Project: Internet content security and control solution for its operations.

The REAL Insurance Challenge Faced with increasing unproductive and harmful Internet surfing by staff, The REAL Insurance management team tasked the IT Manager, Infrastructure to began a search for an Internet content security and control solution for its operations. A meeting between AccessKenya our ISP & REAL Insurance was initiated to discuss the WAN security. Other interested vendors were also invited to propose suitable solutions that would give REAL the following: - • Secure Perimeter: REAL Insurance wanted to secure their servers by a strong firewall solution and access control management over all the WAN network resources. • Controlled & Unproductive Surfing: The organisation needed to know who was accessing what sites and needed an identity based filter and reporting system that would include a users’ online behavioural audit. The solution would also be required to block harmful spyware/malware infested sites. It was also required to limit access to unproductive sites - such as Web-mail, HTTPS, news, online shopping and gaming – and block ‘phishing’ and ‘pharming’ sites which trick users into revealing confidential data. • Reduced Spam Menace: This was required to keep mails secure and in-boxes clean. Ideally it would be a ‘deploy-and-forget' solution that didn’t need to be ‘trained’ to identify spam mails. As by the time such solutions are trained, the spam pattern changes. This greatly reduces the effectiveness of such anti-spam offerings. In this light, the spam filtering was required to be totally automated and perform irrespective of the language and content of the mail with an absolute minimum amount of false positives - as no organisation can afford to lose a single business opportunity should a legitimate email being wrongly classified as spam. • Reduced Malware Menace: A perimeter level anti-virus solution was required that could protect the network, scan and clean any malware or spyware over Web mail and scan all Web traffic to ensure the contents’ sanctity. Moreover, all files transferred over the Internet would have to be scanned to ensure that they are malware-free. We tried various security solutions, but found that they either • they were complex and difficult to deploy and maintain creating costly operational overheads • did not integrate easily with the current users AD • demanded a steep, one-time capital expenditure or • the recurring expenditure of renewal was also costly in most instances