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Vol. 14, #2 - Jan 7, 2009 - Issue #707
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Web Filtering Mergers - The Impact on Customers?
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- Editors Corner
- Web Filtering Mergers - The Impact on Customers?
- UTM Solutions vs. Pure Web Filtering
- Quotes of the Week
- Tech Briefing
- Conserving IT Resources through Easy Admin Delegation
- Social Media and Web Threats
- Administrative Toolbox
- Controlling Access to Individual Web Sites
- Windows Server News
- The New Year Brings New Web Dangers
- WServer Third Party News
- Do You Know What to Expect in 2009?
- WServer Fave Links
- This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff.
- Product of the Week
- iPrism Delivers Simply Powerful Internet Filtering
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Dude, where's my Surf control?
Catch the next wave in Web filtering with iPrism. Sign up for a
web demo today and get a free WIPEOUT t-shirt. You'll also be
entered to win a custom St. Bernard surfboard.
iPrism, the World's #1 Web Filtering Appliance.
http://www.wservernews.com/090107-Primary
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Editors Corner |
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Web Filtering Mergers - The Impact on Customers?
There were several security vendor merges in 2008, some of them involved Web
filtering companies. The companies who merge always tout the advantages of a
merger such as better technical support, more product feature development and
increased financial stability.
However, when the excitement abates and the merger finally shakes out, the
advantages become much murkier, and not just for some employees who risk losing
their jobs due to redundancy. Mergers can have a negative impact on customers
also:
- Technical Support - When two companies offering similar products merge, there
is always the concern that one product - usually the more popular one - will be
subordinated to the other when it comes to technical support. Will there be
ample coverage for both products? Will customers receive the same level of
service and expertise they've come to expect for their investment?
- Product End-of-Life - This is a natural concern and the business landscape is
littered with products that had a healthy following but were phased out after a
merger. If you aren't receiving the same level of technical support and new
features are not on the roadmap, it may be time to search for an alternate
solution. You don't have to switch to a high priced product, just because a
larger firm acquired the technology you are now using.
- Pricing Concerns - In some cases, after a merger, there will be no price change
for several months. Don't expect this to last. The costs associated with
mergers are large and companies needing to recoup their investment will move
toward price increases. More likely, you will be encouraged or incentivized to
switch your solution to the company's more popular and more expensive product
offering.
Award-Winning iPrism Web Filter is the Reliable Choice
iPrism Web Filter from St. Bernard offers a reliable alternative to anyone
whose Web filter vendor has merged with another company. You may be fearing
that your current solution will soon be scheduled for EOL, but iPrism has none
of that liability. For over 12 years, iPrism the award-winning appliance-based
solution, has been delivering accurate, powerful and flexible Web filtering to
organizations worldwide. As a completely self-contained solution with its own
optimized and hardened OS, iPrism sits at your network's perimeter and stops
threats before they can get near your internal servers. iPrism's technology
makes it completely network agnostic and its low acquisition and renewal
pricing, easy installation and low maintenance operation provide the lowest TCO
in the business. If technical support is ever required, knowledgeable iPrism
staff is on-call to walk you through any issues you may encounter. In addition,
iPrism is the only appliance-based Web filter authorized as Citrix Ready.
Sign up for a iPrism web demo and get a free WIPEOUT t-shirt. Plus, you'll be
entered to win a custom surf board.
http://www.wservernews.com/090107-Demo-Sign-Up
UTM Solutions vs. Pure Web Filtering
The Web security landscape gets more and more crowded as vendors seem to appear
almost weekly with promises of a new, more powerful Web filter. Frequently,
these vendors are offering unified threat management (UTM) solutions that
include Web filtering - sometimes it seems almost as an afterthought. They are
actually selling firewalls and customers need to be aware of what they are
getting before they decide on how they want to manage their Web access.
First and foremost - if you are looking for a firewall - purchase a firewall.
There are many from which to choose and they will do the job you require.
Conversely, if you are looking for a Web filter, don't pick a product that
offers Web filtering as a feature. In many cases, all that's been done is to
add a URL database to a UTM solution and call it a filter. Comprehensive Web
access management - true Web filtering requires far more functionality.
Ideally, customers will do their homework and understand the difference between
UTMs and Web filters. When it comes time to choose, they will pick a solution
that fulfills all their requirements for secure, multi-layered Web filtering.
