malware

Facetime Adds Sophos AV Protection to Unified Security Gateway

Facetime is a respected name in unified communications security. Its Unified Security Gateway, or USG 3.0, appliance allows enterprise administrators to control the web sites and applications that can be accessed by users, as well as monitoring and filtering content for Web 2.0 communications such as webmail, blogs, and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Aside from the goal of protecting intellectual property and sensitive information, the USG 3.0 appliance also provides the tools necessary to maintain legal and regulatory compliance related to network security and disclosing information.

Another threat that enterprise administrators have to contend with is malware and malicious attacks. Mike Rogers, vice president of Global Alliances and OEM for Sophos stressed the issue. “For the first six months of this year, SophosLabs detected 23,500 new infected Web pages–that’s one every 3.6 seconds. This statistic underscores the necessity of ensuring safe Web browsing, which includes virus and other malware protection.”

That is why Facetime is adding Sophos antivirus scanning and malware protection technologies to incorporate into the USG 3.0 appliance.

Forefront Security for OCS Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007

For organizations that rely on Microsoft unified communications, Forefront Security seems like a natural fit. With components to protect and secure Exchange, SharePoint, and Office Communications Server, as well as client endpoints, Forefront Security provides comprehensive protection for a Microsoft unified communications environment.

To make things even easier to monitor and manage, Microsoft has developed a Forefront Security for Office Communications Server Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007. Microsoft provides the following overview of the capabilities of this tool:

The Microsoft Forefront Security for Office Communications Server Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 provides real-time insight into the health and performance of key Forefront Security for Office Communications Server (Version 10) components and services. The Microsoft Forefront Security for Office Communications Server Management Pack alerts the administrator to critical events affecting the security of their OCS environment. Proactive management of the Microsoft Forefront Security for Office Communications Server environment is facilitated through management pack activity reports on IM scan performance.

Feature Bullet Summary

• Monitoring of current license state
• Monitoring of Antimalware Engine health and update activity
• Monitoring of IM Scan Job availability
• Monitoring health of required Forefront Security for OCS services
• Reports on key Forefront for OCS performance counters

FaceTime Strengthens UC / Web 2.0 Security with Sunbelt Partnership

FaceTime is building more comprehensive security into its Unified Security Gateway thanks to a partnership with Sunbelt Software.

According to the press release, “Sunbelt’s anti-malware technology, designed specifically for the gateway, and its Threat Track(TM) data feeds have been licensed by FaceTime for integration with its Unified Security Gateway product. As part of the integration, FaceTime will deploy Sunbelt’s VIPRE(R) technology into its appliance to augment the protection provided by FaceTime’s Security Labs and the FaceTime WebFilter.”

What that translates to for you is a gateway appliance that performs both Web filtering and malware scanning at the perimeter to keep bad stuff out and good stuff in. The combination of FaceTime’s Security Labs efforts to identify Web 2.0 threats and SunbeltLabs malware research provide a formidable defense against emerging threats.

If you are using unified communications and/or Web 2.0 technologies in your network, the FaceTime Unified Security Gateway is probably worth investigating as a solution for securing and protecting your network.

Securing Unified Communications

Corporate networks and computer systems are faced with a variety of threats. Unauthorized access, malware compromise, data leakage, and other threats are fairly common and administrators are used to protecting against them. However, the phone system traditionally has been a separate issue, exposed to soe threats of its own, but a horse of an entirely different color. Even the various attack vectors in the computer system and network infrastructure have typically had a degree of separation. Michael Osterman discusses some of the emerging (or merging as the case may be) threats to corporate networks posed by the implementation of unified communications in this NetworkWorld article.