SurfControl, the number one Internet filtering company in the global security market, today announced the availability of SuperScout Web Filter 4.0, the most advanced Internet access management tool to help corporations strengthen network security and better manage Internet resources for improved return on investment.

"SurfControl's SuperScout Web Filter 4.0 helps companies maximize bandwidth, enhance productivity, and mitigate legal liability to increase their return on investment," said Annie Wynn, Senior Product Marketing Manager for SurfControl. "SuperScout enables companies to better manage IT resources while respecting employees' need to use the Internet."

Wynn also said that SuperScout Web Filter 4.0 effectively implements a company's Internet acceptable use policy and is a cost-efficient component of an overall security strategy.

The latest version of SuperScout Web Filter focuses employees on using the Internet for conducting company business, rather than on irrelevant surfing. It offers companies greater precision in setting rules for Internet access and implements them down to the individual user and individual Web page.

Key features of SuperScout Web Filter 4.0 include:

* Threshold Rules to allow users more flexible access to Internet content that can be managed by length of time or the total bandwidth used in a given day;

* Enhanced Reports that include new bandwidth analyses that illustrate
how and when bandwidth is being consumed, and new report publishing capabilities in multiple formats including '.pdf' and '.html'; and

* Customizable "Deny" Pages to communicate the company's Internet access rules to employees on a rule-by-rule basis.

According to IDC, the Framingham, Mass.-based analyst firm, "... there is a real need in the corporate marketplace to ensure that Internet misuse does not affect corporations' productivity levels. Using sophisticated Internet filtering solutions, together with an Acceptable Use Policy, protects companies against productivity losses from excessive Web-surfing during working hours, bandwidth wastage and litigation that can result from inappropriate use of Internet resources," said Brian Burke, Senior Research Analyst.

"SuperScout includes features not available anywhere else, such as the Virtual Control Agent, an option that uses artificial intelligence to dynamically categorize a customer's Web content that may not be included on our own list of more than 2.45 million sites," Wynn said.

SuperScout Web Filter, including a subscription to the full category list, is priced at approximately $15 per user, based on an installation of 500 users. Discounts are also available for resellers and larger organizations and when sold in combination with SurfControl's SuperScout Email Filter. SuperScout Web Filter typically delivers a positive ROI within just a few hours. Companies curious about how much money they may be losing to casual Internet usage can get an estimate of the waste in less than a minute using SurfControl's ROI calculator at http://www.surfcontrol.com/resources/business/roi_calc/index.html

SurfControl's global leadership in developing products to meet customers' needs has helped make it one of the world's most successful Internet and email security companies. The company was recently named among Software Magazine's 500 leading global software companies based on revenue and was ranked among the Top 25 Internet Security Companies Worldwide by the respected analyst firm IDC.