Blue Coat tackles SSL threat in Middle East

SSL threats include encrypted viruses, spyware, phishing attacks and SSL traffic that can be used by employees attempting to send confidential information out of the organisation or to circumvent other security policies in an organisation. Without this type of technology, IT managers are blind to the content within SSL communications and unable to comply with various regulations and policies or remove risks to the organisation.

"The potential damage from viruses, spyware, malicious code and rogue applications entering corporate networks through external SSL traffic can be extensive. Our intention is to educate IT managers in SMB and large corporations about this clear and present threat through a traveling seminar series that will start in Dubai on February 8th, followed by Doha and Kuwait City on February 12th and 13th 2006 respectively," said Ray Kafity, Blue Coat Middle East's General Manager.

"As the number of Web applications and the amount of SSL traffic both continue to increase, this problem will be exacerbated. In addition to the security threat, encrypted traffic makes it difficult for IT managers to assess bandwidth usage and apply intelligent content control policies to ensure maximum user productivity."

Most enterprise SSL traffic comprises business-critical applications now outsourced on the Internet, such as customer relationship management sites, travel booking, human resources/benefits and expense management. While these applications use SSL to protect the confidentiality of data for the enterprise, the encrypted traffic can introduce a critical problem for the enterprise.

"The SSL security hole has been a growing issue in Europe and the United States for some time. Those markets were affected to a great degree due to the outsourced Web applications they utilized for business purposes," said Nigel Hawthorn, Blue Coat VP International Marketing and Channels. "We decided to take the initiative and proactively address this issue in the Middle East to make sure IT managers are fully aware of the extent of the SSL security threat, and we can assist them in taking pre-emptive measure to counter the threat."

Blue Coat's SSL proxy enables organizations to stop malware, including viruses and spyware, from infiltrating their networks through encrypted tunnels. It can deny threats from secured phishing attempts that now utilize SSL explicitly as a cloaking mechanism. It can also govern what encrypted applications the organization will allow to communicate externally.

Since much of SSL traffic is business-critical, companies cannot afford any performance degradation due to inspection. Rather than degrade performance, Blue Coat's ProxySG platform actually boosts SSL-encrypted application performance by as much as 10X through the use of its patented object pipelining and caching technology.