* Permeo Base 5
Permeo is revamping its SSL VPN software to include peripheral security features that can be managed from a single platform.
The new software is called Base 5, and supports remote host checking, which looks at remote computers to determine if they meet corporate security requirements such as having a personal firewall, updated anti-virus software and an appropriately patched operating system.
It also holds VPN sessions in a logically isolated virtual desktop that is wiped out when a remote session ends, leaving no trace of the data accessed during the session. This is designed to protect corporate data from subsequent users of the same machines who might snoop its hard drive for valuable data.
Similarly, the software prevents data accessed during a VPN session from being cut and pasted to files on the computer’s hard drive.
Base 5 also supports lists of approved and disapproved applications for remote sessions. Users can set policies to allow only a certain set of applications to run over VPN links, and it can also prevent specified applications from running. So peer-to-peer music sharing can be denied access to VPN tunnels.
Permeo isn’t the first company to offer these features, but it says that because it owns all its technology, it has been able to put management of all of them under a single platform. Some vendors have signed up partners to get this technology so managing it is more complex.
The new software also allows end users to access applications from the virtual desktop, via a portal or by clicking on an icon in the computer’s system tray. These options are supposed to provide end users with a comfortable way of accessing their VPNs.
The software comes on a CD and has to be loaded on a hardware platform by customers. Customers must provide the hardware. Base 5 is available mid-April.
