Dell offers free Web browser security tool

Network World - Dell, through its Kace unit, is making available free Web browser security software that works by creating a protective "sandbox" on the desktop to isolate the user's desktop from malware or other harmful actions that might be encountered browsing the Web.

"Browsers, we all know, are a big target," says Bob Meinhardt, president of Dell Kace, the systems management vendor acquired by Dell earlier this year. 

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Calling it simply Secure Browser, Dell Kace executives acknowledge the free browser security software works somewhat along the lines of that seen with browser sandboxing technology from GreenBorder Technologies, which was acquired by Google in 2007, and integrated into the Google Chrome product. Bob Kelly, senior product manager of Dell Kace, says Kace derives its technology, which it likes to call "application virtualization," from its acquisition of the company Computers in Motion two years ago.

The Dell Kace Secure Browser tool is said to use a kind of re-direction so that browser activity is shifted to an alternate area of the computer to isolate and contain harmful code. The 10MB security software, available for download from Dell's Kace site, is based on the current Firefox browser and Adobe Flash and Reader Plug-Ins.

The security tool also lets the user create what are called whitelists and blacklists of Web sites allowed to be visited. In a managed environment, the Dell Kace browser security software can be included as a managed application with the Dell Kace K1000 v5.1 Management Appliance, typically used in mid- to large enterprises.

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