MUMBAI, INDIA: Blue Coat Systems, Inc., a provider in Networking systems, today announced that its free K9 Web Protection software has surpassed one million downloads by parents and other consumers seeking protection from Web-based malware and offensive content.

As a part of the company’s corporate social responsibility initiative, Blue Coat provides K9 Web Protection at no cost, offering parents an easy way to control family access to offensive or inappropriate sites and protect against malware and phishing, said a press release.

As the Internet has become woven into the fabric of society, malware has moved to the Web in an attempt to exploit unsuspecting Internet users.

According to Sophos research, there is one new infected Webpage discovered every 4.5 seconds, many of which are on legitimate or trusted sites, Web-based malware exposes consumers to increased risk of infection or personal information theft.

“I've spent the better part of the last two weeks delving into research on Internet filters to use on a new family PC and, after trying numerous paid services and finding flaws and easy workarounds in each and every one of them, I was thrilled when I stumbled upon K9 Web Protection,” said Bryan Gibbs, a K9 Web Protection software user.

K9 Web Protection relies on the same enterprise-class Web filtering technology used by Blue Coat enterprise customers around the world, and is wrapped in a simple, easy-to-manage software application that is compatible with both Mac and PC computers.

To protect against newly discovered threats, K9 Web Protection is continuously updated by the WebPulse service, the Blue Coat cloud-based community watch environment that also updates Blue Coat WebFilter and ProxyClient enterprise products. In this community watch environment, the identification of malware by one member is shared with all to prevent infections or other harm, the release added.

“In WebFilter, Blue Coat has best-in-class Web filtering technology, and now the community at large can benefit from our expertise in protecting users and their information against malicious content,” said Mikko Valimaki, chief scientist, Blue Coat Systems.

He added that by extending that filtering technology in a free, easy-to-use software download, home users could get the same protection as their most demanding enterprise customers, with the confidence of knowing that their families are protected from the dangers of the Internet.

K9 Web Protection software is an integral component of the Blue Coat proactive layered defense strategy. By sending Web requests to the WebPulse service, K9 software provides the community watch service with a diverse range of URLs for analysis, the release added.