Firewall Technology

Our computers have become essential to our daily lives. Many of us work and play on them, using our machines for hours a day as they become more and more important to us. As a result, something that has always been vital is the protection of your PC from viruses and to do this effectively you need the latest antivirus software available. With this installed on your computer, you can rest assured that it’s safe to browse the web, download email attachments for work and play online games and you won’t have to worry about your computer facing attack again.

The technology used in computers has become more and more advanced in recent years. Machines we used just a couple of years ago now look outdated and underpowered for the everyday tasks that we perform on our desktops and laptops. Just as computers have improved immeasurably, the programs used by illicit individuals to try and infect our PCs have also become much more advanced.

However, this has been matched by a continual improvement in antivirus software as several companies battle to provide protection that is one step ahead all of the time. The result of this is that we can now get our hands on software that is much more advanced than it was previously and provides more comprehensive protection than any software has in the past.

Antivirus software that is only a couple of years old wouldn’t be able to stand up to the threats posed by computer viruses today and therefore it has never been more important to ensure you’re up to date and have the latest protection.

It’s not worth thinking about what could happen if you weren’t protected and your computer was hit by a virus. You could lose days, if not weeks or even months, of hard work, that could considerably set you and your business back, and the trouble that it would cause would be huge. This could happen simply by you accidently opening an email attachment when you were actually trying to delete it and thus just a couple of clicks of your mouse could be disastrous.

PC virus protection is so easy to get hold of that there really isn’t any excuse not to have your computer fully protected, even if you have a Mac as Mac antivirus is readily available. As an Apple user you can be safe in the knowledge that the same development has been put into antivirus software for Macs as it has for PCs and the result is a comprehensive system of protection.

As part of the Mac-specific antivirus software that’s available, you can ensure that threats are not passed on between different computers. It’s likely that you either use a PC for work, or have friends that use PCs, and computers are most vulnerable when you’re passing documents between machines. With 30,000 new malware threats emerging every day, you can have peace of mind that protection is provided against them all so that threats aren’t passed on.

Whether you’re a Mac user or own a PC, the choice of antivirus software can be an overwhelming one, but there are a few things worth bearing in mind and there are essential components of any software you go for. The development of software might mean that you may not have kept up to date with everything that’s now offered by antivirus packages, which offer much more than just a firewall and email scanning.

Real-time protection against viruses and a spyware is a given with the top antivirus packages, ensuring that your computer is kept safe at all times. The scanning of emails and websites for malicious code has also markedly improved, meaning that if you were to click on a pop-up by mistake, any attempts to infect your computer would be thwarted.

When you first install your antivirus software you can run a vulnerability scan to see where your machine could be open to threats. Consequently you will also be given treatment advice to ensure that your PC or Mac is protected against threats as well as it could be. It’s worth doing this regularly and having it set up to run on a monthly basis for instance, so that you never let your computer’s guard slip.

One concern that many computer users may have about running comprehensive antivirus protection is that it will severely slow down their machine. There is software available, though, that is non-intrusive and has as little as a one per cent impact on your CPU, meaning that you’ll hardly notice it running in the background as you write text documents, create presentations or surf the Internet.

Another concern may be that the top level of antivirus protection can be quite costly, but you can access free antivirus software that won’t cost you a penny. You can trial the latest software and evaluate the products for yourself, seeing whether or not they’re ideal for you. The 30-day free trial will give you a taster of what you’ll get for your money and the many ways in which your computer will be protected.

One aspect of antivirus software that has become more important recently is the protection of your digital identity. Identity theft is becoming more and more common and attempts may be made to steal your identity by accessing data on your computer or that which is stored online. By protecting yourself against this, you won’t have to think twice about having your identity stolen online.

As a regular computer user, there really is nothing worse than being infected by a trojan or worm. The damage can be irreversible at the worst or frankly annoying and time consuming to reverse at the very least.

By investing in comprehensive antivirus protection, you can ensure that your computer is safe from the risks that are posed by viruses right now and in the immediate future as your protection will be kept right up to date. This will allow you to get on with using your computer without having to think twice about viruses.

ScanSafe, the pioneer and leading global provider of SaaS Web Security, has been ranked as the worldwide market leader in SaaS Web security, according to influential market research firm IDC. New data within the recently released “Worldwide Web Security 2009–2013 Forecast and 2008 Vendor Shares” report, shows that ScanSafe holds over 30% of the worldwide SaaS Web security market – more than four times the market share of any other named vendors, including Websense, Blue Coat and Symantec.

According to the IDC report, which ranked vendor market share based on revenue, the Web security market consists of three distinct segments: software, appliances and SaaS. The SaaS sector of the market is forecast to reach $513 million by 2013, with a compound annual growth rate of 46.5% for the next five years. The growth in SaaS Web security is set to exceed the growth in software and appliances by a large margin.

