In our continuing efforts to broaden the coverage of our pattern filtering and application control, we have released a new set of patterns that block some of the more well known Remote Access applications and protocols. These include Virtual Network Computing (VNC), Remote Desktop (Terminal Services), GoToMyPC and Symantec’s pcAnywhere. In addition to these newly released patterns, we also leverage our URL filtering capability against web based remote access sites.

By using an application such as RealVNC, a user can make a connection to a computer off network (e.g their Home PC) and access that desktop remotely and use it to browse sites that are deemed inappropriate and others that are being blocked by the acceptable use policy.

We’ve recognized that there are use cases where these applications may need to be used by end users, so we have made changes to the Remote Access category to accommodate this.

The first thing you’ll notice that is different about the new category structure is that there is the ‘Generic Remote Access’ category. This is a re-branded version of the ‘Remote Access’ category. This change was made to ensure that those customers who just want to block Remote Access sites and not the applications can retain their previous settings. This option is carried over following the update to ensure that your current settings for Remote Access will not be affected by these changes.

The addition of the four new categories will give administrators the ability to block or allow specific applications and/or protocols at any profile level, such as in the IP Group, LDAP Group, Individual, etc.

Tags: patterns, R3000, remote access

This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 6:24 am and is filed under Product Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.