IronPort S650 vs. Blue Coat
Proxy SG8000

Choosing the best protection against spyware.

By Barry Nance

Good anti-spyware defenses are as critical as anti-spam and anti-virus protection. Desktop-based approaches that clean the client, after the fact, are a nightmare to administer. Stopping spyware via gateways at each Internet connection point is clearly superior to cleaning it off individual servers and desktop computers. A gateway is simpler to administer, users can’t fool with it and desktop machines and servers don’t have to shoulder the extra burden of detecting and removing spyware. To the extent a gateway filters every single crumb of spyware and users do not bring freeware or shareware software into the office, the gateway approach is an ideal way to combat spyware.

To find out which anti-spyware product is best, we tested IronPort Systems’ new IronPort S650 Web security appliance and a combination of Blue Coat’s SG8000 proxy device and AV2000 scanning device—both in our Alabama lab and at customer sites. The most important criteria in our evaluation was the ability to identify and thwart all (or virtually all) spyware. We also looked for useful reports, timely alerts, ease of use and ease of deployment. Our goal was to protect our network from malware infections of users’ desktops during the regular course of surfing the Web.
The IronPort S650 Web security appliance is exactly what enterprises have been looking for—a fast, accurate, robust, comprehensive, easy-to-use and scalable answer to keeping malware from infecting your network. It excels at thwarting malware by both securing end-user Web surfing and detecting machines inside your network that may have been infected through other means—without hindering or slowing clients’ Internet access. MORE