“We are honored to be recognized by IDC as the leader in SaaS Web security,” said Eldar Tuvey, CEO at ScanSafe. “Our dominant position and market share allow us to take advantage of powerful network effects to offer our customers lower costs, enhanced security through greater threat visibility and a proven scalable platform for security of their Internet traffic. As more and more customers join our network, these benefits become even more pronounced.”

“ScanSafe, the worldwide leader for SaaS Web Security, has been a pioneer in helping organizations defend against the Web 2.0 threat environment,” said Brian Burke, Program Director for IDC’s security program. “Web 2.0 environments have become a major source of malware distribution, identity fraud, privacy violations and corporate data loss. ScanSafe helps organizations leverage the value of Web 2.0 tools responsibly without sacrificing security and regulatory compliance requirements. A recent report published by IDC entitled, “Worldwide Web Security 2009–2013 Forecast and 2008 Vendor Shares”, found ScanSafe as the overall worldwide market share leader with over 30% of the global market.”

ScanSafe’s suite of services includes Web Malware Scanning, Web Filtering and Anywhere+. All of ScanSafe’s solutions are powered by Outbreak Intelligence™, a unique, multi-layered combination of threat detection technology that includes leading third party anti-virus engines and proprietary heuristics. Unlike other solutions, which rely on URL databases to identify malicious sites, ScanSafe scans all Web requests in real time, so customers receive comprehensive protection from all threats, including threats that appear before an anti-virus signature is available.

www.scansafe.com were awarded in 2009  “Best Content Security” solution by SC Magazine Europe for the third consecutive year.

Palo Alto Networks™,  announced PAN-OS 3.0, the latest version of operating system software for its award-winning firewalls. PAN-OS 3.0 includes significant new functionality, including QoS features and a fully integrated SSL VPN. These features further enable enterprise customers to embrace new applications while managing the risks inherent in using those applications.

Organisations are using a wider array of Internet-based, consumer-oriented applications for cultural reasons, or to improve efficiency, foster customer intimacy, or speed up business processes. Security technologies, unfortunately, have retained an outmoded “block or allow” model, lacking the granularity and intelligence to recognise and appropriately control these new applications. According to Gartner, Inc., “Through 2012, enterprises that take a ‘block or ignore’ stance toward employee use of consumer IT will incur security incident costs two to four times those of enterprises that use ‘embrace or contain’ strategies…Security companies selling products that take simple block-all approaches will need to develop capabilities that support more-granular security controls.”

PAN-OS 3.0 introduces traffic shaping in the firewall, enabling enterprises to ensure that priority is given to business critical functions. Palo Alto Networks’ application visibility and fine-grained control capabilities are unique in the industry in offering organisations the widest array of flexible policy responses to applications – including allow, deny, allow for certain users or functions, threat scanning, and now – shape. Administrators are able to manage the bandwidth consumed by applications, as well as their priority – all in firewall policy, instead of simply killing applications or having no visibility or control over them. According to the latest Application Usage and Risk Report (April, 2009), in the sample of actual application traffic from more than 900,000 users, more than half of the bandwidth was being consumed by 28 percent of the applications, most of which were consumer oriented.

Tony Whelton, director of IT development and services at Wellington College, which recently installed Palo Alto Networks’ next generation firewalls, welcomes the introduction of PAN OS 3.0. “Our decision to choose Palo Alto Networks was based upon a number of criteria, primarily its proven ability to address the challenges of identifying and controlling a new breed of social-centric, evasive and encrypted applications. The new features included in its latest software release will enable much more granular application delivery and control options as well as the ability to extend full visibility and control to encompass distributed users. These are key business challenges that Palo Alto Networks are addressing here. ”

Rapidly responding to customer requirements, PAN-OS 3.0 also adds SSL VPN functionality, which employs the easy-to-use secure network extension model but extends the company’s full complement of industry-leading visibility and control over users, applications, and content. Previously, enterprises have had to choose between an open VPN approach that was simple and cost-effective, or a high-control extranet portal approach that was expensive and complex.

Adding these computing-intensive features while retaining enterprise-grade performance is made possible only through Palo Alto Networks’ single pass parallel processing (SP3) architecture – which couples a single-pass packet path with specialised, function-specific hardware processing. The QoS features in PAN-OS 3.0 enable organisations to shape and prioritise traffic based on application with multi-gigabit throughput, due to the single pass software married to hardware accelerated queuing. Similarly, the new SSL VPN capabilities in PAN-OS 3.0 enjoy the benefits of application visibility and control, coupled with specific SSL hardware acceleration.

“Applications aren’t threats, but they do carry risk,” said Chris King, Palo Alto Networks director of product marketing. “As a firewall, Palo Alto Networks uses a positive security model which offers organisations the flexibility they need to embrace new applications, and yet still manage risk – going beyond the outdated ‘find it and kill it’ model that many other security technologies are based on.”

For more information, please visit www.paloaltonetworks.com.