Anti-spyware at the Gateway

[djmg2]

I am after a bit of information regarding anti-spyware. We run McAfee
A/V on the desktops and servers here as well as Groupshield. We also
run Mailsweeper and Websense. I now need to look at anti-spyware. We
have approx 300 computers / users to protect.

I know there are a lot of products out there. What is the best solution
for protecting against spyware at the gateway? Or is it inevitable that
I will need some antispyware running on the desktops (to eliminate
spyware which may already be present on PCs).

A brief Google has flagged up the following:
Black Spider - but this is a managed service (I would prefer in-house
control)
Blue Coat - proxy appliance
Surf Control - agent on desktop
Trend Micro - agent based solution
McAfee - agent based?
Barracuda - appliance at the gateway

We do occasionally use Lavasoft Ad-aware to eliminate problems when we
know there is spyware. We have a licensed copy of this (it is not free
to commercial users).

Any help? I know I haven't provided too much info... I didn't know
what level of detail to go into, in this initial post.

Thanks in anticipation.

Mat G
Birmingham, UK

 

[Leythos]

I am after a bit of information regarding anti-spyware. We run McAfee
A/V on the desktops and servers here as well as Groupshield. We also
run Mailsweeper and Websense. I now need to look at anti-spyware. We
have approx 300 computers / users to protect.

I have more than 1500 workstations located at different clients, we
block spyware by only permitting access to approved internet sites. What
businesses need to understand is that most employees don't require
internet access, and they will complain when limited, but allowing
unrestricted internet access does not make sense - in fact, your
employee overall productivity will increase in almost all cases, after
the first 30 days (due to the decrease during the initial change caused
by disgruntled workers).

We also don't allow users, the generic ones, to use IE, and we filter
all files/ActiveX content from websites unless it's an approved partner
site, at the firewall.

With these methods, we've managed to reduce trouble calls by almost 50%
for all clients, and not one of them have been hit by malware.

 

[Virus Guy]

I have more than 1500 workstations located at different clients,
we block spyware by only permitting access to approved internet
sites.

How do you come up with the list of "approved" sites? What criteria
do you use? How many are on the list?

Do you have software developers/programmers on your staff? Do you
similarly restrict them to the same list of sites as the general
office worker?

 

[Leythos]

How do you come up with the list of "approved" sites? What criteria
do you use? How many are on the list?

The list is based on categories of content and also white/black lists.

Do you have software developers/programmers on your staff? Do you
similarly restrict them to the same list of sites as the general
office worker?

I have multiple rules based on the user or workstation IP. Some users
can authenticate with the firewall and get LEVEL X access from any
location while the workstation itself, with a different user would get
LEVEL Y access.

We also segment our development teams into one network and the other
groups into other networks - this means that we can allow all users in
one physical group of workstations to have one level of access while
others have a different level.

We also permit management some of them, access to another level of
access.

In general, with developers, it's necessary to allow the software
vendors sites and to our Usenet server which is limited to the support
groups and filtering based on our rules.

 

[Somebody.]

I am after a bit of information regarding anti-spyware. We run McAfee
A/V on the desktops and servers here as well as Groupshield. We also
run Mailsweeper and Websense. I now need to look at anti-spyware. We
have approx 300 computers / users to protect.

I know there are a lot of products out there. What is the best solution
for protecting against spyware at the gateway? Or is it inevitable that
I will need some antispyware running on the desktops (to eliminate
spyware which may already be present on PCs).

A brief Google has flagged up the following:
Black Spider - but this is a managed service (I would prefer in-house
control)
Blue Coat - proxy appliance
Surf Control - agent on desktop
Trend Micro - agent based solution
McAfee - agent based?
Barracuda - appliance at the gateway

We do occasionally use Lavasoft Ad-aware to eliminate problems when we
know there is spyware. We have a licensed copy of this (it is not free
to commercial users).

Any help? I know I haven't provided too much info... I didn't know
what level of detail to go into, in this initial post.

If you're using McAfee, they have an anti-spyware plugin that should cost
you almost nothing and work with your exising ePolicy Orchestrator setup, on
the desktop.

For a gateway appliance, I'd definately look at deploying a Fortigate for
it's multilayer defense including spyware protection. But really you should
consider both methods -- gateway *and* desktop. They bolster each other
that way.

-Russ.

 

[Jonas Haggren]

look at tipping points products.. they will do the job.

/Jonas

 

[Don Kelloway]

I am after a bit of information regarding anti-spyware. We run McAfee
A/V on the desktops and servers here as well as Groupshield. We also
run Mailsweeper and Websense. I now need to look at anti-spyware. We
have approx 300 computers / users to protect.

I know there are a lot of products out there. What is the best solution
for protecting against spyware at the gateway? Or is it inevitable that
I will need some antispyware running on the desktops (to eliminate
spyware which may already be present on PCs).

A brief Google has flagged up the following:
Black Spider - but this is a managed service (I would prefer in-house
control)
Blue Coat - proxy appliance
Surf Control - agent on desktop
Trend Micro - agent based solution
McAfee - agent based?
Barracuda - appliance at the gateway

We do occasionally use Lavasoft Ad-aware to eliminate problems when we
know there is spyware. We have a licensed copy of this (it is not free
to commercial users).

Any help? I know I haven't provided too much info... I didn't know
what level of detail to go into, in this initial post.

Thanks in anticipation.

Mat G
Birmingham, UK

Webwasher by Cyberguard is an excellent product.

http://www.webwasher.com