Unlike traditional security measures, such as stateful firewalls, intrusion prevention systems and anti-virus (AV) systems, Palo Alto Networks said its approach begins with positive security controls to reduce the attack surface. It inspects all traffic, ports, and protocols to block all known threats, it rapidly detects unknown threats and then automatically employs new protections back to the front line to ensure previously unknown threats are known to all and blocked.
The company sees its next-generation firewall as the core enforcement vehicle within the network, and this is extended by the advanced detection and analysis capabilities delivered by its WildFire service, which is now used by more than 2,400 customers worldwide. New advancements include:
- Extended file visibility – all common file types, including PDFs, Office documents, Java, and APKs, operating systems, and applications (encrypted or not) are now detected, sandboxed and filtered.
- Zero-day exploit detection – using behavioral analysis, this signature independent capability in the WildFire cloud quickly identifies exploits in common applications and operating systems and distributes the intelligence to subscribing customers in as little as 30 minutes to prevent future attacks.
- Discovery of malicious domains – blocks the critical command-and-control phase of an advanced attack by building a global database of compromised domains and infrastructure.
- Single “pane of glass” view into incident response data – in a single view, security administrators have access to a wealth of information on malware, its behavior, compromised hosts, and more, so that incident response teams can quickly address threats and build proactive controls.
The enhancements are accessible via Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS version 6.0, which will be available for all Palo Alto Networks customers with valid support contracts.