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Welcome to the November Edition of the Palo Alto Networks Newsletter for Federal Government Agencies! This newsletter will provide quarterly updates pertinent to IT professionals concerned with application visibility and control, threat mitigation and general security matters. To learn more about Palo Alto Networks and its line of innovative, award-winning next generation firewalls, visit www.paloaltonetworks.com.
Register for Webinar Nov 18th – Protecting the Social Enterprise
Palo Alto Networks will co-host a webinar with Conquest Security on November 18th that focuses on the ongoing struggle between end-users and IT departments over the proper usage of “enterprise 2.0” applications such as WebEx, Facebook, and YouTube. During this webinar, we will present:
- real world data from three different industry reports that highlight the problem
- information on high risk applications that are probably on your network right now
- insights in how your employees are circumventing your security controls
- education on why traditional security devices are no longer effective
- strategies and solutions that will allow to immediately regain the control you’ve lost
- surprising cost savings from customers that have already made the transition
Register for the webinar at this link.
Gartner Issues Recommendations Regarding Next-Generation Firewalls
Gartner just published a research note titled “Defining the Next-Generation Firewall” with these key findings:
- The stateful protocol filtering and limited application awareness offered by first-generation firewalls is not effective in dealing with current and emerging threats.
- Using separate firewalls and intrusion prevention appliances results in higher operational costs and no increase in security over an optimized combined platform.
- Next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) are emerging that can detect application-specific attacks and enforce application-specific granular security policy, both inbound and outbound.
In that same report, Gartner issues the following recommendations:
- If you have not yet deployed network intrusion prevention, require NGFW capabilities at your next firewall refresh point.
- If you have deployed both network firewalls and network intrusion prevention, synchronize the refresh cycle for both technologies and migrate to NGFW capabilities.
If you are planning your next firewall or IPS purchase, you must read this report. Download a complimentary copy of the report here.
Just Released: The Application Usage and Risk Report – Fall 2009 Edition
The Application Usage and Risk Report (Fall Edition, 2009) from Palo Alto Networks summarizes traffic patterns on more than 200 networks worldwide to reveal that the use of social networking and collaborative applications for business purposes has skyrocketed in the last six month period. Some specific findings from the research include:
- Twitter session use grew more than 250 percent from the Application Usage and Risk Report (Spring Edition 2009).
- Facebook use increased 192 percent while Facebook Chat (released in April 2008) was the fourth most commonly detected IM application, ahead of Yahoo! IM and AIM.
- SharePoint collaboration is ubiquitous – bandwidth consumed by SharePoint, specifically the documents component, increased 17-fold from the previous report in April.
- Blogging and wiki editing increased by a factor of 39, while total bandwidth consumed increased by a factor of 48.
With increased adoption of Web-based applications come new business and security risks that go far beyond potential productivity losses. Yet most companies have outdated IT infrastructure and usage policies that may fail to protect them from these growing risks.
Download and read the complete report here.
In the News: Application Control and Concerns over P2P and Social Networking
Government Technology: Web 2.0 Becomes More Popular at Work but Brings Risks Too, Report Says
Government Computer News: Web 2.0 review could lead to restricted use of social networking in DOD
SC Magazine: The state of the industry
SC Magazine: SC World Congress: An assessment of defense tools
Federal Computing Week: Apps.gov: The new look in government procurement
PC World: Hacked Facebook Apps Lead to Fake Antivirus Software
CNN: Facebook, Twitter users beware: Crooks are a mouse click away
Palo Alto Networks (Again) Discovers Critical Microsoft Vulnerabilities
On October 13th, Palo Alto Networks announced that its Threat Research Team discovered three vulnerabilities, two of which rated as “critical,” in Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday security bulletin. Microsoft credited Palo Alto Networks with discovering threats which allow a successful attacker to execute code remotely, and take complete control of the vulnerable system.
The Palo Alto Networks Threat Research Team is active in the research community, aggressively pursuing both new vulnerability research and mitigation of all types of threats. Leveraging its expert understanding of today’s applications, threats and how vulnerabilities get exploited, the team is a consistent contributor in support of Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday releases, including discovering six Microsoft vulnerabilities in the past six months.
Get Applipedia (900+ Applications Now Identified) on your iPhone
The Palo Alto Networks engineering team has added App-ID signatures for more than 100 new applications, bringing the total to over 900 applications. The latest additions include various applications for file sharing, instant messaging, collaboration, business, and more. Some of these applications carry a high level of risk to your network and your business. Only Palo Alto Networks next generation firewalls empower you with the ability to identify and control these applications (and the employees using them) so that you can minimize their risks and maximize their rewards.
Speaking of Applipedia, we are pleased to announce that this powerful resource is now available on the Apple iPhone. How would you use it? Imagine this scenario. You’re in a meeting with a department head who mentions interest in deploying some new Web 2.0 application. You’re not familiar with the app, so you pull out your iPhone and look it up on Applipedia. You quickly learn it’s an application prone to malware, so you search for safer alternatives and provide some recommendations for the department head to consider. That’s the power of Applipedia! Download your free copy now.
Register for a Jumpstart Webinar
If you’re interested in learning more about Palo Alto Networks’ next-generation firewalls but don’t have the time to commit to a meeting, register for one of our weekly Jumpstart webinars. These are informal, 30-minute live demonstrations of the product. See the power of next-generation firewalls for yourself! The webinars take place every Wednesday at 9am PST/ 12pm EST. Register here.
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Archived ISSA Webcast: Enabling the Collaborative Enterprise Without Putting Your Company at Risk
Collaboration is a strategic imperative for every modern organization, including top government agencies. But how do you enable applications such as WebEx, Facebook and Skype without introducing risks of malware attacks, data leakage and other threats? Watch this ISSA webcast to learn how.
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