Total Defense for Business

Whoever is in charge of IT at a small business has a lot of things to worry about with a fairly limited budget and limited time to accomplish everything. Total Defense for Business offers small businesses an integrated cloud security platform that allows the administrator to handle endpoint security and Web and email filtering from a single management console. Endpoints have to be kept up-to-date with anti-malware tools, email threats need to be filtered out before the messages reach the user's inbox, and malicious?or inappropriate?sites need to be blocked. Total Defense for Business offers a fairly robust policy framework to handle all three different tasks to make the administrator's daily to-do-list easier to manage.

Total Defense for Business is a feature-packed cloud security platform where all the elements are tightly integrated. Total Defense offers anti-malware protection for endpoints, Web and email, such as detecting and removing malware on the endpoint, scanning emails and taking action when malware is detected, and blocking websites attempting to download malware. A robust rules engine allows administrators to create filtering policies and define granular application controls. I created email and Web policies to restrict file downloads, control what files could be uploaded or emailed (for data leak prevention), and prevent users from accessing certain sites and applications which violate corporate policy.

At first glance, Total Defense for Business reminded me a lot of GFI Cloud, a cloud security platform from GFI Software. GFI Cloud also provides antivirus protection (delivered via the company's VIPRE Antivirus engine)?for the endpoint, but its focus is primarily network management, not security. GFI Cloud offers asset management, health monitoring, and remote support. Total Defense for Business is focused on keeping emails clean, blocking malicious websites, and protecting the endpoint and is essentially a cloud-based unified threat management appliance. I use Sophos UTM as a virtual appliance, and Total Defense for Business felt very similar, except without having to source a server capable of running the virtual machine image.

Getting Started
Small businesses are beginning to realize that cloud security services are cheaper and often easier to manage than on-premise hardware and software. Getting started with Total Defense is pretty simple, as all you really need is the domain's MX record and information about the Web proxy in order to direct all email and Web traffic through Total Defense's servers. There is no hardware to deploy or software to configure.?

I received the login credentials for my Total Defense account over email. Logging in, I saw the interface, with tabs for Dashboard, Filter Management, Quarantine, Archive, and Reports. Since this was my first time logging in, I was automatically directed to Filter Management where I could turn on Web and Email filtering. There are a lot of features packed into the platform, and Total Defense does a pretty good job of peppering the screens with relevant help text and links to the User Guide.

Total Defense for Business supports Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. There doesn't seem to be a way yet to apply the security policies to users on smartphones and tablets, just yet.

Total Defense sells through the channel, so businesses need to contact their local reseller or distributor to purchase an annual subscription for Total Defense for Business. The list price is $71.50 per user per year, for full Web, Email, and Endpoint functionality. While the price may seem pretty high at first, it's worth noting that the per-user license covers multiple devices. The company also offers a 15-day free trial for anyone wanting to try out the platform first. Customers can get support over the phone or open up a support ticket online.

Web Filtering
To turn on Web filtering, Total Defense needs my public-facing IP address to recognize all the traffic with that IP address as being part of my network. The service can take up to 24 hours to accept and initialize the IP address, so I had to wait before configuring my Web proxy settings. I had the option to turn on user authentication with Web filtering, which means users have to log in to prove they are authorized to use the Total Defense platform.?Next: Web and Email Filtering, Endpoint Security with Total Defense

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