WatchGuard Technologies today announced the launch of Reputation Enabled Defense, an innovative cloud-based, web security service.  Coupled with WatchGuard XTM or XCS security appliances, Reputation Enabled Defence gives businesses and their employees  protection against viruses, malware, spyware, keyloggers, botnets and other web-based threats, in addition to faster, more productive web surfing.

The web is a minefield and according WatchGuard researchers, 38 percent of the web contains malicious code, and this number is growing exponentially.  Additionally, 77 percent of websites with malicious code are legitimate sites that have been hijacked by hackers, which is directly attributable to why 57 percent of data theft occurs over the web.  Because of this, WatchGuard has developed Reputation Enabled Defence to protect users against next-generation web threats.

“Safe Internet practices are no longer limited to avoiding high-risk websites or utilizing black and white lists,” said Charles Kolodgy, Research Vice President, Security Products at IDC.  “Criminals are becoming more clever at injecting malware into innocuous websites, which forces businesses to throttle network throughput in order to scan every packet.  An ideal solution to address this problem is the utilization of reputation services, which leverages the cloud to mitigate web-based threats.”

The WatchGuard Reputation Enabled Defence delivers highly secure web browsing via a cloud-based reputation lookup that scores URLs as good, bad or unknown.  The lookup leverages a dynamic global database that aggregates data from multiple feeds, including industry-leading anti-virus engines.  URLs with bad reputations are immediately blocked, whereas URLs with good reputations can be accelerated through the network firewall.  

URLs with indeterminate reputations are scanned by the WatchGuard XTM or XCS appliance to ensure that they are malware free.  WatchGuard gives administrators the ability to configure reputation thresholds, which allows businesses to optimize and control IT risk management.

Users will appreciate improved web surfing speeds with Reputation Enabled Defence.  With it, browsing is accelerated by eliminating the need to scan all web traffic for threats.  Up to 50 percent of URL scanning can be avoided without compromising security, resulting in greater throughput at the gateway and more efficient use of appliance resources.

“WatchGuard is the first and only security vendor to have full URL reputation services integrated with its multifunction, next-generation firewalls,” said Eric Aarrestad, Vice President, Marketing at WatchGuard Technologies.  “While other security vendors promote faster appliances, the focus at WatchGuard is to develop superior security offerings to address the real threats and needs of businesses today.”