Feature Story

By Kat Rollin

October 16, 2007 -- With every passing day, more people depend on the Internet, whether at the office, at home, or on mobile devices, leaving businesses vulnerable to blended, targeted Web threats. Sun and Trend Micro are two forward-thinking companies with a long history of collaboration to deliver solutions that directly address new issues in security.

While Web 2.0 is a revolutionary development offering new freedoms to collaborative communities, it exposes users and businesses to an even broader range of insidious Web threats. Unfortunately, the increased communal interaction of Web 2.0 makes users more liable to succumb to social engineering techniques, enabling criminals to steal personal and corporate information. Web 2.0 technologies such as asynchronous Javascript and XML (AJAX) increase vulnerability through mashups, which increase the attack space available to cyber criminals - allowing threats to enter corporate and home networks through seemingly legitimate Web sites and exit with the click of a mouse.

As Gartner predicted, history is repeating itself. Following in the path of Web 1.0, Web 2.0 developers, in their rush to get to market, frequently bypass processes for ensuring security, putting the burden on the users of the new technology. Sun's vision is to enable participation on the network, and to help ensure this can happen with less risk of attack, Sun teams with innovative, industry-leading software vendors such as Trend Micro.

Security From Sun and Trend Micro

Trend Micro Incorporated is a global leader in software security against emerging threats that use the Web infrastructure. Founded in 1988, the company led the migration of virus protection from the desktop to the network server and the Internet gateway, gaining a reputation for vision and technological innovation along the way. Trend Micro focuses on providing a comprehensive approach with secure content management solutions such as antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-spam, anti-phishing, content filtering, information leakage prevention, and compliance capabilities.

Re-enforcing a two decade plus commitment to security, Sun continues to build security in the Solaris Operating System (OS). The Solaris 10 OS is one of the most secure operating systems available, with features such as Solaris Containers, Solaris User and Process Rights Management, Solaris Trusted Extensions, Solaris Secure Execution, and IP Filter firewall. People who aren't familiar with these technologies won't understand why they make Solaris one of the most secure OS's. But the OS cannot control what happens out on the Web, especially with Web 2.0, where Web sites act as applications and many Web sites can be mashed together to form composite applications. Trend Micro's Interscan Web Security Suite and Interscan Messaging Security Suites are specifically designed to protect the enterprise from attacks through the Web and through email.

Web Gateway Security with Interscan Web Security Suite

Trend Micro InterScan Web Security Suite provides aggressive, high-performance protection against viruses, phishing, spyware, and other threats that attack through HTTP and FTP traffic at the gateway. This innovative security solution is designed to scan Web content and block malicious code - without sacrificing Internet performance. The optional URL Filtering Module helps manage employee Internet access and blocks offensive or non-work related Web sites. It can be integrated with Sun Java System Directory Server or other LDAP directories to set filtering policies by group, user, file type, time, day, and bandwidth. The optional Applet and ActiveX Security Module provides an additional layer of security by blocking malicious mobile code hidden in Web pages and performing certificate and signature validation on ActiveX and Java applets. Finally, when deployed with Trend Micro Control Manager, a centralized management console, administrators gain enterprise-wide visibility of the security platform. All activities can be centrally managed - even accessed via remote administration.

Implement Sun StorageTek NAS Appliances with Confidence

While network-attached storage (NAS) makes it easier for users to store, access, and share files, it can also increase the risk of spreading viruses when these files are downloaded or emailed to others. Recognizing this threat, Sun and Trend Micro worked together to test, certify, and document a solution that delivers complete interoperability of Trend Micro Web and messaging security solutions with the Sun StorageTek NAS 5000 family of NAS appliances.

Practical and affordable enough for simple sharing, yet powerful enough for storage consolidation, clustering, and centralized backup applications, the Sun StorageTek 5000 family of NAS appliances are quick to deploy and easy to use. The Sun StorageTek NAS appliance simplifies file sharing across UNIX, Linux, and Windows platforms. The Interscan Security for Sun StorageTek NAS solution is designed to help protect the entire computing landscape from attacks on every entry point in the network, including server, gateway, network, Web, and end-point. The InterScan Web Security Suite can scan, detect and remove viruses from files and compressed files in real time before they reach the storage subsystem, and through sharing, reach the enterprise:

• Full support of Sun StorageTek 5000 appliances enables real-time, high-performance scanning with minimal impact to storage systems
• Virus scan engine filters HTTP and FTP traffic to block viruses, trojans, and worms hidden in files
• Improved anti-spyware technology detects and blocks spyware and grayware before they infiltrate desktops and burden system resources
• Detects and removes viruses (including macro and script viruses) and malicious code using patented Trend Micro technologies
• Delivers thorough log reports and event notifications
• Support for Solaris 10 on x64 systems

Interscan Messaging Security Suite

Trend Micro InterScan Messaging Security Suite is a gateway email security software solution that integrates multi-tiered anti-spam and anti-phishing with award-winning antivirus and anti-spyware. This comprehensive email protection also provides content filtering to support compliance and to help prevent data loss. With a highly scalable platform and centralized management for easy administration, the solution is optimized to block the full range of standalone, blended-threat, and customer-specific attacks at the gateway.

Unfortunately, while most of the world tries collaborate and innovate for the better good, there are those who exploit people and technologies whenever possible for their own gain. Solutions from Sun and Trend Micro can help you end these Web security threats as we know them, today and tomorrow.

Formerly a systems engineer for Sun, Kat Rollin now reports on partner solutions for sun.com and develops marketing communications for the technology industry.