ProBiz Solutions has launched Cyberoam, a unified threat management system that allows companies to enhance security by focusing on individual users. (See Network World's review of the fastest firewalls.)

Cyberoam is unique because of its identity-based security management paradigm, said ProBiz CEO Athar Ahmad Bhatti. A company is able to track threats to the individual and not just the IP address, he added.

Security has become a nightmare in many Kenyan organizations where a lot of time is spent browsing the Internet, chatting and probably even sending out confidential files, Bhatti said. Cyberoam plays the role of a closed-circuit television, and the reports are comprehensive, tailored to suit the IT savvy and non IT savvy, he said.

Cyberoam aims to protect enterprises from emerging threats and reduce insider threats, which Bhatti says account for more than 50% of threats faced by businesses. The system offers security features set over a single platform: an inspection firewall, VPNs, gateway antivirus, gateway antispam, an intrusion prevention system, content filtering and bandwidth management.

The bandwidth management feature functions depend on the company and the number of employees, said Bhatti. A company can link to the active directory and assign bandwidth to various users depending on work requirements.

"Employees may be given access to chat and e-mail but prevented from uploading files, which prevents leaking out confidential files," he noted.

"The core requirement in a system is protection of our banking business data and resources against blended threats," said Martin Osonga, senior IT security officer at Imperial Bank. "Suppose a user, during unproductive surfing, accidentally downloads a key-logger intended to record the user names and passwords to our servers and sends the information back to its originator. It can be a disaster for the bank.

"In such a case, multiple security features are required to solve such blended threats," said Osonga, who is in charge of implementing Cyberoam at the bank.

Cyberoam targets small, mdisize and large enterprises, as well as schools and libraries that need to enforce an Internet safety policy.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.