The proliferation of the internet in SMB business and productivity use comes with its own set of perils. SMBs are mostly unprepared for internet-based attacks and there is a general lack of awareness and contingency planning that puts them in the high-risk category from sophisticated attackers who use state-of-the-art technology and social engineering to fish out their prey. This has given rise to a number of problems associated with a lack of control over Internet usage such as:

• Low productivity
• Bandwidth drainage
• Legal liability through access to inappropriate or illegal content

Derelict Internet access can open the internal network of SMBs to cyber-heists, insider attacks, spyware, malicious mobile code, key loggers, VoIP attacks, phishing and fraudulent Web sites. Looming concerns over threats from remote or distributed settings such as when employees are using hotel networks or public kiosks or are in a Wi-Fi hot spot, or are travelling abroad and are exposed to threats getting into the corporate network when they launch a VPN client. Access to information must be controlled on a per-user basis to maintain network integrity. This makes it almost obligatory for SMEs to monitor and control web-content access.

SMEs need a solution that allows them to configure their network policy in a way that:

• Empowers the employees and boosts their productivity.
• Secures the network and protects sensitive data.

Unified Threat Management is an evolved version of the traditional firewall into a product that not only guards against intrusion but also performs content filtering, spam filtering, intrusion detection and anti-virus duties traditionally handled by multiple systems. A product from house of Seqrite, the leading security solution provider in India, Seqrite Unified Threat Management is a Gateway protection that offers a combination of security solutions. Some of the basic components of a Seqrite Unified Threat Management are:

• Firewall – Administrators can block or allow access for each protocol, to each internal network, user and user group.
• IPS/IDS – Prevents network from mass attacks like DOS and DDOS so that the network remains unaffected from remote and sync flood attacks.
• Gateway Mail Protection – scans inbound and outbound email messages and email attachments. AntiSpam scans and runs a series of tests on inbound email messages.
• Content Filtering – Prevent viewing inappropriate web sites.
• Gateway Anti-Virus – Protection provides another layer augmenting existing desktop virus solutions.
• VPN – Provides the IT administrators means for secure communications with the company’s remote users and for building secure site-to-site connections.
  Site to Site VPN: Allows organizations to connect their multiple sites and share data resources in secured and encrypted packet transmission.
  User to Site VPN: Allows roaming users to securely connect to office network while using public network.
• Bandwidth Manager – Simplifies the IT administrator’s task of allocating bandwidth on the basis of usage among users and user groups and saves the bandwidth cost of the company as you spend only on what you need.
• Load Balancing – Allows multiple ISPs to be used in a network simultaneously enabling users to utilize the same gateway irrespective of the ISP lines.
• Automatic Link Failover – Automatically diverts the data traffic from inactive ISP to active ISP lines in case any of the ISP lines fail to perform.
• IT Policy Management – On device comprehensive logging and reporting. User friendly web-based configuration.

These features conveniently replace the mayhem associated with numerous security solutions, thus creating an integrated and impermissible defense against threats. These eliminate the need for a significant security expertise while being conducive to businesses in the following ways:

• Real-time protection against network threats, including complex and insider threats, resulting in a safer work environment.
• Easy and swift deployment.
• Low functional costs.
• Enhanced productivity due to content filtering and peer-to-peer application controls.
• Adhering to regulatory compliance needs.

In a world where traditional business boundaries are quickly evaporating, driven by workforce mobility, greater adoption of cloud computing devices and a growing use of social media and collaboration tools within the enterprise, businesses struggle to manage these trends. It doesn’t have to be a tradeoff between getting maximum benefits and cost savings and mitigating potential risks and security impact to the organization. In this scenario, the need for an integrated and highly flexible Gateway security solution like Seqrite Unified Threat Management becomes essential.