* Positive adds additional security features to its VPN service
Service provider Positive Networks is adding additional security feature to its VPN service, paralleling the trend of hardware vendors adding features to their appliances.
The company’s Positive PRO service is being upgraded to include scanning of remote machines that try to connect to the VPN and enforcing that anti-virus software is up-to-date and turned on.
It is also scanning the machines for SpyBot software that scans remote machines for spyware programs that send data about machine configuration and activity to third parties. If the machines don’t have SpyBot installed and operating, Positive can download it to the machines, where it removes the spyware.
Hardware vendors that started off selling firewall/VPN gear have been adding virus scanning, intrusion detection and the like to their boxes as a way to attract customers unwilling or unable to devote the resources to piecing together multi-layered security from multiple individual products.
One customer says Positive’s service made it possible to provide remote access support to its 65 dispersed construction managers. The company’s three-person IT staff was already stretched to the limit and couldn’t take on setting up a VPN.
Positive has also overhauled how its gateway security devices interface with client application servers making it possible for remote users to connect from any machine without a devoted VPN client.
Positive’s service architecture has remote machines connecting to Positive’s data center via SSL links, where requests are proxied via IPSec VPN tunnel to customer servers. The benefit for end users is they get to set security policies for the VPN service, but don’t have to install or manage any VPN gear of their own.
Part of the Positive PRO upgrade includes new management capabilities to set up security polices for individuals or groups and to base them on time of day.
