Security vendors had a stealth competitor enter the marketplace when Google announced it would offer a product that provides web security; Google recently extended security coverage to roaming enterprise users.

Google’s Web Security for Enterprise arose from the company’s purchase of Postini last year. The service offers a hosted security solution to combat web-based threats like malware against company computer assets.

Enterprise users no longer need to be incarcerated in their cubicles to enjoy the benefit of Google’s protection. Security pros on the Web Security for Enterprise platform have the option to configure it for their roaming employees, courtesy of an update announced on the Google Enterprise blog.

“With this new feature, all off-network users’ web traffic is automatically directed to scanning infrastructure to enforce your policies and protect their computers, requiring no action on the part of individuals,” Google said.

Google rests at the middle of the web traffic exchanged between sites and enterprise users. Scanning for malicious traffic takes place on the fly, with filtering applied once Google spots a problem.

The feature set includes the ability to set access policies per a company’s acceptable usage mandates. Audit reporting can get as granular as the URLs visited by an individual in the enterprise.

Roaming users who may have hoped to enjoy a little unfiltered access will find the zaibatsu’s eye upon them no matter where they go. To the company’s sysadmins, a protected machine is one they don’t have to fix due to a malware infection.

Written by David Utter