Press Release
FaceTime Secures and Controls 20,000 Facebook Widgets and 400 Web and Real-time
Applications for Safe Use in Enterprise Networks
60% of IT managers surveyed are more concerned about social networks than email
Analysts advise enterprises to avoid blocking social networking
BELMONT, CALIF. - April 7, 2008 - In response to rapidly growing concern
over the use of social network sites and Web 2.0 applications in the
enterprise, FaceTime today announced significant new capabilities for its
Unified Security Gateway (USG) designed to provide IT managers with management,
security and control over 140 social networking sites, 20,000 individual
Facebook widgets and more than 400 Web and real-time applications. These
applications include IPTV, P2P file sharing multimedia, applications and
instant messaging clients. The new capabilities complement the USGs URL
filtering, anti-malware and IM and P2P management capabilities and will be
available in 30 days.
Today's internet is dominated by instant messaging, P2P, VoIP, social
networking, blogs, and myriad Web 2.0 applications. Five of the top 10 most
visited sites on the Web are social networking sites, as reported by Alexa
Traffic Rankings. Some of these social networking sites, such as Facebook, have
opened up their platforms for third party developers to add applications.
Industry efforts such as the OpenSocial initiative will result in more third
party development for its members, including MySpace. The availability of
customized social networking pages and increasing use of real time applications
such as instant messaging, combined with more complex malware, has made URL
filtering alone insufficient for securing the Web gateway.
In the March 10, 2008 Gartner, Inc. Report "Social-Networking Sites Present
Real Business Risks and Benefits," Peter Firstbrook says "There are corporate
advantages to allowing social-networking sites, the most compelling of which
are attracting employees and providing a progressive work environment."
Firstbrook recommends that "organizations should only block social-networking
sites after conducting a careful analysis of the risks and benefits."
According to research conducted by FaceTime over the past two weeks, 60 percent
of IT managers are more concerned about the use of social networking in the
enterprise than are concerned with email use. Nearly one-third of those
surveyed are in organizations that have policies against employee access of
social networking sites at work, and 20 percent said they are concerned about
social networking but their organizations have not yet established a policy.
Although IT managers are appropriately concerned about the security of their
networks, it's clear that Web 2.0 applications and social networking sites are
in use in the enterprise, and here to stay.
"As the line between work and personal life blurs, Web gateway security becomes
more complicated. Employees are no longer just shopping online - they are
accessing Facebook, MySpace and other Web 2.0 applications from their work PCs
to collaborate and interact with friends and co-workers," said Kailash Ambwani,
president and CEO of FaceTime Communications. "This phenomenon is generating
concern among our customers over everything from productivity to bandwidth
loss, from malware to information leakage."
FaceTime has published detailed information on social networking and Web 2.0
applications on its www.GreynetsGuide.com public resource database. In addition
to the Facebook applications, the site references more than 800 greynets in
categories including gaming software, IPTV, Instant Messaging, P2P, multimedia,
VoIP, social networking, Web Conferencing, Web-based email and remote
administration tools. This information is used to help IT managers determine
which applications to block, which to enable and which to monitor using
FaceTime's USG secure Web gateway appliance.
FaceTime's GreynetsGuide database is a valuable resource for determining the
characteristics of various social networking and Web 2.0 applications and third
party widgets, and its integration with the Unified Security Gateway provides a
complete secure Web gateway offering - allowing customers to easily obtain
detailed information about an application detected in their network by USG.
About the Unified Security Gateway for Today's Real-time Internet
The FaceTime Unified Security Gateway (USG) is a secure Web gateway appliance
that enables enterprises to control the new Internet, including Web and
real-time communications. USG integrates management, security and compliance of
Web communications, social networking, consumer-driven greynet applications
such as public IM, Skype and P2P and enterprise-class Unified Communications
suites such as Microsoft's Office Communications Server and IBM Lotus Sametime.
From a single platform, organizations can enable and enforce safe and
productive use of these applications and protect the network against inbound
malware, mitigate information leakage risks and insure that corporate,
regulatory and e-discovery needs are met.
The USG integrates gateway malware protection and Web filtering with FaceTime's
best-in-class IM hygiene and archiving, in a purpose-built, hardened appliance.
With this single point of control, organizations can gain complete visibility
of all Internet communications and reduce total cost of ownership using a
simpler solution that is easily administered by the IT staff. Key capabilities
of USG include:
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Centralized policy management and control - single point of control for setting
and enforcing policy for all elements of Web browsing, Unified communications
IM, and hundreds of real-time applications in use in the enterprise
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Web Filtering - powerful policies to monitor and control Web access to more
than 70 categories and millions of URLs with integrated "user coaching"
features
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Social networking management and control - detailed reporting and granular
control over more than 20,000 Facebook widgets at corporate, group and user
levels.
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Content hygiene and security - Web-based malware prevention, virus scanning of
file attachments, worm blocking, spIM protection and keyword content filtering
for both UC-generated as well as federated public IM
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Regulatory compliance archiving and workflow - guaranteed logging of all UC and
public IM communications including capture and archival of file attachments,
tamper-resistant storage of messages, and robust and easy-to-use review and
audit capabilities
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Easy administration and management - browser-based management interface for
policy configuration, compliance workflow and message retrieval for e-discovery
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Flexible reporting - improved decision-making about security issues and
Internet usage through integrated real-time reporting and monitoring, and
compatibility with leading third-party reporting applications
Pricing and Availability
Granular control of social networking is part of the version 2 upgrade to
FaceTime's Unified Security Gateway appliance, available in 30 days from
FaceTime and its authorized resellers worldwide. Pricing for the USG starts at
$4,995.
About FaceTime Communications
FaceTime Communications enables the safe and productive use of instant
messaging, Web usage and Unified Communications platforms. Ranked number one by
IDC for four consecutive years, FaceTime's award-winning solutions are used by
more than 900 customers - including nine of the 10 largest U.S. banks - for
security, management and compliance of real-time communications. FaceTime
supports or has strategic partnerships with all leading public and enterprise
IM network providers, including AOL, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Skype, IBM and Jabber.
FaceTime is headquartered in Belmont, California. For more information visit
http://www.facetime.com or call 888-349-FACE. The FaceForward blog, at
http://blog.facetime.com, offers thoughts and opinions about the changing
nature of Internet communications.
PR Contact:
Joshua Barnes
A&R Edelman
650-762-2865
joshua.barnes@ar-edelman.com
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