One solution that provides award-winning Web filtering, pure and simple, is the
iPrism Web Filter. Since 1995, St. Bernard has been a leader in comprehensive
Web filtering with a continuing goal to provide a solution that's easy-to-use,
delivers the best performance and offers the best value on the market. The
result of these efforts is the iPrism Web Filter, a dedicated appliance-based
filter that stops Internet-based threats at the perimeter. Its 100% human-
reviewed URL database, real-time monitoring, multi-layered anonymizer defense,
comprehensive on-box reporting, remote filtering and a host of other robust
features have made it the Web filter of choice for thousands of customers
worldwide. Customers should be wary of relying solely on a firewall to protect
them from Internet-based threats. When an organization needs to enforce its
AUP, protect networks and employees, demonstrate CIPA compliance or protect
against emerging Web-based threats, a solution such as iPrism, that's focused
only on securing Web access, will offer better performance and value in the
long run.
Sign up for a iPrism web demo and get a free WIPEOUT t-shirt. Plus, you'll be
entered to win a custom surf board.
http://www.wservernews.com/090107-SignUp
Quotes of the Week
"I have a rock garden. Last week three of them died." -- Richard Diran
"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it." -- Winston Churchill
"A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no
other way." -- Mark Twain
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Tech Briefing |
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Conserving IT Resources through Easy Admin Delegation
As networks continue to become more complex, meeting today's stringent security
demands requires more IT resources. This means more of a typical IT
professional's workday is spent on security issues, yet other network and
organization requirements don't diminish to balance the increased demands.
That's why it's important for an IT administrator to be able to offload admin
duties whenever possible. This allows him or her to allocate equitable work
schedules and assure that all critical security tasks are fulfilled each day.
St. Bernard's iPrism Web Filter offers easy admin delegation through its
central management console that can ease the burden on IT administrators when
it come to managing their Web security:
iPrism Delegation allows multiple users to control aspects of iPrism by
assigning roles. The choices available offer optimum flexibility in assigning
roles or task:
- Super User - this role is the same as in most software programs. There is only
one Super User in iPrism, and that person, or login, controls all iPrism
access, configuration, and reporting. This role cannot be delegated.
- Global Policy Administrator (GPA) - The GPA has the right to log into system
configuration tools and administer global filtering policies.
- Delegated Partition Administrator (DPA) - The DPA has the right to log in to
the System Configuration tool to administer the filtering policies for the
selected partition or group. It also has full access to any of the group's
reports and overrides.
In addition to these administration roles, there are two other roles:
- iPrism-wide Privileged User - This role assigns specific rights for the entire
iPrism. For example, with this option, you can create a privilege that has full
reporting access and overrides for the entire iPrism.
- Partition-wide Privileged User - This role assigns specific rights for the
selected partition or groups. For example, with this option, you can create a
privilege that has full reporting access for a specific partition.
By offering this role flexibility, administrators can adjust their Web
filtering management in ways that best suit their total security strategy.
Sign up for a iPrism web demo and get a free WIPEOUT t-shirt. Plus, you'll be
entered to win a custom surf board.
http://www.wservernews.com/090107-Demo
Social Media and Web Threats
It used to be that visits to web sites devoted to gambling and adult content
were the primary concern of corporate security managers. More recently, the
problems inherent in Web-borne threats has expanded exponentially with the
rapid evolution of what's become know as Web 2.0.
While definitions differ greatly, it's fair to say that a large factor in the
growth of Web 2.0 involves user-driven or user-generated content. Tremendous
amounts of content are being generated around social network sites such as
Facebook and MySpace, file sharing sites such as YouTube, and information
sharing media in the form of blogs and Wikis. The interactive and largely free-
flowing nature of this content is drawing the attention of consumers who want
to participate and businesses who want to leverage its marketing power. But
it's also creating security problems that few companies are prepared to deal
with.
According to experts, surging to a website in the Web 2.0 or 2.5 era means
users can quickly become infected wit spyware or other malware. The danger is
increased because these sites can be infected quickly before the hacker moves
on to other legitimate sites.
That type of ever-shifting threat puts a tremendous strain on IT departments.
They obviously don't want to allow access to a source of infected files, but at
the same time they don't want to alienate users by permanently blocking useful
web sites. For these kinds of threats, static web filtering lists quickly lose
their usefulness. Organizations need dynamic and robust solutions that can not
only block these sites as they crop up, but release them as they are taken off
the banned list.
St. Bernard's iPrism Web Filter mitigates this problem because it offers free
antivirus technology onboard. When an infected website is detected, it is
immediately blocked and becomes part of a dynamically detected block list of
URLs. If it is a legitimate website, it stays on the original list of
accessible sites and is blocked only as long as a virus or malware infection is
present. Even for users who already have an antivirus solution installed,
iPrism offers an additional layer of protection that blocks infected sites
before they get near internal servers. This dynamic protection insures that
legitimate sites remain accessible as long as they are virus and malware-free.
