Cymphonix Undoes Anonymous Activity

NEW YORK -- Recently, users have been getting a raft of new tools and services that could prevent IT departments from monitoring their Internet activity. Today, however, a vendor released a tool that could let IT strike back.

Cymphonix here at the Interop conference launched Network Composer Version 7, a new release of its smart gateway appliance that doesn't just reduce unauthorized Web activity -- it also cuts down on wasted bandwidth.

Network Composer v7 offers a feature called Anonymous Proxy Guard, which lets IT departments block the usage of services such as Anonymizer and EverPrivate. These services, designed to protect the privacy of consumers and home users, allow business users to bypass corporate restrictions on Internet access and surf the Web anonymously, making it impossible for IT to track the user's online behavior.

"While many organizations have content filtering in place to control Internet usage, they have not been able to effectively detect or control the usage of anonymous proxy sites until now," says Brent Nixon, vice president of product development at Cymphonix. The new gateway release can identify traffic going through improper ports, and block the use of proxy sites, he says.

The new release would not block the use of a native browser such as Browzar, which doesn't operate as a proxy.

The new product also offers policy management features that let administrators control who can access the Internet, when they can access it, and what content they can have, Cymphonix says. For example, an organization could enforce a policy that allows the accounting department open access to the Internet after business and during the lunch hour, but block that traffic during business hours to preserve bandwidth for critical apps, the company says.

Cymphonix Network Composer Version 7 will be available in mid-October and will be offered to current users at no charge, the company states.

— Tim Wilson, Site Editor, Dark Reading