up to date.  With viruses taking on innovative polymorphic properties, antivirus signatures alone may not be enough to stop the next wave of new viruses to come.
– Botnets – It has been estimated that 15 to 20 percent of all school and university computers connected to the Internet may be part of a botnet. As part of a botnet, school and university systems may be used in a variety of unknown exploits, including spam delivery, denial of service attacks, click-fraud, identity theft and more.
– Phishing – Phishing scams continue to get more sophisticated and selective, with students being specifically targeted. A recent report states that phishing attacks via social networks achieve a success rate of over 70 percent, which indicates that a majority of students are vulnerable to phishing scams.
– Hacking - In a recent survey of education IT professionals, 23 percent ranked student hackers as one of their greatest threats to their network security. Whether the hacks are designed to alter grades or for more sinister purposes, student hackers continue to push the envelope for network and data protection.
– Access Control – Usage of mobile devices and wireless access continues to plague network administrators. Concerns of thwarting unauthorized user access to education IT resources is top of mind with many administrators. As use of mobile devices escalates, schools will face
increasing challenges in managing authorized network access.
– Social Networks – The number one threat to school and university networks is social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace.  Unfortunately, social networks act as an ideal platform to launch a myriad of attacks against students and faculty, including spam, viruses, malware, phishing and more. Adding to this, socially engineered attacks are often extremely successful due to the “trusted” environment that social networks create.

– Because of the sensitive nature of student and faculty information, such as social security numbers, credit card information, and other personal identifying data at risk, WatchGuard recommends that schools and universities review their security controls and IT policies regularly to ensure they have the most effective, up-to-date security solutions in place.

Source: WatchGuard Technologies

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