MessageLabs Announces An Industry First With New 'In the Cloud' Web Security & Management Services; Email Security Services Leader Addresses Growing Convergence of Messaging and Web Threats

Business Wire, Oct 3, 2005

NEW YORK -- MessageLabs, the leading provider of messaging security and management services to businesses, today announced the launch of three services for web security. MessageLabs is the only managed service provider now able to provide security services for both business email and web traffic. MessageLabs Web Protect incorporates Web Anti-Virus, which scans all web traffic for viruses and malicious code, and Web Anti-Spyware, a service that provides protection from spyware attempting to monitor confidential Internet activity. The third service is MessageLabs Web Control, a comprehensive URL and content filtering service that enables administrators to manage and enforce their Internet access policies.

"The threats from email and the Web are converging rapidly as malware authors turn their attention to the Web," said Ben White, CEO of MessageLabs. "With this new suite of services, we are able to provide businesses worldwide the same certainty and control at both the inbox and the browser. Only our managed service, with the combined power of Internet level protection for both email- and Web-based traffic, allows businesses to meet these converging threats head on."

MessageLabs Web Protect

With new browser vulnerabilities appearing weekly, Web browsing has rapidly become a favorite target of cyber criminals seeking to compromise enterprise networks. In fact, during the past twelve months many contemporary viruses (including variants of Mytob, Mydoom and Mitglieder, the Bagle downloader trojan) have all used the Web to infect PCs and spread their malicious payloads. By combining the use of emails, sophisticated social engineering, and links to hazardous websites, the threat has now converged, with the web now also being used to eavesdrop on users and their personal data. In addition, malicious code writers are increasingly focused on gaining financial benefit through covertly monitoring user activity. This is demonstrated by the rise of phishing attacks, along with spyware and adware programs, whose exploits range from targeted pop-up advertising to stealing confidential information and passwords. According to SANS Institute, more than 55 percent of PCs are now infected with some form of spyware.

In response to these threats, MessageLabs has developed two MessageLabs Web Protect services: Web Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware. These services remove harmful Web viruses and eliminate threats that use stealth before they reach and infect corporate networks, thus securing the integrity of Web usage and defending those networks against evolving Web threats. These solutions utilize MessageLabs unrivalled multi-tier protection, which combines its proactive heuristics technology and multiple virus scanning engines with a layer of proactive real-time spyware scanning that is further informed by the world's most accurate and comprehensive malware databases.

"Stealth programs don't draw attention to themselves and are able to work unchallenged in the background. By the time most administrators realize they have a spyware problem on the network, the damage is often already done," White added. "To eliminate this threat, our Web Protect service proactively scans incoming and outgoing Web traffic for malicious code, spyware, adware and phishing attacks 'in the cloud' and beyond the enterprise network boundary."

MessageLabs Web Control

Employees are spending more time browsing the Internet at work, driving an increase in the problems associated with providing unmonitored and unregulated Internet access. For example, the Web's many potential productivity benefits can be overridden by time-wasting distractions. According to recent findings by research firm IDC, between 30 and 40 percent of Web browsing in the office is non-work related.

MessageLabs Web Control is a fully managed Web URL Filtering service that puts organizations in control of how its employees use the Internet. This service enables companies to control Web access within their organization by allowing the monitoring of Internet activity to enforce acceptable use policies for Internet access and to block undesired Web content at the Internet level - before it reaches their network.

"Inadvertent online activity by employees can expose companies to countless security risks that ultimately cost billions of dollars annually," White continued. "MessageLabs Web Control enables companies to optimize productivity levels, while reducing the risks of employee litigation."

Managed Web Security and Management Services' Benefits

The MessageLabs Managed Web Security and Management services remove the hurdles associated with deploying and maintaining in-house solutions and enable the following benefits associated with an 'in the cloud' service:

--Low total cost of ownership - Eliminates the overhead of appliances, updates and management, thus reducing overall costs;

--Best-of-breed protection - Uses a multi-tier protection model, incorporating reactive scanners and proactive heuristics and a constantly growing knowledge base of both Web and email threats;