Sophos Web Security and Control

Overview:

The Sophos Web Appliances – part of Sophos Web Security and Control – block web threats at the gateway, create and enforce acceptable use policies and provide essential safeguards for data loss.

• Inspects and secures web traffic against malware, spyware, viruses, adware and other unwanted applications
• Offers protection from zero-day threats with Sophos unique realtime Behavioral Genotype malware scanning
• Guarantees accurate detection with low system impact and negligible latency
• Provides productivity filtering against 54 categories that sort websites according to their content
• Augments productivity filtering with a full reputation and risk classification database
• Automatically detects and blocks anonymizing proxies, preventing users from bypassing filter controls
• Supplies group policy management of the web gateway with visual indicators and reports
• Filters encrypted HTTPS traffic and automatically enforces SafeSearch
• Updates automatically with the latest protection from SophosLabs, a global network of threat analysis centers
• Provides at-a-glance views of system performance via a web-based dashboard
• Simplifies administration with a “3 clicks to anywhere” management console
• Offers a unique managed appliance that provides over 50 onboard monitors to verify that hardware, software, traffic and updates are all operating to required standards
• Includes 24x7x365 support for the duration of the license and one-to-one assistance

Sophos Web Appliance awards:

SC Magazine: 5/5 stars	CRN Test Center: 2008 Product of the Year	CRNtech: Top pick	Network Testing Labs: World Class Award	West Coast Labs: Checkmark certified

Benefits & Features:
 

Complete web security and control at the gateway

Sophos Web Appliances are secure web gateway solutions that provide integrated protection against malware and unwanted web content. They are built on a robust hardware platform that delivers high-capacity, high-availability security with unrivaled simplicity and control. Staying ahead of the rapid evolution of threats, the appliances provide complete protection enabling risk free internet productivity.

• Protect users from malware, spyware, viruses and phishing.
• Guard against hijacked trusted sites.
• Enable productivity and enforce internet use policies.
• Block anonymizing proxies.
• Scan encrypted HTTPS traffic.
• Preserve bandwidth.
• Prevent the loss of sensitive data.

Sophos multi-stage filtering

Given the mission critical nature of the internet in today’s business, basic URL filtering is no longer effective, especially with 85 percent of malware hosting sites now being legitimate trusted brands.

Sophos solves this problem with a unique 3-stage filter to protect against highly mobile, rapidly changing, and highly sophisticated modern web threats that traditional URL filters cannot stop.

	URL filtering augmented with unique reputation and risk classification data extends policy options and bolsters protection for sites in allowed categories.
	Sophos real-time Behavioral Genotype Protection detects zero-day threats including variants, families and large categories of malware.
	Content filtering includes a rich set of policy options for controlling file-types, potentially unwanted applications (PUAs), malware attempts to call home, and the posting of sensitive data to internet sites such as webmail, forums, or blogs.

Award winning ease-of-use

The Sophos Web Appliances’ intuitive “3 clicks to anywhere” web-based management console is consistently awarded top marks in industry reviews, The real-time dashboard, point-andclick policy customization and relevant, actionable reporting makes web security and control easy.

• Gain insight into internet usage, traffic patterns and bandwidth consumption.
• Log users attempting to visit high risk sites and users downloading malware.
• Discover users attempting to download PUAs.
• See the amount of time a user has spent online and what sites they visit.
• Identify the top policy violators within an organization.

The dashboard provides easy access to the information you need

Comprehensive policy management and control

Flexible policy with Active Directory integration is made simple thanks to a wizard-driven configuration interface.

• A comprehensive URL classification database provides filtering against 54 specific categories covering over 3.9 billion pages in 200 languages.
• Time-based policies enable administrators to define web browsing policies based on the time of day. For instance, organizations may wish to offer less restrictive browsing for their employees during lunchtime and after work.
• Site tagging enables flexible policy for individuals or groups, allowing access to custom tagged sites that might otherwise be blocked.

The wizard interface ensures easy policy management

Protect against anonymizing proxies

Anonymizing proxies have become a significant security liability and productivity issue as they allow users to bypass their organization’s web filters to access inappropriate content. Sophos Web Appliances protect against anonymizing proxies in a number of ways.

• Identification and blocking in real-time of new or obscure anonymizing proxies, including home-based private proxies, at the gateway before the URL request leaves the network.
• Continuous scanning for newly published proxy sites through SophosLabs™ that catalogs hundreds of new proxies daily, which is forty-times more than leading competitors.
• Adding all new proxies to the block list of every Sophos Web Appliance within minutes.

Zero-day threat protection with Behavioral Genotype technology

Modern web threats change rapidly, move quickly, and can appear anywhere, anytime. Sophos real-time Behavioral Genotype Protection, pioneered by SophosLabs, provides detection that automatically guards against new fast moving threats – detecting over 85% of unknown threats before they are even cataloged.

