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| Information Security News: |
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FTIL tackles Web 2.0 security threats with content filtering |
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By Dhwani Pandya, Principal Correspondent
06 Jan 2010 | SearchSecurity.in |
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The rapid usage of collaborative tools and social networking sites
among enterprises and its employees has widened the scale of security
threats. Protection against Web
2.0 threats have become top concerns of
organizations. This is especially the case for businesses like
Mumbai-based Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL), creator of
software products for financial markets and exchanges. The thought of
Web 2.0 threats could be nightmarish, felt Keshav Samant, head of FTIL's
technology division. So when the parent company,
Financial Technology Group, issued a mandate for protection of its
software Intellectual Properties (IP) because of its 10 exchange
networks and more than 350,000 trading licenses, the Indian company got
into the act. Although FTIL already possessed web traffic monitoring
technology, there was a dire need for more advanced solutions to
monitor and manage Web 2.0 traffic.
FTIL's evaluation journey began with evaluation of some of
leading vendor solutions in the market, and UTM
offerings that offered
content filtering as one of its feature. But Samant was keen on a
focused solution. The company was unsure of hosting everything
(firewall, content filtering, IDS, etc) from a single box. "The UTM
market is evolving. We would like to wait and watch. I can probably
have it as a level two defense," explains Samant. Finally, after much
evaluation, the company decided to go in for Websense's Web security
gateway solution that specializes in web 2.0 threat protection. The
main evaluation criteria for selection of the content
filtering solution were ease of use, quality of logging, reporting,
and
ability to monitor Web 2.0 as well as encrypted (SSL) traffic.
Making the choice
Financial Technologies made its choice. It was going to rely
on appliance-based offerings instead of software-based approaches, as
the former combined multiple services onto a single platform and helped
save overheads of servers, rack space and power supply.
What is more, several traditional IT security and control
technologies do not address the risks associated with accessing dynamic
content in real time. Web security gateway addresses this with three
main features -- real time dynamic threat protection, real time web
content categorization, and SSL traffic inspection, says Samant.
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There was a solution in place earlier, so we had to replicate every policy. We had to ensure there were no major disruptions and user inconvenience.
Keshav Samant
Head IT, Financial Technologies India Ltd
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Real time dynamic threat protection allows FTIL's Web gateway
to communicate with Websense libraries and get real time threat
updates. This is important, because the company is exposed to plenty of
Web 2.0 traffic due to increasing usage of collaborative tools like
instant messaging and social networking sites. The company also
provides payment solutions that require access to various sites. "While
we provide access for business requirements, we need to ensure
monitoring," says Samant. The real time web content categorization
helps FTIL to create policies that permit good traffic while blocking
components from the same site that are deemed to pose a threat to the
security. SSL
traffic inspection capability allows applying policies on
encrypted traffic and control usage of illegal proxies though its
infrastructure. Other solutions evaluated by FTIL also provided these
features, but at an extra cost.
According to Samant, the intuitive graphical user interface and
single window interface were also the decisive factors. The Web gateway
solution offers a comprehensive management dashboard with log viewer
and a report generator. It also offers ability to recognize Microsoft
Active Directory users and apply group wise policy.
In September 2009, FTIL felt the need for content filtering
solution. The testing took three weeks. FTIL's challenge was to deploy
the solution within shortest time, as it did not have the luxury of
longer downtime. "There was a solution in place, so we had to replicate
every policy," Samant said.
As implementation is recent (November 2009), Samant is not
able to specify any concrete benefits. However, he feels he has gained
granular control over Web 2.0 traffic. The real time threat protection
will also enable FTIL to develop a predictive approach towards
security. He also expects to save bandwidth by keeping an eye on
illegal traffic.
Samant feels that the heuristic and scanning capacity of the
implementation offers a future roadmap for data loss prevention types
of technology. The company is interested in adoption of DLP, document
rights
management
and watermarking technologies in the future.
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