McAfee launches SaaS Web Protection service

McAfee has launched SaaS Web Protection, a new cloud-based anti-malware offering for Software as a Service (SaaS) providers.

The product is designed to meet the needs of one of the fastest growing sectors in the IT industry, providing on-demand protection for SaaS customers without requiring any local installation or equipment.

McAfee said it brings to bear the company's full Global Threat Intelligence network of more than 350 security experts, along with millions of sensors to analyse all traffic entering and leaving the network. It also claimed it enables early reporting, predictive threat intelligence and the fastest on-demand filtering possible.

The company said mobile employees accessing a network from outside the protection of a corporate firewall are no less effectively protected.

"Web filtering solutions have evolved from website monitoring to serious malware defense," said Marc Olesen, general manager of McAfee's content and cloud security group.

"McAfee SaaS Web Protection incorporates all of the knowledge and experience we've gathered through the years, as well as the unique expertise and technologies gained from our recent acquisitions."

The last point referred to McAfee's acquisition of MX Logic last July for $140 million (93.6 million), with SaaS Web Protection featuring a similar multi-tenant infrastructure.

The company's previous acquisition of Secure Computing's range of email and web gateway appliances is also significant. The SaaS Web Protection works in much the same way, with all inbound and outbound traffic routed through McAfee's data centre, where it is filtered for malware, spam and other web-borne threats.

URL filtering is another feature included - so employees can be held accountable to company web use policies, even when accessing its network remotely - and the service also supports full Active Directory and LDAP integration.

Gartner revealed last week that it expects revenues from cloud-based services to more than double between 2010 and 2014, with revenues this year alone expected to reach $68.3 billion.