Press Release
FaceTime First to Offer Granular Control for MySpace
FaceTime offers broadest controls for Web 2.0 in the enterprise including IM,
P2P, Web-based traffic and Social Networking
BELMONT, Calif. - June 18, 2008 - FaceTime Communications today
announced that its Unified Security Gateway (USG) now secures and manages the
nearly 2,000 MySpace applications that have been developed by third parties and
are currently available for users to download to their MySpace profiles. This
granular control of MySpace is complementary to the USG's support for more than
20,000 Facebook widgets, as was announced at the RSA Conference in April 2008."
USG also supports granular control of other social networking sites including
Bebo, Friendster and LinkedIn.
Three of the top ten most visited Web sites globally are social networking
sites, including MySpace at number six, as ranked by Alexa. The increasing use
of social networking on company PCs raises numerous concerns for IT managers,
from productivity and bandwidth loss to risks of inbound malware to information
leakage. The availability of applications and widgets to customize social
networking profiles has added a new dimension to IT concerns.
MySpace revealed the first approved applications from third party developers in
March 2008. To date, the top 20 most popular MySpace applications have been
downloaded by more than 18 million MySpace users, according to the site.
The ability to control Web 2.0 and manage each of these applications
individually with FaceTime's USG gives IT the flexibility to allow some or all
employees to access their MySpace profiles, and to also control access to some
or all of these applications developed by third parties.
Over the past year, FaceTime Security Labs has uncovered myriad scams, phishing
schemes, profile hijacks and various other malicious activities on MySpace. For
example, FaceTime Director of Malware Research Christopher Boyd uncovered a
MySpace hijack scheme last fall, where MySpace Music pages were hacked using a
transparent overlay that, when clicked, redirected the visitor to spyware
installs and fake security tool installs.
A complete guide to the characteristics and risks of more than 25,000 Web 2.0,
social networking and real-time applications and how they behave on the network
is available on FaceTime's Greynets Guide Web site at www.greynetsguide.com.
"As a new generation enters the workforce, companies that have traditionally
locked down access to Web sites viewed as non-work related are finding they
need to rethink their policies," said Frank Cabri, vice president of marketing
and product management for FaceTime Communications. "More companies are
recognizing that the lines between personal and work life are blurred. Many
employees are using consumer-oriented tools to communicate with colleagues, and
others are simply convinced it is their right and privilege to access their
social networking profiles from their work computers – but most still don't
understand the risk this behavior poses to their employers."
FaceTime's annual survey, Greynets in the Enterprise, tracks trends, attitudes
and impact of the use of these consumer-oriented communications tools inside
large organizations. The 2007 survey revealed that 85 percent of employees use
work PCs for personal purposes. Further, over the past three years of the
survey, roughly one-third of end users have consistently reported that they
feel they have the right to download applications of their choice on their work
computers.
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, 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.
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:
Emily Chamberlin
650-762-2945
echamberlin@ar-edelman.com
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