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With malicious programs constantly besieging your network, how do you choose the best way to stop them? Use Aladdin eSafe 5 and you don't have to choose, because its multilayered defense stops e-mail- and Internet-based attacks in a variety of ways, all without slowing network operations.

Aladdin's name should be familiar to anyone interested in security. The Tel Aviv-based company has built its reputation around ways to keep business information secure. The latest version of eSafe, its enterprise online security system, shows a crucial understanding of the way online threats are changing and a mastery of how to deal with them.

Viruses are the top threat to your network and long have been, but spyware and phishing schemes are becoming more widespread problems. The special difficulty with these new threats is that they enter while your employees are simply browsing the Web, so your people may not even realize when they allow something malicious inside.

Read more about spyware in Intranet Journal's Spyware Guide.

To combat this, eSafe 5 offers four layers of defense for spyware, looking for both known and unknown attackers. The best way to block spyware is to monitor all traffic from the network, but scanning all Internet traffic is so cumbersome that other programs implement it only partially, and even then slow Internet access to an unacceptable crawl. But eSafe offers NitroInspection, its own technology for inspecting all traffic at up to 40mbps. eSafe can block spyware by matching it against a list of known signatures and also by proactively identifying and stopping new threats.

A number of improvements to this version help it stay on top of emerging problems. It now includes several ways to block spyware from downloading malicious code, including blocking problem Active X downloads, toolbar attempts, browser helper objects, and problem Web sites. The program's list of spyware signatures is vast, and it now blocks layered service provider components and spyware modules hidden within other downloaded applications.

Going along with this many-layered threat prevention system is an administrative console that gives you a complete view of any suspicious activity on your network. When you open the eSafe console, you'll see a list of all the systems on your network along with a variety of at-a-glance information that includes the number of spam files encountered and the number of blocked files.

The console also offers a long list of malware files and lets you set security settings individually for each one if you choose. Graphical real-time views let you see the types of threat attempts being made on your network and the current network activity.

eSafe comes in four purchase plans, for both small and large enterprises. A one-year license to the lowest-cost plan is $3,960 for 100 licenses. After that, you'll pay $13,650 for 500 users, $20,150 for 1,000 licenses, and finally $76,700 for 5,000 users.

eSafe 5's administrative console lets you view all the possible threats to your network as well as the various filters used to stop them.