Johannesburg, 15 Dec 2006
Sophos, a world leader in IT security, will give companies the ability to control and block top-selling computer games, including The Sims 2 (EA Games), Fifa 07 (EA Sports) and Football Manager 2007 (Sega), from January.
This will come as welcome news to system administrators who want to stop employees installing and playing computer games on company PCs and laptops, as this behaviour wastes valuable IT management resources and can severely impact on overall business productivity.
A recent Sophos poll reflects the security and efficiency concerns that system administrators have when it comes to computer games. 90.4% of respondents want the ability to block games, with 62% indicating this is essential.
In addition to providing system administrators with the power to block popular games from 15 major games publishers, including Eidos Interactive, SEGA and Electronic Arts, Sophos Application Control will also be extended over time to control employees' access to games by other developers.
"PC games are popular Christmas gifts and many people won't think twice about installing them on their work PCs or laptops. Many games are easily accessed and easy to hide, meaning some employees will spend a lot of their working day playing games," says Brett Myroff, CEO of Sophos master distributor, NetXactics.
System administrators have voiced their opinion loud and clear: they are fed up of workers installing unauthorised programs and cyberslacking.
Sophos Anti-Virus + Application Control has proven extremely popular since its launch in September 2006 and continues to be developed further to meet security and productivity concerns resulting from uncontrolled use of applications in the enterprise.
Integrating seamlessly with Sophos Anti-Virus 6.0 and requiring no roll-out of new software, Sophos Application Control gives businesses the power to selectively block games, VOIP, peer-to-peer (P2P), instant messaging (IM) and distributed computing applications. It is available free to all Sophos Anti-Virus 6.0 users.
"While games are not a bad thing, there is a time and place for them. IT departments that are responsible for supporting computer networks increasingly want to control their users' behaviour. Sophos Application Control will help system administrators define a policy for appropriate computer usage," Myroff says.
More information and a full list of games that can be controlled by Sophos Application Control can be found at: http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2006/12/games.html
Share