Websense goes hybrid with web and email security appliance

Websense has launched an email and web security appliance designed to offer inbound and outbound threat protection on a single device, with additional cloud-based filtering capabilities.

Websense Triton Security Gateway Anywhere combines the content security firm's Web and Email Security Gateway offerings with data loss prevention on a Websense V-Series appliance.

Consolidating these capabilities onto a single platform with a single management platform eases the IT admin burden, according to Websense, while additional cloud-based filtering capabilities mean that threats can be blocked before they hit the network.

On the email side is enterprise-class data loss prevention powered by Websense's TruEmail technology designed to eliminate false positives and negatives. Also included are advanced encryption and archiving, said the firm.

The product has been architected in a modular fashion so that customers can add components according to their needs. Coming soon are Mobile DLP and Cloud DLP modules, for example, said Websense.

Michael Suby, vice president of research at Frost & Sullivan spin-off Stratecast, warned that the threat landscape is evolving at a rapid pace, and that "cyber perpetrators will readily pounce on exploitable gaps in legacy security products".

"What Websense is accomplishing with its Triton architecture is providing businesses with an extensible and adaptable mechanism to fight fire with fire," he added.

The hybrid security model used by Websense in this release highlights a growing trend among security vendors to offer customers cloud-based inbound protection in the web and email channels, but an on-premise option on the outbound data loss prevention side.

Competitors including Trend Micro, McAfee and others have also invested heavily in cloud-based threat protection networks.