File Sharing – Not Just a Geek Problem
December 5, 2009 Leave a Comment
An alarming trend has been indentified by our Partner, Palo Alto Networks, in their Applications Usage and Risks Report: browser based file sharing has overtaken the use of client specific Peer 2 Peer applications for the first time.
So what?
Well its simple, if today you detect and remove the use of file-sharing software within your business by managing and removing applications loaded onto your PCs, then this method is now redundant. That is, unless you plan to remove browsers from your PCs?
Browser-based file sharing applications are a direct avenue for the transfer of confidential data and allows user download of infected files and malware-infested advertising.
The remedy is simple; you need to identify and control your applications at the network layer. By their very nature, P2P, Malware and many Web2.0 applications masquerade as valid web and SSL traffic by hiding within their ports and protocols. So unless your firewall can identify these rogue applications you have no way of controlling them. Can your firewall distinguish between valid http and file-sharing http?
At Varidion, our Next Generation Firewall can identify and classify some 900 applications so control and protection is simple. If you still managing by port & protocol speak to us about a free trial of our service, we will even give you a report outlining all the applications in use on your network. I guarantee we’ll find something you don’t like!
