Leaders Of The Pack

Controlling content is one of the most basic ways to prevent unwanted data from entering a system. So with those concerns in mind, Test Center engineers decided on three Product of the Year finalists: AppRiver Secure Tide, Mycompro Mail Max and SurfControl Enterprise Threat Shield. While each targets specific problems, only Enterprise Threat Shield strives to filter and control all data traversing a network. SurfControl combines scanning, reporting and remediation to protect network assets. It consists of two primary components—a client that is pushed down to workstations and a centralized management console. The management console maintains a database of allowed or disallowed activities, while the desktop client validates activity against that database.

Enterprise Threat Shield offers protection against malicious code that may arrive via e-mail, downloads or peer-to-peer applications while providing a mechanism to enforce company usage policies. Solution providers will be well-served by what SurfControl has to offer. —Frank J. Ohlhorst