Blue Coat Systems claims to have cracked the nut of simple Data Loss Prevention (DLP) with a new appliance that combines with its hybrid Secure Web Gateway solution to protect against both inbound malicious threats and outbound data loss.

"Regulatory compliance, in addition to the high cost of responding to information leaks, is driving more and more companies to adopt data-protection solutions," said Andreas Antonopoulos, Nemertes senior vice president and founding partner.

"However, many companies quickly discover that the cost and complexity of DLP solutions, added to the organisational and cultural challenges introduced by DLP, can lead to abandoned products or user backlash. Successful DLP projects are incremental in nature -- they start off with a narrow set of well defined goals and build on success. In evaluating DLP solutions, companies should look for ease of use and flexible rules that support an incremental deployment."

The Blue Coat DLP appliances integrate data loss protection for traffic on the network, including email and Web content, and data at rest in databases or on servers (the two capabilities are licensed separately) with a unified management system in a single, integrated platform.

Blue Coat claims its DLP appliances can typically be operational in one day or less, including installation and configuration; policy definition and content fingerprinting; initial monitoring and inspection of traffic; and incident analysis. In contrast, it says traditional DLP solutions require weeks, and even months, to deploy and reach full operation.

In addition to simplifying deployment and operation, the Blue Coat DLP appliance also provides a number of advanced data loss prevention technologies, including:
* Advanced Fingerprinting to assess structured and unstructured data with fewer false positives.
* Support for most common languages, including those that require multi-byte characters.
* Support for over 600 document types.

The new DLP appliances integrate with the Blue Coat ProxySG appliances using the secure ICAP protocol. Once connected, the ProxySG appliance enables the DLP appliance to inspect SSL-encrypted traffic and serve as the enforcement point to block, forward or encrypt sensitive information. ProxySG appliances can also provide a wide variety of authentication information to the DLP appliances so that policies can be enforced on a per user basis.

The new DLP appliances add an additional layer of defence to the Blue Coat Secure Web Gateway solution. The hybrid architecture of the solution combines presence at the corporate Web gateway with a collaborative cloud defence to deliver on-demand security intelligence and immediate protection against evolving and emerging Web-based threats. The integration of the DLP appliances into this solution extends data loss policies to SSL-encrypted traffic, such as Webmail, and prevents endpoints infected with malicious software from sending sensitive data and confidential information to "phone-home" websites.

"The Blue Coat DLP appliances provide a no compromise approach to data loss protection that supports enterprise-class DLP functionality in an easy-to-deploy solution," said Jonathan Andresen, Director, Product Marketing Asia-Pacific, Blue Coat Systems.

"By extending the Blue Coat Secure Web Gateway solution to include our new DLP appliances, we now provide our customers with layered, comprehensive security that prevents malicious content from entering the network and sensitive content from leaving the network."

Andresen claims previous DLP offerings have been limited by the fact they required multiple servers and different software installation for email, Web traffic, discovery and monitoring.

“Data resides in different areas in an organisation, and when you are looking to protect HR systems, financial applications and intellectual property, IT support becomes very complicated.”

“Our solution integrates multifunction DLP in the one appliance that can see inside encrypted HTTPS traffic and handle more than 600 document types.”

Blue Coat has previously sold other DLP solutions from vendors such as Vontu (now owned by Symantec), McAfee and RSA, and will still supply these in tandem with its Web Gateway where a customer requires.

Blue Coat DLP appliances are available now in three models that support up to 250, 5,000 and 20,000 users, respectively. List prices start at A$14,300 ex GST and NZ$17,400 ex GST at current exchange rates.