Zardon

AMES, IOWA ( (October 31, 2002) - Palisade Systems, Inc., a leading provider of internal network defense solutions, announced today that it has improved FireBlock, its hybrid firewall-IDS (intrusion detection system) product, to provide superior monitoring, access, sorting and reporting functionalities.

While many organizations have addressed perimeter security and the detection of potential internal threats, significant internal security gaps remain overlooked at the network level. PalisadeÃ*s FireBlock appliance provides a unique, proactive layer of security that addresses the network-level security hole commonly exploited by network insiders, such as disgruntled employees, corporate partners, and contract employees, to gain illegal access to network machines. FireBlock guards critical network assets from internal threats as well as delivering additional lines of defense from outside attacks.

Unlike current intrusion prevention solutions, FireBlock compares network traffic to a ìwhitelistî of allowable activity rather than the typical ìblacklistî used by signature-based IDS solutions. Using a ìwhitelist,î FireBlock effectively eliminates issues of ìfalse positivesî and the inability to identify and eliminate all attacks, which are intrinsic failures of IDS. FireBlock logs all access attempts and responses. Any unauthorized access attempts are automatically terminated, thus eliminating damage to critical assets. FireBlock does not have a complex and costly configuration process as other potential security options do. "FireBlock provides a proactive, nonintrusive layer of internal security for protecting critical network assets," said Jeff Gorball, Kingland SystemsÃ* senior vice president of operations. "We use it to protect multiple network resources without the drawbacks that are inherent in internal firewalls or other in-line solutions, such as creating network performance constraints and choke-points."

FireBlock version 2.1 helps system administrators shield their internal systems and better manage their network with new sorting and reporting capabilities. The new drag and drop function allows administrators to quickly add and remove users and devices to enclaves. This helps them to efficiently organize and grant access to users based on their role in the company, certain access times or locations. New editing properties also allow a change made to one group member to be reflected across all group members, eliminating the need for time-consuming updates.

Functions have also been added to make monitoring and network access management easier. User-assigned alerts allow system administrators to assign specific alert levels to attacks and prioritize rule violations in the reporting. By prioritizing violations, administrators can respond more quickly to pressing or unknown attacks.

ìWith the pressure to open network access to customers, strategic partners, and mobile users, internal network security becomes an incredibly pressing problem. Our goal is to help companies significantly reduce network security risks with targeted, effective defenses specifically designed for internal use,î said Eric Schnack, COO of Palisade Systems. ìFireBlock is an advantageous alternative to internal firewall, and a highly effective compliment to an external one. FireBlock also avoids the pitfalls of IDS in eliminating the worry of false positives and proactively providing network asset protection.î

Designed for mid-sized companies and divisions of large enterprises, FireBlock requires minimal training for use and little on-going maintenance. Pricing for the new FireBlock 2.1 ranges from $12,500 to $27,500 based upon the number of network elements.

About Palisade Systems, Inc. Palisade Systems, Inc. helps organizations manage and protect critical network assets against a variety of threats from benign utilization issues to malicious attacks. The companyÃ*s appliances offer easy-to-implement, proactive approaches to control network level access, filter Internet and application access, and provide ìdecoyî style intrusion detection. The cornerstone of PalisadeÃ*s offering is its new FireBlock appliance, which addresses the single largest source of risk for security incidents on an internal network today ñ virtually ubiquitous network-level access to all internal network systems and devices. Since its founding in 1996, the companyÃ*s products have been installed in hundreds of businesses, schools, and universities across the country.

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For More Information: http://www.palisadesys.com