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Stronger IM Security
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2004-11-17
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Sybari Software's Antigen 8.0 for Instant Messaging (IM) is available and fully supported in production environments.
The new version includes support for Microsoft Live Communication Server 2005, the ability to perform content scanning within documents and enhanced scan engine update technology.
"We have seen a tremendous increase in the usage of Instant Messaging. Students, teachers and administrators have found that IM allows them to communicate quickly and easily however it also presents huge security threats to our network. For the past four years we have been using Sybari's Antigen for Exchange to protect our email from viruses and worms. Since it has worked so well for us, it only made sense to extend that protection to our IM applications with Antigen for Instant Messaging. Antigen for IM allows us to scan attachments for potential security threats and reduce the amount of spam coming in," said Martin Patrick, community college network administrator.
Instant Messaging has become one of the most important tools for both personal and business communications. According to Osterman Research, 90 percent of organizations report that their users access instant messaging applications. Giga Research reports that by 2006, instant messaging will be used more than e-mail. As IM usage increases, it presents a variety of challenges for IT managers who are constantly working to enable productivity tools for users while protecting their networks.
"Antigen 8.0 for IM is a comprehensive solution for securing public and corporate IM networks. Now with support for Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005, Antigen 8.0 provides corporations with content filtering and policy enforcement features in addition to Sybari's advanced anti-virus scanning technology," said Teney K. Takahashi, market analyst at The Radicati Group. "As instant messaging systems are increasingly targeted by viruses and other malicious code, security solutions such as Antigen 8.0 are becoming essential to protect corporate networks."
ANTIGEN 8.0 FOR INSTANT MESSAGING
Antigen 8.0 for IM enables organizations to protect users of both public (AOL, Yahoo, MSN) and enterprise instant messaging. It enhances the centralized security and message logging capabilities of Microsoft LCS 2005 and IM Logic IM Manager with antivirus and policy enablement tools. In addition to providing comprehensive antivirus protection, messaging administrators can apply content and file-filtering policies to all IM communications. The new version offers companies enhanced features including white listing for sender and recipient, enhanced scan engine update technology, the ability to perform content scanning with documents being transferred and support for the Sybari Enterprise Manager (SEM).
New Features & Benefits
-- Content scanning within documents - Antigen will scan for content within documents that are transferred through IM sessions.
-- Sender/Recipient white listing - Administrators can now configure white lists based on IM screen names and IM addresses that do not require content scanning or file filtering
-- Incident database control - Incident databases can be purged based on age.
-- Scan Engine Update Technology - scan engine update method has been updated to enable updates through proxy servers.
-- Sybari Enterprise Manager (SEM) support -SEM is a web-based centralized management console designed to provide administrators tools for deployment and custom graphical reports for Antigen products in an enterprise.
"Sybari Antigen 8.0 for IM fully supports the Microsoft LCS 2005 and IMlogic IM Manager enterprise Instant Messaging platforms. The software enables IT managers to integrate a secure, and fully compatible enterprise Instant Messaging system while enabling consistent policies and threat protection across their networks," said Tom Buoniello, vice president of product management at Sybari Software. "With Antigen 8.0 for IM, we are able to extend Sybari's award winning antivirus and content filtering capabilities to protect corporate networks from potentially harmful viruses and malicious code."
Microsoft LCS 2005 offers greater scalability and high availability through pooling and secure federation to enable IM communications with outside users. In addition to supporting LCS2003 and LCS2005, Antigen 8.0 for IM installs and runs on IMlogic IM Manager server to provide antivirus, file and content filtering for public IM clients provided by AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft that may be used for business or personal reasons in an organization.
About the Author:
SecurityProNews is a daily online and email publication focusing on internet security issues.
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