IWSS 2.0, Trend’s security gateway for HTTP and FTP, now comes with an optional URL filter that has about five million sites in 54 categories. Trend developed the feature in-house, seeding the database with technology licensed from a third-party.
Customers think competing URL filters from the likes of Websense and SurfControl are overly complex, too expensive, and the licensing schemes are confusing, according to Trend’s global product marketing manager David Lieberman.
Trend is undercutting both those rivals with its pricing. According to Trend documents, a 5,000-seat deployment would cost $6.54 per seat with Trend, versus $11.50 and $8.50 with Websense and SurfControl.
Lieberman said there are no premium group categories or annual subscriptions to pay for. Customers do have to pay an annual maintenance fee of about 30%, however. The URL filtering will not be available separately.
Also new in IWSS is spyware and phishing attack blocking. These features use a combination of blocking the URLs of known phishing and spyware sites, and also, in the case of spyware, blocking the executable itself.
OSCE 6.5, also released today, contains some personal firewall features for the first time. Some features have been borrowed from Trend’s Network VirusWall, to allow the software to block network worms as well as file-based malware.
The company is not positioning OSCE as a competitor to Zone Labs or Sygate, and says the firewall feature is not as functional. The feature can, however, be turned off if the customer wants to use ZoneAlarm or Sygate.
Director of product management Richard Ku said that the firewall comprises port and packet filtering. The software can be managed centrally via a web-based interface and Trend Control Manager, he said.
OSCE 6.5 is also the first version of the desktop security software to feature support for Cisco Systems Inc’s Network Admission Control program, which means Cisco networks can deny access to Trend endpoints that are not fully up-to-date.
