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This newsletter is brought to you by Palo Alto Networks, the leader in next-generation firewalls.
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If you would like to be contacted by a Palo Alto sales representative, please click here.
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In this issue of Firewall 2.0, we highlight several different resources that will give you information and insight into today’s new Internet applications and how to control them on your network.
Since our last newsletter, the Palo Alto Networks engineering team has added App-ID signatures for more than 50 new applications, bringing the total to nearly 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. To learn more about all the applications you can control, check out Applipedia on our web site.
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.
The Spring 2009 edition of the Application Usage and Risk report profiles the actual network traffic captured from 60 large enterprises in the US, representing more than 900,000 users. In total, nearly 500 different Internet applications were identified – many of them with the ability to circumvent security controls and enter the network. Even more troublesome, a growing number of employees were using personal proxies and remote desktop applications to gain access to virtually any Internet content they wanted. It’s worth noting that nearly all enterprises profiled were using some combination of traditional firewalls, IPS, proxies, and URL filtering products – but none of them were effective in controlling these applications. To learn more, download this free report.
As you may know, we have added QoS traffic shaping capabilities in PAN-OS 3.0. This means that now, for the first time in a firewall, you can apply granular QoS policy controls to safely enable the Internet applications that matters most. More specifically, you can assign various classes of service and bandwidth guarantees to individual users, groups of users, applications, and groups of applications. This enables you to use Palo Alto Networks firewalls as a tool to better align network and application performance with the requirements of your business. Learn more by reading this solutions brief.
Microsoft SharePoint is a widely deployed, browser-based tool that enables better collaboration across the enterprise. However, there are a couple security precautions that need to be considered. First, you need to be sure that the SharePoint components (IIS, MS-SQL, SharePoint) are protected from threats. IIS and MS-SQL are both highly visible targets for vulnerability exploits so appropriate security steps should be taken. Second, there is a risk of data loss from unauthorized access or targeted attacks focused on MS-SQL. But even worse, Gartner estimates that 30% of SharePoint deployments were done without IT guidance, which makes those deployments especially vulnerable to attacks. Find out how Palo Alto Networks can help protect your SharePoint deployments from these and other security risks. Download this informative SharePoint solutions brief.
Our Threat Research Team recently discovered a critical vulnerability in Microsoft Terminal Services Client ActiveX Control that could allow an attacker to take complete control of a vulnerable system. In recent months, Microsoft security bulletins have included 3 critical vulnerabilities that were credited to the Palo Alto Networks Threat Research Team. We have been credited by Microsoft with discovering 10 vulnerabilities over the past 18 months. As our customers know, threat prevention is a powerful function within our next generation firewalls.
We have launched our new website which includes updated solutions content and a redesigned layout, making it easier to find the information you seek. The Info Center has also been reorganized for easier navigation and browsing. Visit us at www.paloaltonetworks.com. We’d love to hear from you! Send us feedback on what we could do to make the website even better and easier for you to use by emailing us at webmaster@paloaltonetworks.com.
The Firewall 2.0 Newsletter is normally published every other month. But between newsletters, we encourage you to keep in touch! Please visit us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and check out our channel on YouTube. In addition, please bookmark our Firewall 2.0 Blog site – and please feel free to comment on our various blog topics.
If you’re ready to consider a next generation firewall from Palo Alto Networks, this is the time to take action. Because now you can trade in your old port-blocking firewall and save up to $6,000 per unit, with no limit on the number of next generation firewalls you can purchase – or the amount of money you can save! This unique offer covers most competitive firewall products and various rebate levels are available for all Palo Alto Networks firewalls. To learn more, click here.
September 30 – IANS Security Forum – Boston, MA
October 5-8 – GTEC 2009 – Ottawa, Canada
October 7-10 – Les Assisesde la Sécurité – Monaco
October 13-15 – IT-SA Security Expo – Nuremberg, Germany
October 20-22 – Discuss and Discover – Munich, Germany
November 2-3 – IANS Security Forum – Chicago, IL
November 16-20 – Interop New York – New York City
For a complete listing of Palo Alto Networks industry events and educational seminars, please click here.
No problem. We have two very simple, very effective ways to learn more about us.
- If you’re in a hurry, and just want to understand why our next generation firewalls are the most innovative security solutions in the industry, then check out our 3-minute flash video. Just click here and turn up your volume!
- If you want to go beyond the introduction and learn more about specific features and functions – and see a live demo of the firewall – then join us for one of our weekly 30-minute webinars. The demonstration is followed by a Q&A session to answer any specific questions you have. To join us at your convenience, please register here.
Palo Alto Networks was founded in 2005 with a mission to create a family of next generation firewalls that allow IT organizations to regain visibility and control of Internet applications and traffic on their network. The firewalls were designed to meet five important requirements:
- Visibility into all applications, regardless of port, protocol, evasive tactic – or even SSL encryption
- Identification of application users by name – not just by IP address
- Granular control of application access, by user or groups of users
- Real-time threat prevention, content control, and URL filtering
- In-line throughput up to 10gbps, with no performance degradation
To address these requirements, Palo Alto Networks firewalls combine innovative new identification technologies, such as App-ID, User-ID, and Content-ID, all leveraging an underlying Single-Pass Parallel Processing Architecture (SP3), which ensures maximum throughput with minimum latency. In the past year, Palo Alto Networks has won several awards, including:
For more information, visit us at www.paloaltonetworks.com.
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