Trend Micro PortalProtect Adds DLP For Sharepoint

Trend Micro has added Web protection and lightweight data loss prevention (DLP) capability to its Microsoft SharePoint security product. PortalProtect 2.0 also supports SharePoint 2010, which will be formally announced May 12. PortalProtect is primarily an antivirus product, like competitive products from Symantec, McAfee, Sophos and, of course, Microsoft. The DLP market reflects growing concern over sharing of unauthorized information as people collaborate.

"People have a need to collaborate that SharePoint has unleashed and tapped into. What's happening is people are using it in risky ways," said Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald. "They're putting up sensitive content, and then it's being made widely and easily available." Trend has seen huge growth among enterprises with more than 10,000 users as SharePoint installations expand, said Chris Taylor, Trend Micro product marketing manager for PortalProtect. Companies--including smaller ones--are very concerned about the risks of extending collaboration externally. "Now you have risks of users outside of IT control," he said, "because a lot of companies want to collaborate not just inside their organizations but with partners and customers."

The DLP capabilities, which Taylor characterizes as very basic, are a light version of the full DLP product, Leakproof which we reviewed as part of a DLP Rolling Review, part of Trend's portfolio with the acquisition of Provilla. The DLP engine can scan for easily identifiable strings such as Social Security numbers, credit card numbers and other personal identifiers. It's similar to "DLP light" embedded in some E-mail security products, primarily to help meet basic compliance requirements, such as PCI DSS, HIPAA and the many state data-breach notification laws. Gartner's MacDonald cautions that this level of capability is not a replacement for full DLP. "Embedded DLP--built in pattern matching--is simple stuff," he said. "The same product that's crawling for malware should do this.  If you want to take it further it becomes part of a broader DLP strategy."
 
Trend Micro has also beefed up its anti-malware protection. Web reputation filtering, already available in Trend's other anti-malware products, scans URLs and blocks access to potentially malicious or compromised websites. Previously, PortalProtect relied on file scanning and the ability to block by file type, such as executables, as a matter of course, and other file types as a matter of policy. The new web capabilities also allow advanced Web filtering to meet acceptable use policies, which take on added importance in a collaborative environment such as SharePoint, particularly with external users. PortalProtect 2.0 is in beta and will be generally available June 25. The price for 501-1,000 users is $18.82 per user.