Blue Coat Adds Real-Time Anti-Phishing

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Blue Coat Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: BCSI), a leader in WAN Application Delivery and Secure Web Gateway, today announced that its Blue Coat® WebFilter™ for Blue Coat ProxySG® appliances now feature Real-Time Anti-Phishing protection. This capability—an industry first—can protect enterprise or organization employees by blocking access to phishing Websites or by warning users that they are attempting to open a phishing Web page that could expose them to potential fraud or theft.

Most of the industry’s currently available anti-phishing solutions provide protection solely by checking a user’s Web URL requests against a database of known phishing sites. Phishing sites, however, are generally short-lived and each day hundreds of new ones appear, so the practice of evaluating a requested page against a database is generally ineffective. Rather than solely depending on a database, the Blue Coat Real-Time Anti-Phishing protection technology is the first to assess a Website “on the fly” and examine it based on proprietary algorithms. This process can even be performed on sites using SSL-encryption.

Phishing: a Growing Threat

Phishing, the practice of luring an unsuspecting person to a counterfeit Website resembling a legitimate site and tricking the user to reveal logins, passwords credit card information and other private information, has resulted in a growing amount of identity theft, robbery and fraud. According to industry researchers, the average losses from phishing are now over $3,000 per incident and the total damages suffered by users victimized by phishing are well over $1 billion per year. Banking and retail sites, including Amazon.com, Ebay and PayPal, have been some of the most popular for criminals to impersonate with counterfeit sites using phishing schemes.

Phishing begins with a criminal sending a convincing looking email to a person and tricking the user to click on a link to a Web page that fraudulently purports to be a legitimate page from a bank, services company or retailer. A person may be tricked into revealing a user name and password or other information that would then give a criminal access to a bank, credit card or service or retail shopping account. The new Blue Coat Real-Time Anti-Phishing protection technology assesses the Web page being requested as the user clicks on the link. If the page is not found in the Blue Coat WebFilter database, a query is sent to a data center in Blue Coat Labs where the Web page is analyzed automatically in real time. The service will then categorize the page. If the Web page is categorized as a phishing site, the Blue Coat ProxySG appliance will block the requested Web page or warn the user. The entire process can be completed in between 250-750 milliseconds.

Real-Time Protection

Blue Coat Real-Time Anti-Phishing protection technology is the latest addition to the unique Dynamic Real-Time Rating (DRTR) service of the Blue Coat WebFilter product. Similar to the anti-phishing capability, URL requests for brand new or previously undiscovered Websites made by users of the WebFilter product can be assessed in real time and categorized as pornography, gambling, spyware sources or some other possibly dangerous or inappropriate Website. In addition, Blue Coat ProxySG appliances can automatically check for credential discrepancies of secure Websites that could indicate a rouge site.

“Phishing has become a lucrative vocation for criminals, and to date there has been very little standing in its way to thwart its success,” said Bethany Mayer, senior vice president, Worldwide Marketing, Blue Coat Systems. “Since the Web is constantly changing, it is important not to rely simply on protection from a static URL database. With new sites constantly popping up, the best protection for Web users comes from the ability to conduct real-time assessment and categorization, such as from Blue Coat Real-Time Anti-Phishing protection technology.”

Blue Coat Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BCSI)