McAfee, Inc. Announces Results of a Commissioned Study by Independent Research Firm on the State of Web Security

McAfee commissioned a study by Forrester Consulting surveying 253 global IT professionals and security decision makers in companies around the world, ranging from 500 to 5000 employees.

They found the role of Web filtering is changing from an IT security function to more of a business function. Increasingly organizations are using Web filtering beyond basic security protection to incorporate functions such as productivity management, traffic quality of service (QoS) management, and single sign-on (SSO). The study also looked at the use of Web 2.0 technology in the enterprise, expecting it to continue growing in the near future. They expected social networking and streaming media become not only commonplace, but critical to business operations.

What was more surprising, was that although corporations placed DLP high on the list of priorities, fewer companies had implemented DLP. Eighty six percent considered data leaks an important threat, when asked what policy they have to govern internal employees contributing content to external blogs and wikis, only sixty eight percent said they impose some form of restriction (either complete block or selective block), while thirty one percent said they do not have any restriction for employees to access these third-party sites.

Other trends noticed included the consolidation of the content security industry. Eighty five percent of all respondents indicated that they would be more likely to employ an integrated content filtering solution that provides items like centralized policy management, configuration, and integrated DLP.

Also the study found that the Web filtering device (aka the proxy) is taking on functionality outside of security or usage policies. Organizations are realizing that the Web filtering solution may be the right place for other related traffic management functions. (Does this lend credence to Blue Coat's purchase of Packeteer?)

The study also had some specific recommendations based on the findings. The study recommended vendors with a solid in-the-cloud infrastructure, specific Web malware detection, and strong integration and consolidation strategy.

They noted that Web malware is different from traditional virus. Many Web malware are script-based, and they can change rapidly and take on many different forms. Traditional signature-based scanning approach is less effective against Web malware. This of course validates the multi-layer defense strategy promoted by most security vendors.