Websense Seeks to Bolster Smart-Phone Security with URL Filter

Websense is taking on mobile device security with new URL classification and filtering software designed to prevent users from accessing malicious or inappropriate Web content.

The Websense Wireless URL Categorization Engine collects URLs from Internet sites and classifies them. Depending on the content filters installed with the individual wireless service provider, access to certain Web sites can be allowed, blocked or permitted only after a "continue" option is presented to the subscriber. Wireless operators, or their subscribers, can set filtering policies for more than 90 categories of Web sites, ranging from adult content to spyware, Websense officials said.

"Web-enabled mobile devices are more powerful than ever before in terms of computing power and access to broadband connectivity, making them an easy target for security threats such as spyware and keyloggers," said Kian Saneii, Websense Wireless general manager, in an interview with eWEEK. "The security threats to enterprise networks are real - more than half of smart-phone users keep confidential business data on their devices."

Using Websense's ThreatSeeker technology, Web sites are scored and classified based on reputation and characteristics. These high-risk sites are added to a threat "watch list," so operators can block access to those sites, helping to improve security coverage against external Web-based threats.

"The database of scanned Web sites is updated daily, often in real time, to mitigate security threats as they emerge," Saneii said.

Though the Websense Wireless URL Categorization Engine establishes the categories that determine whether a site will be blocked or allowed, the actual blocking policies are determined by individual network operators based on their own policies and government regulations, Saneii added.

"Websense Wireless has created very specific definitions for how Web sites are categorized. However, there are ways to change those categorization parameters, which will in turn affect whether a site is blocked or not," he said. "The actual process of changing those categories can be done automatically without requiring an IT - worker - ."

Wireless infrastructure providers and IP-based service providers can leverage the Websense Wireless URL Categorization Engine within their own technology offerings. This helps reduce management and deployment costs as compared to handset-based security offerings, Websense officials said.

The Websense Wireless URL Categorization Engine allows operators to deploy value-added services such as customized parental controls, premium content offerings for subscribers, enhanced wireless security identification offerings, and mobile advertising and marketing.

Protecting smart phones and other mobile devices from malware is going to become increasingly important to corporations as the number of mobile devices used for business continues to grow, Saneii said.

"More than 80 percent of mobile devices lack security capabilities on par with typical enterprise security protection, according to Gartner," he said. "The business market is poised to play an increasingly important role in the U.S. wireless industry as total subscriber growth slows. With the consumer wireless market approaching saturation, service providers are turning to the business market and its attractively high voice average revenue per user and still early-stage adoption of data as primary growth drivers."

Copyright 2007 by Ziff Davis Media, Distributed by United Press International

Nortel adds Websense cell-phone filter
Nortel has teamed with a San Diego security developer on a filtering solution for text-capable cell phones.
Home IQ: Winning technologies will make people smarter -- not their houses
Someday, we may be getting fashion advice from our mirrors. Instead of digging through our closets to find the perfect complement for a new shirt, we may hold it up to our bedroom mirror for a computer to scan. Using radio-frequency identification technology, our electronic fashion stylist will then offer suggestions based on what's in our closet or how the latest edition of Vogue or Teen Beat pairs up something similar.
Verizon's G'zOne Boulder cell phone is military tough
For all the convenience and security they offer, it doesn't take much to fry a cell phone. Ever bend over to refill Fido's bowl and have your phone tumble out of your pocket and into the water? Or leave it by the edge of a pool only to have some kid come by and cannonball it into oblivion? Even accidentally dropping it onto the pavement or getting sand inside can do serious damage.
Probably wireless
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) used to detect and report events including hurricanes, earthquakes, and forest fires and for military surveillance and antiterrorist activities are prone to subterfuge. In the International Journal of Security and Networks, computer scientists at Florida Atlantic University describe a new antihacking system to protect WSNs.
System thwarts Internet eavesdropping
The growth of shared Wi-Fi and other wireless computer networks has increased the risk of eavesdropping on Internet communications, but researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science and College of Engineering have devised a low-cost system that can thwart these "Man-in-the-Middle" (MitM) attacks.
Networks of the Future: Extending Our Senses into the Physical World
(PhysOrg.com) -- The picture of a future with wireless sensor networks-webs of sensory devices that function without a central infrastructure--is quickly coming into sharper focus through the work of Los Alamos National Laboratory computer scientist Sami Ayyorgun.
US intelligence alerts travelers to cyber spies
A US intelligence office Friday warned Americans traveling to the Beijing Olympics or elsewhere to expect cyber spies to surreptitiously compromise their laptops, cellphones, and other electronic devices.
Vegas 'Quantum Spookshow' Demos On-the-Fly Encryption of Streaming Video
Las Vegas shows often are on the cutting edge. Following this tradition, researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have landed gigs this week at Caesar's Palace and the Riviera Hotel and Casino to perform live demonstrations of quantum cryptography, theoretically the most secure form of encryption.

Websense Seeks to Bolster Smart-Phone Security with URL Filter

Related stories:

News discussion: