Spyware Protection

1. Overview
Protect your business from unwanted, malicious, tracking and spying
software.

Spyware is a growing threat to privacy, security and productivity. According
to the 2005 FBI computer crime survey1, approximately 80% of all
enterprise PCs surveyed were infected with some form of spyware at any
given time. According to the Radicati Group’s January 2006 report2, the
estimated cost of each infected workstation is $265, based on IT services,
downtime and re-imaging.

Spyware is software that gathers information about a computer user and
his or her Web surfing habits without the user’s explicit knowledge or
consent and reports this information over the Internet. This is harmful to
the user for many reasons. It decreases productivity, as PC users are
constantly interrupted and spend time closing pop-ups and other ads. It
increases demands on help desks, as users and help desk staffs spend
hours trying to remove spyware from infected systems.

The most serious threats however, arise from information leakage and
violations of privacy. A worst-case scenario would be a tool recording every
key stroke, eventually culminating in password cracking.

2. Approaches to Spyware Protection
Today the most common way to guard against spyware is a client-based
tool that detects and disables spyware on infected personal computers
using software similar to anti-virus packages. Desktop anti-spyware
products help to address the problem, but they are difficult to manage,
because every client needs to be kept up to date separately. Even with
their help, it may take hours to disinfect a single PC. Furthermore this
approach doesn’t prevent new types of spyware from reaching the desktop
and infecting PCs.

3. Spyware Protection in Astaro Security Gateway
Astaro’s security technology, as incorporated in Astaro Security Gateway
appliances and software, employs a server-side or gateway approach.
Placed at the point where the Internet connects to your organization’s
network, it minimizes maintenance and provides full protection from user
tracking threats.

Astaro provides Spyware Protection by blocking web pages and software
downloads from web sites that are related to spyware. These web sites are
identified and classified by automated web crawlers, and put into a Web
content filtering database that tracks more than 3.8 billion Web pages and
images.
This solution not only protects against new computer infections within the
enterprise network but also intercepts and blocks spyware communication
from already infected computers to spyware web sites on the Internet.
In addition to blocking spyware related URLs Astaro’s solution provides an
option to filter embedded objects that might be included within so called
drive-by-downloads. This prevents users from accidentally installing any
active spyware code on their PCs. In addition, Astaro’s Virus Protection
application recognizes and filters out known Spyware patterns.
Astaro Security Gateway provides an easy-to-use, affordable and effective
means of deploying the software tools needed to establish and enforce
effective spyware protection. Astaro Security Gateway can help you
improve productivity and protect your privacy.

Email Contact: [email protected]
Phone Contact: 1800 MyITHub

admin

See Full Bio