McAfee, the leading security technology company, has released its next generation secure Web gateway, in response to the huge increase in Web-borne malware and botnets.

The new McAfee Web Gateway version 7 takes a bi-directional hybrid security approach that includes a new intent-based anti-malware scanning engine, along with several cloud-based technologies.

As the reliance on Web 2.0 applications increases, so does the risk to organisations that need flexible access to “Web 2.0 ready” security, a statement said.

The new platform enables secure end-user access to today’s Web 2.0 applications, it added.

By extending its lead in proactive malware scanning and further integrating with McAfee Labs’ cloud-based global threat intelligence, McAfee provides protection for enterprises and service providers with its scalable platform and virtual appliance offerings.

The use of targeted attacks leveraging Web-borne malware is becoming more sophisticated and prevalent.  Most of these attacks are “zero day” and are used to capture resources for ever-expanding botnets or to steal business information including personal or customer information, records, financial transactions and intellectual property.

McAfee Web Gateway platform enables employee access to authorized Web 2.0 applications, while greatly reducing risk by combining local and cloud-based protection, powered by McAfee Labs.

“Today’s most prevalent threat to enterprises is from zero-day, Web-borne malware,” said Dan Ryan, executive vice president and general manager of the Network Security business unit at McAfee.

“McAfee provides protection at every stage of an attack, as demonstrated during Operation Aurora, which targeted Google and dozens of other companies.  Reputation management is an essential part of that protection.”

McAfee Web Gateway takes a bi-directional hybrid security approach that includes a new intent-based anti-malware scanning engine, along with several cloud-based technologies.

Integration with real-time McAfee Artemis technology protects organizations against viruses, provides mobile filtering for remote users and expands Web reputation capabilities.

Through Web reputation and global threat intelligence, the platform blocks access to infected websites, stops malicious content from downloading and prevents back-channel communication of infected machines.

“Our experience with McAfee Web Gateway version 7 is extremely positive.  It allows for additional flexibility and granular control over the polices that we create,” said Tristan Hoar, technical analyst for Service Birmingham, a provider of Internet service for more than 185,000 users.

“This will ultimately allow us to achieve enhanced performance from the existing infrastructure as we can tune our polices to ensure the filtering decision is made in fewer steps,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service