The AccessKenya Group has acquired Kenya’s first private node of the industry’s-first Zscaler Web Security Cloud Solution, a web filtering tool that enables a company to manage web access for their entire organization, manage types of websites users can visit and time schedules as well as protect illegitimate company information leaving the company. This is the first in East Africa and 3rd in Africa after South Africa and Nigeria.
Zscaler offers a more powerful solution to web filtering to enable flexible Internet access without exposing the business to risk. It provides flexible web categories, organised in a hierarchy that is easy to control. They include:
- Security — embedded viruses, spyware and other malware
- Legal liability — adult (pornography etc), gambling, copyright infringement, hacking
- Productivity loss — games, shopping, job sites, online auctions
- Bandwidth loss — audio and video streaming sites
- Miscellaneous – other categories a company can add.
Through this tool, the IT department can block off sites that are insecure, reduces staff productivity, have legal liability or utilise too much bandwidth.
In helping manage types of websites users can visit and time schedules, the IT department can use Zscaler to for example allocate marketing only to be able to visit Facebook all day and other departments to visit Facebook between 1-2pm and after 5pm etc.
Additionally, the tool also comes with an extra value add called Data Loss Prevention which protects company information by enabling trigger words on the information that is sent out of the network. A company’s IT department can, for example, configure a trigger word like their competition, if anyone sends out email through their yahoo with these subject or body in the details, it will send an alarm email to the IT manager to confirm if it is legit information leaving the company network. This way, illegitimate company information cannot leave the organisation without their knowledge.
IT managers will find Zscaler critical in preventing data loss. The Cloud can scan all outbound web traffic to ensure confidential data does not leave the company, or opt to control web access by validating browsers are fully up to date and secure before allowing access to users. The cloud can further perform URL filtering by classifying and blocking millions of malicious URL that may infect computers. In this package, good URLs are categorized in over 90 categories so as to apply internet usage policies suited to individual business needs.
“Today, most companies are protecting their servers from threats originating from the internet. As security risks continue to evolve, so must our defenses against them. The cloud solution will help reduce both security and compliance risks, enforce business policies, and protect information, all while lowering the burdens involved with maintaining security system and helping reduce total cost of ownership,” comments Jonathan Somen, Group Managing Director AccessKenya Group.
Zscaler becomes the first line of defense against known and unknown threats, blocking them before they reach your network. It can detect and protect against outbreaks from other parts of the world as soon as they occur.
Traffic of a client organization is redirected to the Zscaler nodes that are hosted at the AccessKenya Data Center and all rules and policies are applied through the cloud on these nodes. It is transparent to the end user, IT personnel see the biggest benefit as it is a virtual solution, low cost as no equipment is hosted on the client network. Policies are applied on a graphical user interface that can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
“In essence there are no acquisition cost, which means no capital expenditure and no deployment cost. You don’t have to manage boxes, you simply pay a subscription fee and manage your policies. Using this approach we free IT staff from doing operational security chores of managing and patching boxes. We free up your time to deal with strategic and real business issues”, affirms Somen.
As the official partners in Kenya, AccessKenya Group has crafted the Web Advanced Suite package to protect the entire information perimeter wherever users are, be it in the office, at home or on the road using smart phones. This package will provide Cloud, URL filtering, Advanced Threats Protection, Inline Anti-Virus & Anti-Spam, Web 2.0 and Secure Socket Layer and include a value added protection of Data Loss Protection (DLP) for corporate information security.
By adopting Zscaler, companies will be able to deploy and manage discrete products such as desktop anti-virus and anti-spyware, web content and URL filtering software and Data Loss Prevention policies via a centrally managed control panel. This way, companies will spend less manpower and valuable time in securing their increasingly ‘online’ employee base.
Zscaler Web Security cloud infrastructure is used by millions of users across 140 countries mainly in Europe, Asia and North America. Locally, companies across every sector including financial services, manufacturing, retail, government and education now have a platform to familiarize on enhanced cloud based web security solutions that comes at lower cost and reduced maintenance overhead
|
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/Hide comment form
