Posts tagged ‘Zscaler’

Zscaler protects against IE Zero Day

March 10, 2010, 11:20 pm

On Tuesday, as seems to be the custom, Microsoft released patches and announced a new zero day in Internet Explorer. MSKB 981374 is a remote code execution in IE6 and IE7. Who know that being on IE5 could ever be a good thing.
The KB says Microsoft released details to venders in their Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) and Microsoft Security Response Alliance (MSRA) programs in order to provide protection to customers.
Within one hour Zscaler had protection in place for its customers. Zscaler offers web security company in a SaaS model. I would see them competing with Scansafe, Purewire and MessageLabs as well as any company trying to get you to put security appliances on your network for web security (bluecoat). Strangely, I didn’t get email from any of those venders bragging they are protecting their customers against this zero day. If they were protecting their customers would there be any reason not to use it for PR? Its not like they are making a Oracle Unbreakable (or was that Apple Unbreakable) claim.

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Category: Microsoft  |  4 Comments

Cisco buys ScanSafe

October 28, 2009, 12:14 am

I was surprised to read this evening that Cisco is buying ScanSafe.
I have been evaluating Web SaaS venders and looked at ScanSafe in September. To me ScanSafe has always been the market leader in web security as a service. I just had some issues that prevented us from going with them. According to a techtarget article, this purchase brings Cisco into the Web SaaS market and should play with their IronPort. I hope this purchase improves both companies.
As was stated when Barracuda bought Purewire, this validates the web SaaS market. It seem to repeat the recent acquisition phase of email SaaS venders. Is Zscaler now the odd man out, not yet having found a dance partner? I think not. There are still plenty of companies that think they need to buy into a SaaS presence.

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Category: General  |  Comment

Barracuda’s Purchase of Purewire

October 19, 2009, 3:45 pm

The 451 Group has a blog entry on the Barracuda’s purchase of Purewire. I am currently evaluating Purewire. This article had some tidbits I hadn’t seen in other analysis.
I had noted that the Security as a Service webspace was getting a bit crowded. ScanSafe as this article notes is the granddaddy of them all. Anyone who uses MessageLabs for email should be checking them out. Webroot has an offering. ZScaler and Purewire are two names I’d come across this year. While it appeared a bit like Purewire latched onto the first warm body they could find, selling early does make sure you aren’t left standing alone at the end of the night.
The 451 Group makes an interesting comment that perhaps BlueCoat would have been a better fit. That would have been very interesting to me. I’m not such a big fan of Barracuda. Venders with radio ads are not targeting infosec people like me. That didn’t turn me off on them so much as the Backscatter they’ve caused with their (previous) default settings.
451 says Purewire has 200 customers. That is beyond small. Larger companies see a lot of web traffic. Even if something were going to escape detection, odds are good that they would be reported by another company first and protection added. Hopefully Barracuda will add more viability than Purewire has currently
451 stated “bake-offs are the exception rather than the rule” in web security. I find that kind of hard to believe. As critical as web traffic is people dont look at multiple venders? Its so easy to set up an eval.
Ultimately my evalutaion of this purchase is “at least its not CA.”

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Category: General  |  Comment