BELMONT, CA--(Marketwire - September 30, 2009) - FaceTime Communications (
www.facetime.com)
today announced the release of the
Unified Security Gateway (USG) 3.0, the first secure Web gateway to
combine content monitoring, management and security of Web 2.0 applications
such as social networking, instant messaging, and Unified Communications,
with URL filtering, malware and Web antivirus protection.
USG 3.0 provides granular control of not only Web sites and applications
but also the content posted to blogs, wikis, webmail and social networking
sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Such content can be monitored,
secured and recorded -- reducing outbound data leakage and enabling
compliance with
industry regulations, legal discovery requirements, and corporate
policy standards.
Increasingly, corporations, financial institutions, government agencies,
schools, and other organizations are finding that Web 2.0 platforms are an
important medium for communicating with employees, partners and customers,
but their traditional security solutions do not combat the risks associated
with these collaborative technologies.
Additionally, Web 2.0 platforms introduce new compliance and policy
challenges. For instance, financial advisors already using IM now also use
Twitter and other channels to communicate with clients; yet regulatory
bodies such as
FINRA
require that these communications be monitored and archived. Schools are
required to comply with the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA), but also
need to find a way to allow access to educational sites and even YouTube
videos without enabling access to harmful content. Government agencies and
corporations worry about sensitive information leaking out over Twitter or
Facebook.
"Users will continue to bring Web 2.0 applications into enterprise networks
and IT managers can either try to lock down the network, or they can secure
these applications and reap the benefits of social media collaboration
while regaining control," said
Kailash Ambwani,
president and CEO of FaceTime Communications. "USG 3.0 delivers unique
capabilities in not just monitoring and securing inbound and outbound
content over Web 2.0 and Internet applications, but also in our innovative
reporting, providing a birds-eye view of user behavior across all the
modalities of Web, social networks, IM and Unified Communications platforms
-- providing a clear understanding of a user's complete activity."
Organizations are now faced with the challenge of managing and securing the
converging worlds of enterprise communications and collaboration on the one
hand and publicly available social networks and Web 2.0 applications on the
other.
FaceTime's survey of
1,100 worldwide IT Managers, in June 2009, revealed that social network
usage in the enterprise is widely accepted by IT professionals, however,
two-thirds of respondents placed high-importance on controlling which
groups or individuals can use social networking on the enterprise network
and for how long. Eighty percent of the over 1,100 IT Managers surveyed
saw information leakage as a primary concern, with malware propagation over
such networks seen as a key issue by 90 percent of respondents.
According to the "
Hype Cycle for
Infrastructure Protection, 2009" published by the Gartner Group: "The
Web is simultaneously becoming more important and more dangerous to modern
business. Web 2.0-based applications and services, such as Skype and
salesforce.com, have the ability to cut costs and improve productivity.
Organizations are increasingly interested in opening up Web access to Web
2.0 applications, such as social networking and IM, but are concerned about
security risks. Concurrently, the Internet is also the primary source of
malware infection and the primary channel for data loss due to external
hacking. Yet fewer than 20% of organizations have adequate solutions to
effectively protect their endpoints from Web-based attack and effectively
manage Web participation."
Traditional security tools, such as firewalls and URL filters are bypassed
by the thousands of applications, such as streaming audio and video, file
sharing and collaboration tools, which are capable of hopping from port to
port, using encryption and non-standard protocols, and tunneling over HTTP.
We knew that some degree of Web 2.0 application usage was happening in our
network, but our initial evaluation of USG, gave us the full picture," says
Ted Hickman, Global Network and Telecommunications Manager, Cook Group
Incorporated. "USG now gives us granular control over what our users can
do, we've shut down a host of unauthorized P2P usage and we're now
monitoring and reporting on our users behaviour across the whole Web 2.0
spectrum.
About USG 3.0
USG 3.0 is the first secure Web gateway to combine content monitoring,
management and security of Web 2.0 applications, such as social networks,
instant messaging and Unified Communications, with URL filtering, malware
and Web antivirus protection. A highly visual reporting engine gives an
innovative birds-eye view of user behavior across Web, IM, P2P and social
networks. New integration of on-board antivirus scanning technology in
combination with USG's URL filtering and malware engine reduces the risk of
Internet-borne malware and viruses.
USG 3.0 may be integrated with a Web/FTP proxy server, such as Blue Coat,
through an ICAP-based connector or deployed in simple pass-by mode -- a
plug and play deployment which requires no change to existing network
configurations.
New and enhanced features include:
-- Monitoring, control and recording of content posted to social
networks, Twitter, blogs and sent via webmail
-- Inbound Web content controls -- block elements of Web content or media
that fall outside of policy
-- Market-leading application coverage for over 3,000 native and Web-
based applications.
-- Insight Reporting Engine aggregates data from multiple USGs and
provides a "birds-eye" view of user traffic across all Internet channels --
including IM, P2P, Social Networks, Blogs & more
-- Onboard antivirus engine scans content received over HTTP/HTTPS, FTP,
IM and UC channels
-- ICAP-based Web proxy connector to augment existing security
infrastructures
-- Fully customizable modular dashboard
-- Custom URL filtering categories with import capabilities from existing
URL filtering solutions
Pricing and Availability
Unified Security Gateway 3.0 is available immediately through FaceTime's
authorized partners from $9,200. Please call (888) 349-FACE (3223) for
pricing, or logon to
www.facetime.com.
About FaceTime Communications
FaceTime Communications enables the safe and productive use of Unified
Communications and Web 2.0, including social networks, blogs, and instant
messaging. Ranked number one by IDC for five consecutive years, FaceTime's
award-winning solutions are used by more than 1,500 customers for the
security, management and compliance of real-time communications. FaceTime
supports or has strategic partnerships with all leading public and IM
network and Unified Communications providers, including AOL, Google,
Microsoft, Yahoo!, Skype, IBM and Cisco.
FaceTime is headquartered in Belmont, California. For more information
visit
http://www.facetime.com.
Contact Information: Media Contact:
Sarah Carter
FaceTime Communications
650-631-6452
scarter@facetime.com
Tom Woolf
Woolf Media
415-259-5638
tomw@woolfmedia.com