Outsourcing Web security functions sounds good on paper, but how do you make hosted services work in your organization? A new Dark Reading report offers some answers.
If the spread of Web-borne malware and the threat of other Internet attacks has you wondering what to do next, then there is one option you should consider:

Get somebody else to do it for you.

In today's struggling economy, it's no surprise that lower upfront and operational costs are making hosted Web security attractive to resource-strapped organizations. The broad availability of services and advanced features like data loss prevention (DLP) also help differentiate vendors in this market.

The biggest advantage of these services, however, is the ability to stop malware before it ever reaches your corporate network -- a benefit that could save you tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars by avoiding lost productivity, IT labor to clean up malware infection, potential damage to your reputation, and breach notification costs.

If you haven't evaluated hosted Web security services lately, they've evolved greatly from the basic URL filtering model of a few years ago. Today's offerings include advanced features like advanced anti-malware capabilities and vulnerability detection.

Companies are also benefiting from the nature of cloud services in that updates can be applied immediately to all customers and do not require time-consuming efforts to push fixes to individual desktops. Likewise, location does not matter -- users working from home or abroad receive the same protection as those located in the corporate headquarters.

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