So You Still Think Websense is a Web Filtering Company?
The only constant in corporate security is change. Websense became famous as the best URL filtering company. We invented our ThreatSeeker Network and the world’s first Honey Grid, and as a result, we know the Web better than anyone else. Our customers saw Websense filtering as nice-to-have software that helped employees be productive and prohibited inappropriate use of a company’s Internet access.
But as our knowledge of the Web deepened, we were on the front lines as more attacks and security threats moved online. We quickly became the go-to experts on Web-based threats and our technology was so ingrained within the Web that we often were the first company to detect these threats. As we moved from filtering to Web security, we often protected our customers from Web threats before competitors were even aware that they existed.
We also realized that destination security was not enough to protect our customers from modern malware that existed not only on bad reputation sites, but on some of the most commonly visited Web 2.0 sites such as Facebook and Youtube. Then, to keep up with new threats and customer needs, we had to be able to categorize content on the fly, even if we have never seen the Web page before. And we had to be able to allow access to a site, but just block the malicious elements.
So we innovated again and delivered an on-box real-time Web Security Gateway solution integrated in the cloud with our Advanced Categorization Engine and its real-time categorization along with our advanced DLP solution. This gave us real-time inbound and outbound malware detection and protection capabilities as well. That provides protection from malware on Web sites that evaded detection by traditional AV signatures, allowing our customers to leverage the power of the new Web 2.0 functionality without exposing them to risk.
The Radicati Group just recognized Websense as the Top Player in the Corporate Web Security - Market Quadrant 2011. Websense was the only vendor recognized as a Top Player with a functionality of 9 or more!
From the report:
“Websense has been at the forefront of the Web security market for a number of years. The company dominates the higher end of the market, constantly introducing new concepts and solutions. Its full suite of Web security solutions includes anti-malware protection, URL filtering, application control, DLP, and reporting capabilities.”
Good proof that the transformation from Web filtering to security has been successful. But the story it doesn’t stop there.
You see, with our knowledge of the Web, we recognized early on that many attacks had a Web component. But, threats were also converging to include email and data-stealing attacks. So we acquired two companies to shore up our cloud security and data loss prevention technologies. Then we built a unified platform to integrate all of these into something greater than the sum of their parts: Websense TRITON, our unified content security solution.
And now, we have been recognized by Frost & Sullivan Award for Market Share Leadership of the Year for content security. The product transformation from filtering to Web security to unified content security (including separately or together: email, Web, and data security) is complete. In today’s threat landscape, endpoint and network security are necessary, but not sufficient. If you don’t believe me, just look at all the data breach headlines and ask yourself if you think those companies don’t have AV and network security in place. So our customers now see us as a must-have defense. Websense has not only the best Web security, but also has the largest share of the content security market, thanks to the uniquely effective TRITON solution.
What have been the biggest changes you have seen in corporate security? Feel free to leave a comment below and we can discuss further.