Websense Launches Product to Enable Policy-based Blocking of Instant Messaging File Attachments

Continuing to meet the challenges of evolving threats within the IT environment, Websense, Inc. (NASDAQ: WBSN), the leading provider of employee Internet management (EIM) solutions, today announced the launch of its innovative Websense Enterprise Instant Messaging (IM) Attachment Manager(tm) module.

The IM Attachment Manager complements the fully integrated IM management capabilities available within Websense Enterprise, and allows organisations to leverage the business benefits of IM usage while preventing the security, legal liability and bandwidth issues associated with IM file attachments. IM Attachment Manager allows organisations to apply granular policies as to who can send and receive IM file attachments, closing the critical security exposure within public IM use.

IM is a highly informal means of communication within organisations because it’s free, globally available, often unmanaged, and similarly being used by external contacts within buddy lists. Similar to a web browser, it can provide organisations with a highly efficient business tool, but also introduces significant risks. For example, because of its informal nature, sensitive documents may inadvertently- or even maliciously- be sent outside of an organisation, virus laden attachments may find an unmanaged path into an organisation, or copyrighted media can be exchanged via attachments. Unauthorised applications may be exchanged in the same manner as peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, without ever being detected or secured by IT staff.

Organisations are painfully aware of the ever-growing number of viruses and worms that infiltrate their IT infrastructure through IM file attachments, said Geoff Haggart, vice president of Europe at Websense. While IM may increase productivity, it’s important to also recognise and effectively manage against the inherent risks that accompany this rapidly growing form of employee communications. With IM Attachment Manager, Websense offers organisations a cost effective solution to eliminate their number one concern in public IM.

For unmanaged public IM applications, file transfers take place over HTTP ports along with other rogue protocols, thereby circumventing existing security measures. Viruses, worms, and Trojan horses can easily and instantly be transferred via IM from internal and external sources, bypassing security and antivirus solutions already in place. The potential transfer of corrupted or infected files and applications creates substantial security risks for organisations that are not properly managing their employee IM usage.

In addition, files may be freely transferred over public IM applications, which may lead to significant corporate legal liability. For example, a disgruntled employee may transmit confidential corporate documents to a competitor. Also, many employees transfer copyrighted MP3 and movie files via IM-the RIAA has taken a strong stance on file sharing networks and won lawsuits against corporations for employee file sharing, with many additional lawsuits pending.

Network bandwidth also suffers as the transfer of large files over IM, whether applications or media, can clog up valuable network resources. By securing and eradicating file transfers via public IM, an organisation can control and allocate bandwidth to guarantee network performance for critical, business-related activities. The Websense IM Attachment Manager, coupled with Websense Enterprise, allows organisations to effectively manage and report on their employee IM usage, creating a secure environment for their employees’ computing resources while enhancing an enterprise’s productivity and limiting legal liability.

Electronic messaging is not just e-mail any longer. Because it is fast and highly interactive, IM is increasingly used in business communications. However, IM traffic often circumvents many security mechanisms, increasing corporate risks of unauthorised information disclosure, re-infection by malicious code, and regulatory compliance violations, said Brian Burke, IDC Research Manager of Security Products. Moreover, user ingenuity frequently thwarts corporate attempts to simply ban IM. Because IM does offer productivity enhancements, control is better than banning it. Websense Enterprise IM Attachment Manager offers corporate customers this control, especially over potentially damaging IM attachments.

The new module allows organisations to benefit from the real-time communications attributes of IM while eliminating the threats associated with IM file transfers. For public IM clients Yahoo!, AOL and Microsoft, Websense’s IM Attachment Manager integrates directly with Websense Enterprise’s central IM management capabilities to facilitate a greater degree of feature-level control such as:

Directly integrates into the Websense Enterprise management console, enabling organisations to quickly set rich policies to block or allow IM file attachment in accordance with an enterprise’s IM usage guidelines.

Leverage’s the best of breed Websense Enterprise reporting suite, providing an enterprise’s management team with a high level view of IM usage, or permitting the IT staff to drill down on technical detail, all of which enables and enterprise to identify and report on IM usage quickly and easily and implement policies which make sense for that organisation.

Incorporates all of Websense Enterprise’s rich management and filtering options such as users, groups, time of day, and day of week

Integrates organisational policies to manage IM, alongside P2P and streaming media policies within a single management console.

Dynamically manages IM attachments based on total network usage with the Websense Bandwidth Optimizer(tm) module to ensure network bandwidth availability for business-critical applications

Blocks both inbound and outbound IM file attachments

Websense Enterprise and Websense Enterprise IM Attachment Manager are available immediately for organisations seeking to protect themselves from Internet and application security threats. For a free 30-day evaluation of Websense Enterprise or for more information on protecting your organisation from a wide range of threats including IM, P2P, virus outbreaks and internal hacking exploits, please visit