Websense V10000 - Web Security Appliance

Most people are aware that Websense are a market leader in the web filtering market, but tradionally has only been a software only option.

The software can either filter via a network sniffer (via a mirror or span port on a switch) or integrated with another solution such as a Cisco firewall or Microsoft ISA server.

The software has some limitations or lacked features that were being demanded from an enterprise perspective. These were addressed with Websense Security Gateway, which gave the following features:

• Web proxy server
• Integrated anti-virus solution
• Real time content classification
• Real time security scanning

This brought other considerations, due to the nature of this software, it would only be supported on a Linux platform. At the time I spoke with a number of customers who were put off by this, as they only had Windows administrators, and did not have the capacity to support a Linux server.

Websense took this onboard, and developed the V10000 appliance, which is a Websense branded appliance, which runs a Linux operating system and runs the Websense Security Gateway software within a virtualised environment. The specification of the hardware, will allow the appliance to run the Email Security and Data Security features in the future as well.

In short, Websense have produced an enterprise class proxy server, with enterprise web security in an appliance form factor.

At e92plus, we are technically proficient with the Websense range, where we not only carry out web demonstrations, deal with presales questions, deliver proof of concept deployments, architect and deploy full solutions, we also deliver both bespoke and certified Websense training.

Websense Hosted Email Security Training

I had a very interesting day learning more about Websense Hosted Email Security.

People always assume that any hosted (or Software as a Service - SaaS, for the hip and groovy Twitter generation) solution is more expensive, but it's just a common misconception, along with other common myths:

1. Cost - It will be more expensive than an appliance or software
2. Control - You will lose control of the solution
3. Data Leaks - The soution will not be able to protect from data leakage
4. Security/Privacy - Your email will not be secure
5. Reliability - The solution will not be reliable

Well these should be addressed:

1. Cost - Have all costs been taken into account, including additional hardware, subscriptions, bandwidth, storage, electricity and labour!
2. Control - Websense provides 24x7 control, including policy control, user/group policies, LDAP synchronisation, message search facilities, end user quarantine and flexible reporting.
3. Data Leaks - Websense includes built in data leak protection, including dictionaires, deep content inspection and custom dictionaires with support for regular expressions.
4. Security/Privacy - Websense is just another hop in the chain for the email. Websense is ISO27001 certified, and TLS can be used to create a secure channel to the Websense datacentres.
5. Reliability - Websense provides a 99.999% availability SLA

To summarise the Websense Hosted Email Security:

• Increased protection, coupled with an SLA
• Reduce costs
• Retain control

Why wouldn't you use the hosted solution???!!!

Websense as well....

I guess from reading this blog, you would assume that I only work with Celestix products! I have to say it feels a bit like that recently has I'm running a 3-4 IAG web demonstrations a week now, along with evaluation and real installations.

I work with Websense a lot as well, and it's easy to forget that Websense not only provide web filtering, but also email and data security products.

Today, I ran a web demo for a Websense Web Security solution, which runs perfectly in an ISA environment, including the Celestix MSA appliances. The discussion turned to Web 2.0 and user generated content, where a solution such as Websense Web Security Gateway comes into its own.

Websense WSG, has to run on a Linux platform and will not run on Windows. This solution can be the proxy and cache server, negating the need for a third party proxy such as Bluecoat or Microsoft ISA server.

WSG runs an anti virus scanner at the gateway, which is not supplied with Websense Web Security, but could be an add-on for Microsoft ISA server, where something like Avira AntiVir for ISA Server would work.

Another shortcoming of Websense Web Filter or Web Security is that it can not deal with user generated content or SSL encrypted content.

Traditional web filtering solutions can not filter feeds into pages such as iGoogle. The page is "seen" as being google.com so completely allows it, the problem is that iGoogle can have feeds from Hotmail, GMail, Facebook, etc which are normally blocked. By using WSG, the individual feeds can be allowed, blocked, quota'd or confirmed.

Traditional web filtering solutions will not be able to filter SSL packets, but the Linux gateway will be able to be the "man in the middle", where it will be able to decrypt, inspect, and either discard the packet or re-encrypt the packet and forward it on.

Content inspection can also be carried out on the fly!!

With all these features of dynamic user content filtering, SSL filtering, on the fly content filtering, why are users on jumping at this product? The issue is not really price, but rather the Linux server that the software must run on!! It's amazing how many people are still put off my Linux!!