We will be covering this in more detail at the Foursys workshops in May/June but in the meantime here are the highlights:
 

• Endpoint V9 - at our workshops you will see a preview of the next release of Endpoint expected August/September with significant new DLP (Data Leakage Prevention) and device control features. Customers will be able to use inbuilt lists to prevent certain types of information leaving the organisation. In addition customers will be able to control what types of data device (e.g. certain make of USB or external hard drive) can be used on the network. These new capabilities will all be within the standard Endpoint product with no need to pay extra for an upgrade.

• Endpoint ESDP Encryption - the new Endpoint Security and Data Protection (ESDP) product is aimed at users who need device encryption on laptops and PCs - simply and easily. This product will be released in April/May, but early evaluation and purchase is available now. The proven SafeGuard Easy software on which ESDP is based has over 3 million users globally. (Customers with larger networks or who need more sophisticated encryption should look at the SafeGuard Enterprise Bundle below).

• SG Enterprise Encryption - this is a higher level SafeGuard Enterprise bundle for Endpoint users who need more centralised management and more encryption features than are currently available for ESDP.

• Email Encryption - a new entry-level Encryption PDFMail option for Sophos ES appliance users is expected to be released in April/May and this will be a simple upgrade for many Sophos Email customers.

• MailGateway Encryption - there is a higher level SafeGuard MailGateway for Sophos Email users who need more sophisticated email encryption than PDFMail can offer.

• Device Control - use Sophos Endpoint to set broad policies on use of devices and Sophos SafeGuard for finer control of removable media (USB, etc) with user based policies and a comprehensive management console.

• New Appliances - new range of ES Email and WS Web Appliances. The new Sophos Email Appliances released in January will be joined by a similar range of Web Appliances able to handle web security for a wide range of networks, including those that have multiple sites or need to manage multiple web appliances.

• Sophos for Microsoft SharePoint - new Sophos product to protect SharePoint users, currently in Beta and expected to be released in April/May. 

For more information on any of the above call us on 01223 810 910 or sophos@foursys.co.uk to discuss all the options with our sales or technical teams.
 

Are you concerned about the new threat landscape? Are you looking for suggestions on what to do and someone to talk to?

These Foursys workshops are intended for all existing Sophos customers that use Sophos for desktop/email/web security and encryption and those wanting to look at the new Sophos products. These workshops will be held at 6 venues around the UK.

This is what we will be covering:

• The Threat landscape and how to deal with today's security issues
• Sophos Roadmap - what can we expect?
• Endpoint V9 - preview of next release with new DLP and device control
• Encryption - new entry-level ESDP product for use with Endpoint for PCs/laptops
• Enterprise Encryption - higher level SafeGuard Enterprise bundle for Endpoint users who need more than ESDP
• Email Encryption - new entry-level Encryption PDFMail option for Sophos ES appliance users
• MailGateway Encryption - higher level SafeGuard MailGateway for Sophos Email users who need more than PDFMail
• Device Control - use Sophos Endpoint and Sophos SafeGuard for control of removable media (USB, etc)
• New Appliances - new range of ES Email and WS Web Appliances
• SharePoint - new Sophos product to protect Microsoft SharePoint users

Spaces are limited so if this is an area that you need to know about then register now at http://www.foursys.co.uk/workshopseminar.aspx
 

Until the end of March 2009 Foursys is offering everyone, even if you are not a Foursys customer, a Security Health Check at 20% off the normal list price of £1250. 

Total cost is now £995 plus VAT, including all expenses for mainland UK and a written Foursys Security Health Check report with recommendations.

A Security Health Check can cover any one of these products normally in one day - Sophos Endpoint (and Email if installed), Websense Web Security, MIMEsweeper Email or Microsoft ISA. If you have 2 or more products then we can provide a combined price to cover all of them.

The Technical Benefits of a Health Check are clear: you ensure the product is configured correctly with suitable rules and policies, conforms to best practice and is installed with the latest version and all fixes. But the Business Benefits are also just as important: you ensure you get a real ROI on your investment and can show due diligence by having an external review of the configuration.

For more information call Foursys on 01223 810 910 email sales@foursys.co.uk or see http://www.foursys.co.uk/health+check.aspx
 

Websense Version 7 has introduced a number of benefits over the previous release, but crucially there is an underlying architecture change that customers need to be aware of. In version 6, Websense configuration was managed by the policy server, which stored the configuration in a flat xml file. This is still true with version 7, however the core configuration is now stored within a policy database, controlled by the new policy broker service. This allows for multiple policy servers to run and filter web traffic with the same configuration/policy. Additional policy servers are then updated from the policy broker service, via the individual policy server that has received configuration changes.

So updates happen in this order:

• Change made on Websense Manager.
• Configuration modified within the local Websense policy server
• Policy Server updates the configuration within the policy broker/database.
• Configuration in other policy servers are then updated from the policy broker service.

In short you no longer need to manually push out configuration changes between multiple Websense servers. Additionally even if the policy broker service goes down, policy servers will continue to filter traffic. The idea is to allow Websense to more easily scale for contingency and fail over proxy servers or clustered solutions. There is also a backup tool in Version 7 for ensuring you can restore your Websense configuration much more easily.

Please note the architecture and feature enhancements within Websense have resulted in a notable change in hardware specification required to operate Websense V7 (see next item below if you use Celestix web appliances).

Contact Foursys on 01223 810 910 or websense@foursys.co.uk if you want to discuss these Websense V7 changes in more detail and ask for our PDF briefing on "Websense V7 Architecture Changes".
 

If you use a Celestix MSA3000 with Websense V6 then contact Foursys as soon as possible even if you are not one of our existing customers.

You will almost certainly want to upgrade to Websense V7 during the course of this year because of the new intuitive front end, improved reporting and ability to manage multiple sites. But this new release is also more demanding in terms of hardware and this means that the entry level Celestix MSA3000 is not supported to run Websense V7.

Existing Celestix MSA3000 customers are being offered a preferential upgrade to the MSA4000 just for the difference in price between the 2 Web Appliances or £1500 plus VAT. The existing MSA3000 will then be exchanged for a new MSA4000 and the existing maintenance will be upgraded free of charge until its expiry.

Contact Foursys to discuss an exchange now as this upgrade offer is only available until May 1st - 01223 810910 or websense@foursys.co.uk