Sign up for a iPrism web demo and get a free WIPEOUT t-shirt. Plus, you'll be
entered to win a custom surf board.
http://www.wservernews.com/090107-Enter
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Administrative Toolbox |
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Controlling Access to Individual Web Sites
The iPrism Web Filter includes a large and detailed URL database categorized so
you can determine filtering for individuals or groups within your organization.
If a requested site belongs to a category that is being blocked by the active
access control list (ACL), then the site is inaccessible. However, in instances
where you need to handle some websites individually, iPrism gives you several
ways customize the blocking or non-blocking of individual sites:
You can change a URL's rating with custom filters
A custom filter lets you change a URL's rating (or create a rating for it if it
does not already have one), by allowing you to assign any URL to either an
existing filter category (e.g. adult, nudity, business, politics, etc.), or
assigning it to additional special categories called local categories which can
be used exclusively for your URL classification. Once you make a custom
assignment, iPrism will treat the URL as a member of that category and either
allow or deny access to the site based on the active filtering profile. Custom
filters are important because they provide the ability to restrict or allow
access to any website, not just those included in iPrism's URL database.
You can control URLs with a locally defined category
Locally defined categories are unique in that they have precedence over the
(non-local) ratings assigned in the iPrism URL database. For example, if there
is a site that is blocked via its category rating in the URL database, you can
create a custom filter that assigns it to a local rating such as local-1. This
will make that category accessible to anyone under any profile even though it's
part of a blocked category.
You can submit sites to St. Bernard for review
Because new sites are proliferating on the Web at lightening speeds,
inevitably, there will be sites that have yet to be reviewed and categorized by
St. Bernard's iGuard analysts. You can easily submit these sites via iPrism's
Central Management Console and have them immediately reviewed. You may also
submit them to St. Bernard via email.
Sign up for a iPrism web demo and get a free WIPEOUT t-shirt. Plus, you'll be
entered to win a custom surf board.
http://www.wservernews.com/090107-Sign-Up
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Windows Server News |
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The New Year Brings New Web Dangers
2009 Will Be a Growth Year for Internet Threats
When the first worm was loosed on the Internet in 1988, it ended up infecting
10% of the worldwide Web. It was significant not only for the extent of its
reach, but also because it was created solely to exploit vulnerabilities in the
UNIX operating system. It was more a student experiment than a cybercriminal
plot. Twenty years later, the landscape of Internet-based threats has changed
considerably. According to Sophos, today's attacks are highly organized and
launched with much more nefarious intentions than simply causing mischief.
These attacks are designed to steal information from individuals and companies
and have only one purpose - financial gain.
And because many companies have been diligent in securing their email gateways,
the Web has become the primary vehicle for these cybercrime exploits.
Cybercriminals now infect innocent websites with malicious code and then
silently wait for it to spread to any computer visiting the site. Sophos
estimates that a new webpage is infected every 4.5 seconds. To put this number
more in perspective, Sophos threat analysis centers receive 20,000 new samples
of suspicious code each day.
Unfortunately, these threats are moving beyond Windows to include Apple
Macintosh and even cross-platform software. With scores of new mobile devices
hitting the market such as the Google Android Phone, iPod Touch and the iPhone,
2009 will offer unprecedented opportunities for Internet-based attacks.
The Sophos report cites some emerging threats to watch for in 2009:
Legitimate site threats - This is a growing concern because an infected site -
your bank or online store -- may look the same as always and yet be harboring
malware.
SQL injection attacks - This happens when malicious code is injected into the
database running a site. Often launched via web forms, these attacks are
difficult to overcome because they can easily reoccur even after you've cleaned
your website.
Scareware - This is the name for malicious code hidden in anti-virus software.
When you download these "free" anti-virus programs to protect your computer,
you get infected. The cure is worse than the disease in these cases.
Automated systems - Some hackers have developed tools that use search engines
such as Google to scour the Internet and locate vulnerable sites they can
exploit. This is a fast and easy way for cybercriminals to locate hundreds of
exploitable sites in a short amount of time.
Creative Malware - Malware attacks via USB sticks are a new phenomenon to
consider as well as attacks using social networking sites, which will continue
to manifest in 2009. With the vast number of Facebook and Myspace members, it
isn't hard for hackers to find sites in which they can plant malicious code.
The Best Solution
Protecting your organization from emerging threats in 2009, may look like a
daunting task. There is no doubt it will require extreme vigilance and
preparation if you are to keep your networks safe.
