Denbighshire County Council in Wales has upgraded to Websense’s Web Security Gateway to provide safe internet access to its 3,500 schools, libraries and corporate users.

The primary concern of the council is to protect its network from web-based threats. In addition, the Web Security Gateway is expected to help the council get Government Connect Secure Extranet (GCSx) accreditation.

GCSx accreditation is a private WAN which enables secure interactions between connected local authorities and organisations. GCSx is connected to the Government Secure Intranet (GSI), which also enables secure interactions between local authorities and central government departments.

Shannon Gage, principal technical support manager at Denbighshire County Council, said: “We are working toward GCSx accreditation and need an authentication process that will allow multiple policy servers and provide scanning at the gateway. As a long time Websense user we were pleased to find that by upgrading to Web Security Gateway.”

Websense says that the Web Security Gateway provides the users visibility into the internet traffic and protects the network from Web 2.0 threats. At the same time, it enables the organisations to implement the latest web-based tools and applications.

The multi-vector traffic scanning engine analyses web traffic in real-time, categorises new sites and dynamic content, discovers security risks, and blocks dangerous malware.

The Web Security Gateway is supported by Websense ThreatSeeker Network, which identifies the latest threats to web security and incorporates the same into the company’s web, data and email security products.

Mark Murtagh, product director EMEA & APAC at Websense, said:  “End users are continually posting, editing or changing content which increases risk of attack. Simply denying access or blocking the use of these technologies however is untenable for most organisations. Websense Web Security Gateway enables organisations to be open to the latest web-based tools and applications while ensuring the enterprise is safe from attack.”