Barracuda Spyware Firewall Enhancements Aid Schools and Libraries With CIPA Compliance; Image Safe Search Integration, Dynamic Application-Blocking Rules, and Custom Application-Blocking Rules Help in Policy Control Enforcement.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Barracuda Networks, Inc., the leading provider of enterprise-class application security firewalls, today announced the immediate availability of capabilities that enable schools and libraries to enforce policies required to comply with the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), a federal law enacted by Congress to address concerns about access to offensive content over the Internet on school and library computers. With the Barracuda Spyware Firewall, schools and libraries can enforce Internet and Web usage policies required to obtain funding support for network and Internet technologies under the E-Rate program, a program designed to make technology more affordable to eligible schools and libraries.

"While our original intent was to protect networks from malware, we are seeing increased interest from our customers to extend their deployments of the Barracuda Spyware Firewall to replace their existing content filtering services," said Dean Drako, president and CEO of Barracuda Networks. "With no per user license fees and no extra fees for content filtering features, the Barracuda Spyware Firewall has proven to be a both an effective and economical solution for meeting CIPA requirements."

The Barracuda Spyware Firewall is a network gateway appliance that was originally designed to protect networks from spyware using multiple layers of defense. One layer is URL filtering to prevent user visits to Web sites hosting spyware. This functionality was later extended to block objectionable content across 57 content categories, including pornography, violence, and Internet chat sites.

Kingsville Independent School District in Kingsville, Texas, implemented the Barracuda Spyware Firewall 410 earlier this year at all 12 school facilities in the district. The district, which is also a beneficiary of the E-Rate program, saw an immediate decrease in the amount of bandwidth being used by spyware on the district's network. In addition, Tim Etzler, district instructional technologist for Kingsville ISD, found the easy administration and customization features of the Barracuda Spyware Firewall 410 made it easier for the Instructional Technology Department to monitor which Web sites students and staff were trying to visit.

"We have found that making adjustments to the Barracuda Spyware Firewall, such as whitelisting and blacklisting URLs, is simple through the Web GUI," said Etzler. "I have even redesigned the URL block notification page wording to reflect our district's branding and it now 'dings' five times to alert the teacher if a student is trying to visit a restricted Web site."

Incorporating requirements from schools and school district customers, Barracuda Networks has added capabilities to the Barracuda Spyware Firewall in Version 2.2 to complete a content filtering feature set required to comply with its customer's policies. These capabilities include:

Image safe search integration

While URL filtering techniques prevent users from visiting sites with offensive content, in general those same techniques do not prevent users from viewing cached search engine results from those sites. To prevent viewing of images from cached search engine results, the Barracuda Spyware Firewall now integrates with content filters from popular image search engines, including Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and DogPile. To enable these content filters, the Barracuda Spyware Firewall rewrites URLs requesting image search engine results with the appropriate URL parameters to enable the filters.

Dynamic application-blocking rules

CIPA requires policies governing direct electronic communications. While previous releases of the Barracuda Spyware Firewall included application-blocking for popular IM, media, and other services with simple checkboxes, the latest version of the Barracuda Spyware Firewall now allows the list of application-blocking options to be updated via Energize Updates. As new application blocking options are added by Barracuda Central, the Barracuda Spyware Firewall notifies administrators via e-mail alert so they can enable or disable application access policies. This feature enables Energize Updates to not only update virus, spyware, and content filtering definitions on an hourly basis but application-blocking rules as well.

Custom application-blocking rules

Some site-specific policies govern access to specific IP network ranges or ports as well as block access to specific applications and destinations, or from specific sources. While previous versions of the Barracuda Spyware Firewall included custom blocking rules for arbitrary URLs and MIME file types, the Barracuda Spyware Firewall now allows administrators to define custom application-blocking policies by source or destination IP address, netmask, and port number. This capability not only protects against direct electronic communications from lesser known game servers or chat servers, but it can also be used to prevent Internet access altogether from compromised machines.

According to Etzler, prior to implementing the Barracuda Spyware Firewall, Kingsville ISD had been relying on its ISP to apply the content filtering necessary for CIPA compliance. His team determined that they needed a "stricter" content filtering structure that would not only ensure lower bandwidth usage but that would also enable the district's Instructional Technology department to more closely monitor and control all Internet activity.

With the Barracuda Spyware Firewall 410, Kingsville ISD is able to implement a policy addressing: access by district users to inappropriate matter on the Internet; restriction of district users from using electronic mail, chat rooms, and other forms of direct electronic communications; and restriction of district users, including students, from access to materials harmful to them.

"The Barracuda Spyware Firewall enables our district to fulfill the requirements for CIPA and E-Rate eligibility," said Etzler.

To support its education customers looking to obtain or continue CIPA policy compliance, more information is available on Barracuda Network's Web site at www.barracudanetworks.com/spyware_cipa.

Pricing and Availability

This latest version of the Barracuda Spyware Firewall is immediately available to all current customers at no additional charge. New customers will receive the new version out of the box. Pricing varies by model and starts at $1,999 in the U.S. with no per user licensing fees. International pricing varies by region. Barracuda Networks also offers free 30-day evaluations of all of its products.

About the Barracuda Spyware Firewall

Available in five models, the Barracuda Spyware Firewall combines preventative, reactive and proactive measures to form a complete anti-spyware and content filtering solution for organizations of all sizes. Unlike the widely available desktop software solutions, the Barracuda Spyware Firewall is easily installed and does not require the additional time, money or resources necessary for downloading and maintaining software on each individual PC. The comprehensive feature set enables the Barracuda Spyware Firewall to block spyware downloads, prevent viruses, stop access to spyware Web sites and filter Web content. In addition, the Barracuda Spyware Firewall can identify spyware-infected desktops, alert the administrator and enable users to remove spyware from infected Windows computers with the Barracuda Spyware Removal Tool. Hourly Energize Updates are made automatically by Barracuda Central so that the Barracuda Spyware Firewall can block the ever-changing virus and spyware variants.

About Barracuda Networks, Inc.

Barracuda Networks is the leading provider of enterprise-class application security appliances for comprehensive email, Internet and IM protection. Its products protect over 35,000 customers around the world, including Adaptec, Caltrans, CBS, Georgia Institute of Technology, IBM, Knight Ridder, NASA, Pizza Hut, Union Pacific Railroad Company, and the U.S. Treasury Department. The Barracuda Spam Firewall and Barracuda Spam Firewall - Outbound protect organizations against spam, viruses, and violations to e-mail security policy. The Barracuda Spyware Firewall offers comprehensive content filtering and complete network protection against spyware, malware and viruses. The Barracuda IM Firewall, is the only all in one gateway solution for IM traffic management and security. Barracuda Networks is a privately held company with headquarters in Mountain View, California. Barracuda Networks has offices in eight international locations and distributors in over 43 countries. More information is available at www.barracudanetworks.com.