In Websense Inc.s Websense Enterprise Version 5.5, the Internet access control vendor has effectively added real-time Internet attack protection to its list of dos and donts.
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In Websense Inc.s Websense Enterprise Version 5.5, the Internet access control vendor has effectively added real-time Internet attack protection to its list of dos and donts.
Websense Enterprise 5.5 was released last month. Although the real-time database updates, along with a mobile client for laptops, are new, the foundation of Websense Enterprise 5.5 has been around for some time.
Websense Enterprise 5.5 is priced starting at $15 per year per seat for Web and protocol filtering. Add-on modules—including Security PG (Premium Groups), Productivity PG, Bandwidth PG, Bandwidth Optimizer, Real-time Security Updates and IM (instant messaging) Attachment Manager—are each $5 per year per seat. The Websense Client Policy Manager desktop client is priced at $25 per year per seat.
IT managers who have used Websense products should consider an upgrade to the latest version as part of a defense-in-depth strategy.
A defense-in-depth scheme involves implementing security products at different points in the network and in applications that may or may not communicate with a central management console. Defense in depth is a new role for Websense, and our tests show that the product is quite effective at parlaying Internet access monitors into security controls.
The most interesting example is the way Websense Enterprise 5.5 interferes with phishing attacks. We installed Security PG on the test network, then accessed our e-mail system. Weve been getting a lot of eBay phish (e-mail that purports to be from eBay Inc. but is really an identity thief cruising for marks), so we attempted to go to the site to “update our account information.”
Websense Enterprise 5.5 caught and blocked access to every phishing site that we attempted to visit during more than three days of testing. This is a good example of the defense-in-depth technique at work because even though the two anti-spam systems we use are good at filtering out most of the phish, some always make it through. That Websense Enterprise 5.5 was able to block access to the fraudulent Web sites significantly reduced our exposure.
Websense Enterprise 5.5 competes closely with SurfControl plc.s family of Web Filter, E-Mail Filter and Instant Message Filter software packages. Both companies provide large databases of categorized URLs, along with a long list of third-party products with which they integrate to provide Internet access control.
We recommend that IT managers test the level of integration with Internet proxy servers, firewalls and other network infrastructure devices such as routers to see which is the best fit. Although we had no trouble getting Websense Enterprise 5.5 up and running in the lab, integration with our Microsoft Corp. ISA (Internet Security and Acceleration) Server required several hours of intricate work.
In addition, getting Websense Enterprise 5.5 fully integrated with our Microsoft Active Directory domain led to a finicky session with Microsoft Group Policy to change the log-on scripts so that Websense Enterprise 5.5 could identify machines as users logged in. Websense Enterprise 5.5 can also identify machines using a variety of directories, including Novell Inc.s eDirectory, and just by watching the network.
Technical Director Cameron Sturdevant can be reached at cameron_sturdevant@ziffdavis.com.