Review: Gain Server Security With Kaspersky Security 8.0

Collaboration systems are particularly susceptible to security problems as they are necessarily accessible to multiple users. Content isn’t generally vetted before it’s added to the system. That’s why it’s critical to protect collaboration systems with a comprehensive security solution that screens all content and disables malware. It’s the only way to ensure that malicious or inappropriate content is not spread through the system.

Kaspersky Security for Collaboration addresses these issues for Microsoft SharePoint systems (support for IBM Notes is in the works). For this evaluation, I installed the latest version, Kaspersky Security 8.0 for SharePoint Server, on a Windows 2012 R2 Server running SharePoint 2010 and a 2012 R2 Server running SharePoint 2013.

Security for Collaboration comprises two parts: the administration console and the security server. These needn’t be on the same hardware. The administration console runs on Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8 as well as on Windows Server platforms. It requires Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and the Microsoft Management Console.

Ready for Rollout

Installation chores include creating accounts and assigning rights on SharePoint, plus creating a SQL database. This sounds like a lot of work, but it’s typical of installs these days, and the Kaspersky installer provides sufficient prompts and download links to make configuration a manageable process.

Once installed, Security for Collaboration performs both security scanning and content filtering. Filters allow administrators to prevent users from sharing video files, for instance, or to scan incoming content for objectionable words or phrases.

Kaspersky Security for Collaboration caught all of the malware we tried to upload to the SharePoint server. Filtering by file type and searches for objectionable phrases both worked as they should, with flexible search parameters and the ability to exclude particular files from searches.

Running a couple dozen content filters along with security scanning did not significantly affect the performance of the SharePoint server during testing with about 50 active clients. Considering the potential consequences of allowing malware onto a server full of corporate information, an investment in Kaspersky Security for Collaboration is well worth the cost.