A vital component of your network security strategy must be an effective
Internet filter. The iPrism Web Filter with robust, onboard anti-virus is the
award-winning appliance-based solution that combines software and hardware to
deliver unrivalled protection from both established and emerging Internet-based
threats. By combining software and hardware in a completely self-contained
unit, iPrism offers security advantages, such as its own hardened and optimized
OS, you won't find in software-only solutions. When you add iPrism and its
four-factored, dynamic anti-virus to your current anti-virus security, you add
an additional layer of protection. The iPrism Web Filter, with its ease-of-use,
low acquisition and renewal pricing and powerful h-Series appliances, offers
the best possible combination of defenses to keep your organization free from
the emerging Internet threats forecast for 2009.
Web security starts with a comprehensive Acceptable Use Policy, Write the
perfect AUP for your Company. Download a guide with free templates.
http://www.wservernews.com/090107-Guide
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WServer Third Party News |
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Do You Know What to Expect in 2009?
Here are some top predictions for network security in the coming year:
- Malware Grows Up
Malware is continuing to grow and expand and attacks are expected to become
more complex as new methods for bypassing traditional virus-detection software
are developed. Legitimate websites are expected to be targets and the goal for
most attackers is password and identity theft.
- Phishing in a Down Market
Opportunistic Cybercriminals are taking advantage of the economic crises with
scams targeted at users concerned about unemployment and financial stability.
In the midst of the news about struggling financial institutions, there will
likely be an increase in emails appearing to be offers of credit from lending
institutions and banks. Other messages may claim that a financial institution
has closed, and require the user to provide their account credentials to
transfer funds or verify account information. These attacks are becoming
increasingly difficult to distinguish from legitimate communications.
- Easy Targets - Malware Gets Social
With the increasing popularity of sites such as Facebook and Linkedin, users
are more at risk for having their information exploited for attacks that target
their lists of friends and contacts. Malware writers are also replicating
social networking sites and spoofing known contacts in hopes that users will
unwittingly click on messages that appear to be from a familiar source.
- Best Value Solutions
Solutions offering value and affordability will lead the pack in 2009. As
budgets and resources are slashed, IT staff will also be looking at ways to
adopt technologies with multiple functionalities. Facing increasing pressures
to consolidate, businesses will be trading in their plethora of point products
for a few affordable, easy-to-install, and easy-to-manage devices.
- Inside Threats
In the midst of a worsening economy, as businesses are forced to reduce
overheard and layoff workers, an unfortunate byproduct is typically increased
data loss and theft. Disgruntled employees may take proprietary information
with them when they leave, and large layoffs often result in access issues,
open accounts and confusion that leave companies vulnerable to attacks.
- Compliance Requirements
Credit Card companies are imposing strict regulations on businesses to secure
customer data. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards compliance
deadlines have forced many businesses to improve their security infrastructure
to ensure that credit card data is adequately protected. Failure to comply
with the deadline can result in heavy fines or loss of credit-card processing
privileges. This has created an increased emphasis in the marketplace on data
loss prevention, encryption technologies and auditing and reporting tools. (10
Security Predictions for 2009 By CRN ChannelWeb December 05, 2008)
To learn about St. Bernards Channel program and/or apply to be a St. Bernard
ProPartner, click here:
http://www.wservernews.com/090107-Contact
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WServer Fave Links |
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This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff.
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Product of the Week |
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iPrism Delivers Simply Powerful Internet Filtering
The iPrism Web Filter delivers secure, accurate filtering for any size
organization by providing comprehensive web filtering delivered via the
powerful h-Series appliances. As a completely self-contained solution, iPrism
offers award-winning filtering, antivirus, IM and P2P blocking and dynamic
anonymizer defense with no additional software or hardware ever required.
Software-only Web filters like Websense can tax your resources with their
complexity and added cost.
iPrism has won many awards including SC Magazine's highest rating - 5 stars
across the board. iPrism existing and planned features can fulfill your Web
security needs today and defend against emerging threats as they develop:
- Easy setup and zero day-to-day maintenance
- Powerful h-Series Appliances with blazing throughput speeds
of 10 to 100+ Mbps
- Anti-Virus Protection at no additional charge
- Dynamic unrivalled anonymizer defense
- 100% human-reviewed iGuard URL database
- Comprehensive on-box reporting
- Daily URL database updates - hourly for security categories
- New features and product upgrades at no charge
iPrism offers ease-of-use, value and performance that's made it a success since
it was first introduced in 1995. With thousands of customers worldwide and a
95% renewal rate, iPrism continues to lead the field in providing superior Web
defense and the lowest TCO on the market.
To receive a Quick Quote and find you how much you will save with iPrism, click
here.
http://www.wservernews.com/090107-POTW
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