MessageLabs updates hosted Web security

MessageLabs this week is expected to announce an upgrade to its Web security service offering greater threat protection and integration with its e-mail and instant-messaging products.

The company will stop reselling ScanSafe's Web security services in favor of developing and selling its own version that protects clients from viruses, spyware and other malware distributed by Web sites, says Brian Czarny, vice president of product management with MessageLabs. The company last October announced its Web security offering (MessageLabs Web Security Services), which was based on ScanSafe's service, and plans to release a homegrown version next month.

MessageLabs says it can offer greater protection from blended threats - those occurring across multiple communications channels, such as IM, e-mail and Web - by maintaining all these services in-house, amassing information about such threats and protecting customers at all levels, Czarny says.

For example, if MessageLabs finds a link to a URL distributing malware that is coming through e-mail or IM channels, it immediately updates its Web security service to block customers from visiting that site, Czarny says. Because the original version of its Web security service was based on ScanSafe technology, MessageLabs couldn't use such information in the same manner, he says.

One customer is pleased that MessageLabs is moving to its own technology.

"Their e-mail service is great, but their Web anti-virus service has been only OK," says Michael Gonda, senior systems administrator with Perkins Eastman Architects, which has more than 500 employees in New York. "It does its job, but the management of the account from a technical angle is not as good as the other services, and getting support for the Web services is very difficult."

Another advantage of the new version is integration, Czarny says. Customers can use one interface to manage all services from MessageLabs, sharing information about users and groups for policy and reporting purposes and having to configure the services only once.

The upgraded service avoids delays in serving up Web pages to customers by load balancing requests across multiple MessageLabs data centers, directing requests to the server that is the least busy, Czarny says.

MessageLabs Web Security Services 2.0 will be available in two options. Antispyware and anti-virus services will be priced at $3.75 per user, per month; URL filtering will cost $2.50 per user, per month. Customers electing both services will pay $5 per user, per month; discounts will be available to customers using more than one of the services.