BELMONT, Calif - September 30, 2009 - FaceTime Communications
(www.facetime.com) today announced the release of the Unified
Security Gateway (USG) 3.0, the first secure Web gateway to combine
content monitoring, management and security of Web 2.0 applications
such as social networking, instant messaging, and Unified
Communications, with URL filtering, malware and Web antivirus
protection.
USG 3.0 provides granular control of not only Web sites and
applications but also the content posted to blogs, wikis, webmail
and social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Such content can be monitored, secured and recorded - reducing
outbound data leakage and enabling compliance with industry
regulations, legal discovery requirements, and corporate policy
standards.
Increasingly, corporations, financial institutions, government
agencies, schools, and other organizations are finding that Web 2.0
platforms are an important medium for communicating with employees,
partners and customers, but their traditional security solutions do
not combat the risks associated with these collaborative
technologies.
Additionally, Web 2.0 platforms introduce new compliance and policy
challenges. For instance, financial advisors already using IM now
also use Twitter and other channels to communicate with clients;
yet regulatory bodies such as FINRA require that these
communications be monitored and archived. Schools are required to
comply with the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA), but also need
to find a way to allow access to educational sites and even YouTube
videos without enabling access to harmful content. Government
agencies and corporations worry about sensitive information leaking
out over Twitter or Facebook.
"Users will continue to bring Web 2.0 applications into enterprise
networks and IT managers can either try to lock down the network,
or they can secure these applications and reap the benefits of
social media collaboration while regaining control," said Kailash
Ambwani, president and CEO of FaceTime Communications. "USG 3.0
delivers unique capabilities in not just monitoring and securing
inbound and outbound content over Web 2.0 and Internet
applications, but also in our innovative reporting, providing a
birds-eye view of user behavior across all the modalities of Web,
social networks, IM and Unified Communications platforms -
providing a clear understanding of a user's complete
activity."
Organizations are now faced with the challenge of managing and
securing the converging worlds of enterprise communications and
collaboration on the one hand and publicly available social
networks and Web 2.0 applications on the other.
FaceTime's survey of 1,100 worldwide IT Managers, in June 2009,
revealed that social network usage in the enterprise is widely
accepted by IT professionals, however, two-thirds of respondents
placed high-importance on controlling which groups or individuals
can use social networking on the enterprise network and for how
long. Eighty percent of the over 1,100 IT Managers surveyed saw
information leakage as a primary concern, with malware propagation
over such networks seen as a key issue by 90 percent of
respondents.
According to the "Hype Cycle for Infrastructure Protection, 2009"
published by the Gartner Group: "The Web is simultaneously becoming
more important and more dangerous to modern business. Web 2.0-based
applications and services, such as Skype and salesforce.com, have
the ability to cut costs and improve productivity. Organizations
are increasingly interested in opening up Web access to Web 2.0
applications, such as social networking and IM, but are concerned
about security risks. Concurrently, the Internet is also the
primary source of malware infection and the primary channel for
data loss due to external hacking. Yet fewer than 20% of
organizations have adequate solutions to effectively protect their
endpoints from Web-based attack and effectively manage Web
participation"
Traditional security tools, such as firewalls and URL filters are
bypassed by the thousands of applications, such as streaming audio
and video, file sharing and collaboration tools, which are capable
of hopping from port to port, using encryption and non-standard
protocols, and tunneling over HTTP.
We knew that some degree of Web 2.0 application usage was happening
in our network, but our initial evaluation of USG, gave us the full
picture", says Ted Hickman, Global Network and Telecommunications
Manager, Cook Group Incorporated. "USG now gives us granular
control over what our users can do, we've shut down a host of
unauthorized P2P usage and we're now monitoring and reporting on
our users behaviour across the whole Web 2.0 spectrum.
About USG 3.0
USG 3.0 is the first secure Web gateway to combine content
monitoring, management and security of Web 2.0 applications, such
as social networks, instant messaging and Unified Communications,
with URL filtering, malware and Web antivirus protection. A highly
visual reporting engine gives an innovative birds-eye view of user
behavior across Web, IM, P2P and social networks. New integration
of on-board antivirus scanning technology in combination with USG's
URL filtering and malware engine reduces the risk of Internet-borne
malware and viruses.
USG 3.0 may be integrated with a Web/FTP proxy server, such as Blue
Coat, through an ICAP-based connector or deployed in simple pass-by
mode -- a plug and play deployment which requires no change to
existing network configurations.
New and enhanced features include:
* Monitoring, control and recording of content posted to social
networks, Twitter, blogs and sent via webmail
* Inbound Web content controls - block elements of Web content or
media that fall outside of policy
* Market-leading application coverage for over 3,000 native and
Web-based applications.
* Insight Reporting Engine aggregates data from multiple USGs and
provides a "birds-eye" view of user traffic across all Internet
channels - including IM, P2P, Social Networks, Blogs &
more
* Onboard antivirus engine scans content received over HTTP/HTTPS,
FTP, IM and UC channels
* ICAP-based Web proxy connector to augment existing security
infrastructures
* Fully customizable modular dashboard
* Custom URL filtering categories with import capabilities from
existing URL filtering solutions
Pricing and Availability
Unified Security Gateway 3.0 is available immediately through
FaceTime's authorized partners from $9,200. Please call (888)
349-FACE (3223) for pricing, or logon to www.facetime.com.
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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