Version R75.20 also adds URL filtering for both websites and web-delivered business applications. An IT administrator can allow some websites to be accessed while others are blocked, Gonda says. Websites with inappropriate content would be blocked, but web-based communication tools like Skype could be allowed if it was used, say, by salespeople. The tool compares a URL someone is requesting to a database of 100 million websites and 200,000 web apps, but because as many as 200 new websites are created each day, the URL filtering tool goes up to the cloud to get updates on new sites that may be malicious. The filtering helps prevent security threats in which seemingly innocent sites actually download malicious code onto a computer.
The software upgrade also adds a User Check feature that allows a worker to request an exception to a site block. Company policy may be to block access to YouTube, for example, but an employee can request an exception by clicking on a check box , which opens a dialogue box that opens a dialog box in which the employee can enter the reason he or she wants an exception (for example, if the YouTube video were used for training). The request and the related link are saved and are "auditable," Gonda says, to keep employees honest.
Version R75.20 also improves upon a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption scanner in R75.0 that sees into encrypted packets with tools for intrusion prevention, anti-virus, DLP and other security concerns. Version R75.20 also adds a plug-in for Microsoft Exchange. "That allows us to actually approve the messages, the correspondence that goes within the Exchange server and apply a policy on that," says Gonda.
Also, the DLP tool prevents data loss on connections between people and departments within the firewall, as well as beyond it. This feature of R75.20 prevents sensitive data, such as personnel records, from being seen by people outside of human resources, he says.
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