• Effective zero-day protection from new unknown threats and malware variants.
• Dramatically outperforms signature based technologies.
• Real-time pre-execution scanning determines the code’s behavior without actually executing it.
• Malicious code is blocked at the gateway before it can run in the browser and cause infection.
• Updates are downloaded and applied as frequently as every 5 minutes.

Content filtering and data loss prevention

Sophos Web Appliances provide important capabilities that enable the productive use of your internet infrastructure and guard against data loss.

• The appliances block downloads of PUAs, including dialers, remote administration tools and system monitors.
• Flexible policy provides control over file types such as executables, streaming media, MP3s, and ActiveX components.
• Call-home detection prevents the loss of sensitive data being posted outside the organization by malware or infected PC’s attempting to communicate with blackmarket servers.
• Site content control prohibits users from posting to webmail, blogs, and forums from within the organization, ensuring sensitive data cannot accidentally or intentionally leave the organization via the web.

Managed Appliances

Sophos Web Appliances offer all the benefits of a managed service while still providing inhouse control and oversight.

• Sophos Managed Appliances efficiently eliminate or automate most regular maintenance tasks, enabling you to do more with less.
• Remote “heartbeat” monitoring by the Sophos Network Operations Center ensures that every Sophos Managed Appliance is online and up-to-date, keeping the gateway operating at optimum efficiency and effectiveness.
• Exception-driven alerting and automatic capacity optimization combine to deliver dependable and hassle-free gateway security.
• On-demand remote assistance available 24x7x365 enables quicker, more reliable support.

Scalable and flexible deployments with centralized configuration and reporting

Two new Security Management Appliances (SMAs) – the SM2000 and SM5000 – make large deployments and the configuration of up to 50 web appliances serving up to 15,000 concurrent users as easy as managing a single appliance.

• Single-point management of multiple web appliances across more than one location. Add a new appliance with just one mouse click.
• Real-time monitoring of multiple web appliances through a single central dashboard.
• Reporting data from a group of web appliances is consolidated in the SMA and stored for up to three years.

Industry-leading expertise 24x7x365

• Our 24x7x365 customer support operation is highly acclaimed, while SophosLabs, our global network of threat analysis centers, provides a rapid response to emerging and evolving threats.
• SophosLabs proactively scans billions of web pages a day and identifies more than 29,000 new sources of malware and over 15,000 new phishing sites each week. New threat definitions and malicious URLs are automatically downloaded to the appliance, ensuring the most up-to-date protection available.

Sophos Web Appliances filter web content against 54 specific categories:

 

Adult/Sexually explicit Advertisements and pop-ups Alcohol and tobacco Arts Blogs and forums Business Chat Computing and internet Criminal activity Downloads Education Entertainment Fashion and beauty Finance and investment Food and dining Gambling Games Government Hacking Health and medicine Hobbies and recreation Hosting sites Illegal drugs Infrastructure Intimate apparel and swimwear Intolerance and hate Job Search and career development Kid’s sites Motor vehicles

News Peer-to-peer Personals and dating Philanthropic and professional bodies Phishing and fraud Photo searches Politics Proxies and translators Real estate Reference Religion Ring tones/mobile phone downloads Search engines Sex education Shopping Society and culture Spam URLs Sports Spyware Streaming media Tasteless and offensive Travel Violence Weapons Web-based email Additional custom categories can be easily created using site tagging.

Technical Specifications:

 

	WS500	WS1000	WS1100
Web appliances - hardware
Max concurrent users	250	500	1500
Processor	Dual core	Dual core	Quad core
Hard drive	250 GB SATA	160 GB SATA	1 TB GB SATA
Power supply	Single 100/240V	Single 100/240V	Single 100/240V

 

	SM2000	SM5000
Management appliances - hardware
Redundancy	n/a	Yes
Processor	Quad core	Quad core
Hard drive	1 TB GB SATA	2 TB GB SATA
Power supply	Single 100/240V	Dual hot-swap 100/240V

 

All appliances - software
On-board software	Sophos bi-directional scanning engine with anti-spyware, anti-virus and anti-malware Sophos URL filtering across 54 content categories Management console and dashboard Patent pending anonymizing proxy detection technology and HTTPS-encrypted filtering System alerting and notification Active Directory integration Hardened Linux operating system optimized for Sophos software
Additional information	Installation: 1U rack mount Regulatory/safety certification: UL, CE, FCC, VCCI, C-Tick, TUV-GS, SABS, RoHS, WEEE Hardware warranty: Up to 3-year advance replacement (subject to valid software licensing Certifications: CIPA compliance, Network Testing Labs Award

Documentation:

Download the Sophos Web Security and Control Datasheet (PDF).