BELMONT, Calif. - June 18, 2008 - FaceTime
Communications today announced that its Unified Security Gateway
(USG) now secures and manages the nearly 2,000 MySpace applications that have been developed
by third parties and are currently available for users to download
to their
MySpace profiles. This granular control of
MySpace is complementary to the USG's support for more than
20,000 Facebook widgets, as was announced at the RSA
Conference in April 2008." USG also supports granular control of
other social networking sites including Bebo, Friendster and
LinkedIn.
Three of the top ten most visited Web sites globally are social
networking sites, including
MySpace at number six, as ranked by Alexa. The increasing use
of social networking on company PCs raises numerous concerns for IT
managers, from productivity and bandwidth loss to risks of inbound
malware to information leakage. The availability of applications
and widgets to customize social networking profiles has added a new
dimension to IT concerns.
MySpace revealed the first approved applications from third
party developers in March 2008. To date, the top 20 most popular
MySpace applications have been downloaded by more than 18
million
MySpace users, according to the site.
The ability to control
Web 2.0 and manage each of these applications individually with
FaceTime's USG gives IT the flexibility to allow some or all
employees to access their
MySpace profiles, and to also control access to some or all of
these applications developed by third parties.
Over the past year, FaceTime Security Labs has uncovered myriad
scams, phishing schemes, profile hijacks and various other
malicious activities on
MySpace. For example, FaceTime Director of Malware Research
Christopher Boyd uncovered a MySpace hijack scheme last fall, where MySpace
Music pages were hacked using a transparent overlay that, when
clicked, redirected the visitor to spyware installs and fake
security tool installs.
A complete guide to the characteristics and risks of more than
25,000 Web 2.0, social networking and real-time applications and
how they behave on the network is available on FaceTime's Greynets
Guide Web site at www.greynetsguide.com.
"As a new generation enters the workforce, companies that have
traditionally locked down access to Web sites viewed as non-work
related are finding they need to rethink their policies," said
Frank Cabri, vice president of marketing and product management for
FaceTime Communications. "More companies are recognizing that the
lines between personal and work life are blurred. Many employees
are using consumer-oriented tools to communicate with colleagues,
and others are simply convinced it is their right and privilege to
access their social networking profiles from their work computers -
but most still don't understand the risk this behavior poses to
their employers."
FaceTime's annual survey, Greynets
in the Enterprise, tracks trends, attitudes and impact of the use
of these consumer-oriented communications tools inside large
organizations. The 2007 survey revealed that 85 percent of
employees use work PCs for personal purposes. Further, over the
past three years of the survey, roughly one-third of end users have
consistently reported that they feel they have the right to
download applications of their choice on their work computers.
About the Unified Security Gateway for Today's Real-time
Internet
The FaceTime Unified Security Gateway (USG) is a secure Web
gateway appliance that enables enterprises to control the new
Internet, including Web and real-time communications. USG
integrates management, security and compliance of Web
communications, social networking, consumer-driven greynet
applications such as public IM, Skype and P2P and enterprise-class
Unified Communications suites such as Microsoft's Office
Communications Server and IBM Lotus Sametime. From a single
platform, organizations can enable and enforce safe and productive
use of these applications, protect the network against inbound
malware, mitigate information leakage risks and insure that
corporate, regulatory and e-discovery needs are met.
The USG integrates gateway malware protection and Web filtering
with FaceTime's best-in-class IM hygiene and archiving, in a
purpose-built, hardened appliance. With this single point of
control, organizations can gain complete visibility of all Internet
communications and reduce total cost of ownership using a simpler
solution that is easily administered by the IT staff.
About Actiance, Inc. (Formerly FaceTime Communications, Inc.)
FaceTime Communications became Actiance, Inc on January 11, 2011 following an agreement to
transfer the FaceTime trademark to Apple.
FaceTime Communications enables the safe and productive use of Unified Communications and Web 2.0,
including instant messaging, blogs and social networking. Ranked number one by IDC for five consecutive
years, FaceTime's award-winning solutions are used by more than 1,500 customers for the security,
management and compliance of real-time communications. FaceTime supports or has strategic partnerships
with all leading IM, unified communications providers and social networks including AOL, Google, Yahoo!,
Skype, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
FaceTime is headquartered in Belmont, California. For more information visit
http://www.facetime.com or call 888-349-3223.
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