Websense’s New Tools

Websense, Inc. the world’s leading provider of employee internet management solutions, today announced that the company’s best-of-breed Websense(R) Master Database now contains more than 8 million websites. Working in conjunction with the company’s award-winning employee internet management software, Websense Enterprise(R), the Master Database provides sophisticated filtering options to optimize employees’ use of computers and the network as well as increased protection against new web-based threats.

The Websense Master Database is the most accurate and relevant database of websites available, enabling sophisticated automation and enforcement of employee internet usage policies, which may be customized to best serve the requirements of individual organizations. The Websense database is organized into more than 90 categories of internet content in 50 languages. As a result of this highly granular categorization, Websense Enterprise does not over block — thus avoiding prevention of legitimate business-related internet use. Patented Websense web filtering policy options include a time-based quota, in which companies set daily time limits for employee access to non-business-related websites, and notify a user when they must use quota time to access a site.

To maintain database accuracy, Websense also purges dead website links from the database. To date, Websense has removed more than 2.2 million dead links which are not included in the 8 million website count. This is of particular importance for internet categories that represent security risks, such as phishing or fraud-based websites, because the underlying IP addresses associated with those websites change frequently.

According to independent tests, the Master Database has proved effective in accurately classifying and blocking malicious websites such as phishing sites. For example, a November 2004 product review by eWeek states, “Websense Enterprise 5.5 caught and blocked access to every phishing site that we attempted to visit during more than three days of testing … That Websense Enterprise 5.5 was able to block access to the fraudulent Web sites significantly reduced our exposure.”

Websense builds and maintains the Master Database with automated tools, based on a combination of sophisticated classification algorithms as well as human review. In addition, websites are also captured via Websense’s patent-pending WebCatcher(TM) technology, by which new or not yet classified websites visited by employees from anonymous customer sites are sent directly back to Websense for categorization. These newly categorized sites are then made available to all Websense customers via daily database downloads.

However, should a website fall into a malicious category such as “Phishing” or “Keylogging,” Websense customers can also subscribe to Websense Real-Time Security Updates, which provide updates to the database as the malicious events are discovered, researched and categorized. These updates complement antivirus solutions by mitigating security breaches prior to the availability of antivirus signatures and software patches, as well as other threats not addressed by traditional security measures.

“For nearly a decade, Websense has been mining and categorizing the web to reflect the most updated database of websites that employees access in the workplace. However, it’s not just about managing non work-related web surfing,” said Harold Kester, chief technology officer of Websense, Inc. “Due to the recent outbreaks of web-based threats, companies also need to block access to sites which may result in a security breach. The accuracy and breadth of our Master Database minimizes organizations’ reaction time to urgent threats while enabling legitimate business usage of the internet, thereby saving organizations time, resources and money.”

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