Remote Access Security Suite Targets Mobility

Kaspersky has introduced a new security suite, Kaspersky Open Space Security (KOSS), a scalable suite of products for different network structures of various sizes designed to provide protection to both network perimeters and all nodes inside the network.

At the core of KOSS is Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0 for Windows Servers and Kaspersky Administration Kit 6.0, which have been available for some time. KOSS is aimed at the mobile user market, as more and more business users spend more time outside of the office and connect over less-than-secure connections.

“The whole idea behind KOSS is if you look behind the corporate workforce as it exists today, it’s really distributed,” Steve Orenberg, president of Kaspersky Lab told internetnews.com. “Most people are not within the confines of their corporate network. So how do you consistently manage security policies within the network and outside it?”

The rise in mobile workers will have a corresponding burden of security, which is where KOSS comes in. KOSS provides a mechanism for setting policies for mobile and remote users. It allows the administrators to prescribe the source and frequency of anti-malware  updates, scanning schedules, personal firewall configuration and more.

Kaspersky has added Cisco NAC (Network Access Control) support to KOSS, making it possible for computers to be checked during reconnection to the network after it has been offline. Also, if an infected computer is detected, it is blocked from any network connection, enabling administrators to track down the source of the infection.

KOSS offers four levels of security, depending on the size of the network infrastructure. At the low end is tier-1 protection from Kaspersky Work Space Security, which handles just the clients. At the high end is tier-4 protection from Kaspersky Total Space Security. It covers workstations, file servers, mail servers, Internet gateways and an administration kit.

KOSS version 6.0 also improves the ability of Kaspersky Anti-Virus to detect unknown malware with Proactive Defense, an advanced heuristics system with emphasis on detecting rootkits, Orenberg said. In addition, Kaspersky sends out hourly updates to its software to detect newly found malware.

KOSS is also fully integrated with firewalls for intrusion detection and prevention, offers protection when connecting to all types of networks, including public Wi-Fi, has full system rollback in case of of malicious changes and supports Windows Vista, 32-bit and 64-bit.

Charlotte Dunlap, security analyst for Current Analysis, says the host intrusion prevention system (IPS) market that Kaspersky is targeting with KOSS is small and something of a niche, because it’s not easy to do. Also, despite having an excellent reputation with its antivirus program, Dunlap said Kaspersky has a significant disadvantage.

“Even though they have a lot going on with consumer and SMB , they are a Russian-based company, going up against the big leading American companies like McAfee and Symantec and Cisco,” Dunlap told internetnews.com. “It looks like great technology, but it hasn’t taken off because it’s complicated to configure.

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