8e6 Technologies upgrades product

Network World - Internet filtering vendor 8e6 Technologies this week at Interop is expected to share details of new and upgraded products designed to analyze threats in real time and better report on Internet activity over time on enterprise networks.

The company will debut its Threat Analysis Reporter, expected to be generally available in October, and detail new features in Enterprise Reporter 4.0, also slated to be released next month. The products work with 8e6's R3000 appliance, a 1U stand-alone server appliance that connects to the network to monitor and filter traffic. According to company officials, the hardware, loaded with 8e6 technology, lets enterprise IT managers keep company resources safe from spyware, adware, phishing or potential threats posed by user activities.

"Whether it's malware or spam, internal users can invite some bad stuff into the network," says Paul Myer, president and COO of 8e6. "We have been able to build profiles of users in our products that engage in or represent risky behaviors."

Internet filtering technologies -- also available from Blue Coat Systems, SurfControl and Websense -- block sites known to represent threats and limit access to peer-to-peer file sharing sites.

Threat Analysis Reporter pulls logs from appliances to act as a security dashboard with a look into Web traffic. The product collects logs from other security systems to correlate the activity across the enterprise. For instance, the data collected shows IT managers Web use, e-mail and instant-messaging content, and helps them enforce policies in real time. The product monitors bandwidth usage per port or protocol and limits users based on predefined policies, says Patrick Murray, 8e6 product manager.

"You can set up thresholds for unacceptable use and then lock down a machine so it can't impact the rest of the network," Murray says.

Also at Interop, the company will share reporting and user-interface features now included in its Enterprise Reporter 4.0. The product processes and generates customized reports on Internet activity; with the updated features IT managers can fine-tune policies and adjust thresholds, 8e6 says.

8e6 bundles its products in two packages. The Standard Edition includes a user license for the R3000 Internet Filter and Enterprise Reporter. A 1,000-user, one-year contract costs $14.50 per user, with prices varying by number of users and length of contract, plus the cost of hardware. The Professional Edition includes a user license for the R3000 Internet Filter, Enterprise Reporter and Threat Analysis Reporter. A 1,000-user, one-year contract costs $17.40 per user.