Blue Coat Delivers Rapid Updates to Combat Web-Based Malware

"As threats proliferate across the Internet, it is important that enterprises have a multi-pronged defense strategy that both identifies the threats and rapidly protects against them," said Bethany Mayer, senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing at Blue Coat. "Blue Coat delivers that protection to its customers by utilizing the community power of WebPulse to rapidly root out malware and other threats."

WebPulse continuously updates Blue Coat WebFilter with detected malware hosts and new content ratings based on inputs from ProxySG appliances, ProxyClient and K9 Web Protection, the company's free Web-based security service for families and individuals. In less than six months, requests to the WebPulse service have increased by 50 percent to more than 150 million per day. With over one billion user requests per week, the WebPulse service analyzes a large volume of traffic on popular and unrated sites using multiple threat engines, machine analysis and human raters to detect malware and rate new Web content. As a cloud-based service, WebPulse is a cost-effective way to build a large community of users that shares information on detected malware.

In addition to increasing the frequency of updates to every five minutes from the WebPulse service, Blue Coat ProxySG appliances also support the latest update features and ratings tools from two of its Technology Integration Partners, Websense and Secure Computing. Blue Coat ProxySG appliances that utilize the Websense filter will automatically check for updates every five minutes. For customers that have deployed Secure Computing's filter, Blue Coat ProxySG supports reputation and CGI-based ratings.

To further protect the Internet gateway, the ProxySG appliances automatically enforce corporate policies that dictate how to handle unrated sites or known malware hosts. This policy enforcement provides organizations with the control they require to effectively secure their networks.

Traditionally, malware has proliferated via email. With the rise of Web 2.0 technologies and multi-object Web pages, however, malware has moved to the Web. According to Sophos, a new Web page is infected every five seconds, which is three times the rate in 2007. In this new environment, networks designed to protect only against email-based malware do not effectively prevent these Web-based attacks.

To effectively defend the Internet gateway against evolving threats that are increasingly moving to the Web, Blue Coat ProxySG appliances utilize a hybrid Web gateway architecture that provides five layers of defense. These five layers include the WebPulse cloud service, inline detection, Web application and content controls, integrated data loss prevention and remote user protection.

About Blue Coat Systems

Blue Coat secures Web communications and accelerates business applications across the distributed enterprise. Blue Coat's family of appliances and client-based solutions -- deployed in branch offices, Internet gateways, end points, and data centers -- provide intelligent points of policy-based control enabling IT organizations to optimize security and accelerate performance between users and applications. Blue Coat has installed more than 40,000 appliances worldwide. Blue Coat is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and can be reached at (408) 220-2200 or www.bluecoat.com.

Note to editors: Please see the separate release issued today for additional information on the Blue Coat WebPulse service.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, including statements regarding Blue Coat Systems' expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future, and including statements regarding the capabilities and expected performance of Blue Coat Systems' products. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based upon information available to Blue Coat Systems as of the date hereof, and Blue Coat Systems assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These and other risks relating to Blue Coat Systems' business are set forth in Blue Coat Systems' Form 10-Q for the quarter ended July 31, 2008 and its Form 10-K for the year ended April 30, 2008, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Blue Coat, ProxySG and the Blue Coat logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Blue Coat Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE: Blue Coat Systems, Inc.

Blue Coat Systems Jennifer Arculeo, 408-541-3330(Media) jennifer.arculeo@bluecoat.com Daniel Levy (Investors) daniel.levy@bluecoat.com or Merritt Group (for Blue Coat Systems) Ben Merritt, 703-926-0290 merritt@merrittgrp.com