Social networking rehabilitation

As workers find new and creative ways to use the Web, organisations struggle to maintain control of the corporate network while empowering employees, partners, and other stakeholders with access to critical functionality.

A staggering number of new applications have emerged and the number grows daily. Complicating matters is the fact that what is considered a "good" versus "bad" application is no longer a clear-cut issue.

Some applications are intended purely for business purposes and are carefully designed to minimise security risks and maximise productivity. At the other end of the risk continuum are applications programmed to steal data, corrupt computers, and disrupt network activity. A huge variety of applications fall into the grey area between these extremes.

While IT administrators were once apt to deny access to applications whose origins were found in the consumer world, such an approach is increasingly problematic. After all, applications such as Facebook have proven quite valuable for many in the business world, particularly sales and marketing groups.

In fact, 1.5 million local businesses maintain active pages on Facebook. (For this and other interesting Facebook facts, see http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/facebook-statistics-facts-figures-for-2010/).

At the same time, Facebook games can be productivity zappers, and if they contain malware, they also pose a security risk. This evolution is causing administrators to reassess how they configure firewalls in protecting the corporate environment.

A few years ago, IT administrators could deny access to applications by defining firewall policies blocking certain ports or protocols. But because many applications today appear as Web traffic over port 80 or 443, this approach is no longer sufficient or effective. As a result, administrators have lost a fair amount of control over the applications being used across the enterprise.

www.watchguard.com based on fixed or limited destination ports and readily identified registration servers. Second-generation applications used dynamic ports and registration servers that changed addresses frequently or were mirrored so extensively as to render ACLs less effective for blocking applications.

The current generation of IM and P2P applications often act like Web traffic and, in many cases, dispense with registration servers altogether. As a result, they are increasingly adept at evading firewalls. In fact, some applications - including Ultrasurf, Skype, and Winny - dodge security technologies by design. Clearly businesses need to closely control access to these applications, especially those organisations bound by certain industry regulations.

WatchGuard continually evolves its solutions to keep pace with the newest challenges facing organisations of all sizes. WatchGuard's XTM appliance v11.4 (and higher) includes Application Control capabilities that empower administrators to exercise fine-grained control over hundreds of applications, and understand which applications are being used and by whom.

The WatchGuard Application Control is a fully integrated security subscription for all WatchGuard XTM appliances. It provides global and policy-based monitoring and blocking of over 1 500 unique Web and business applications for greater productivity and enhanced security.

Administrators can enforce acceptable use policies for users and groups by category, application, and application sub-functions. For example, they can define a policy that allows the marketing department to access Facebook, but not Facebook games.

Using over 2 300 signatures and advanced behavioural techniques, Application Control also gives the administrator real-time and historical visibility into the use (or attempted use) of applications on the network. This level of control and visibility helps organisations enforce acceptable use policies that are mandated by industry regulation, legal and political jurisdictions, corporate goals or culture, and the like.