NEW DELHI: WatchGuard Technologies, Inc.,  unified threat management (UTM) solutions provider, announced the release of a new POP3 proxy to its zero-day protection engine, giving users of the Firebox X Core and Peak UTM appliances another tool in the fight against network threats. 

WatchGuard's heuristic zero-day protection engine proactively guards against malicious attacks, including zero-day threats, in which the vulnerability or virus has not yet been discovered.

The added POP3 proxy provides POP3 level gateway protection, essentially putting a virtual watch guard at the email gateway monitoring for suspicious activity based on a programmed set of acceptable protocols, and taking aggressive action against unwelcome traffic. 

"By understanding the various classes of attacks, WatchGuard's Firebox UTM solutions provide reliable protection on a very broad level against whole families of threats," explained Norbert Kiss, vice president, Asia Pacific.  "Several thousands of new threats are launched each year, most of which use techniques that are closely related, and statistically predictable. 

It is rare that an entirely new class of attack emerges.  By recognising and neutralising threats at the gateway, the WatchGuard Firebox appliances provide instantaneous protection that doesn't require a signature or patch to be applied before receiving the benefit of security."

WatchGuard's new POP3 proxy is not limited to just scanning for threats based on the currently available signature set. The proxy scans traffic passing through the gateway allowing only activity which conforms to acceptable protocols.  Programmes that execute outside acceptable protocols are disallowed entry to the network, effectively incapacitating the attack. 

By providing an engine that proactively identifies and eliminates threats before they have been discovered en masse, WatchGuard is able to offer users of its Firebox X UTM appliances true zero-day threat protection – an ability that the other major UTM appliance vendors currently lack.

"WatchGuard recognises the need for virus specific security measures and we do employ them as one part of our overall security solution.  We also recognise that signatures provide only a reactive solution, leaving networks exposed until the exploits are identified and patched. 

This does not constitute true zero-day protection.  As more CIOs and CTOs become aware of this fact, they realise their networks are serving as guinea pigs for the anti-virus signature industry," added Kiss.

The POP3 proxy update to WatchGuard's zero-day protection engine was made available today as part of a larger release to WatchGuard's Fireware  operating software for their Firebox X Core and Peak UTM appliance lines.  In addition to enhancing WatchGuard's zero-day protection engine, the Fireware 9.1 update introduces a robust set of function enhancements and management features to give network administrators more options for managing the security of their installations, such as a quarantine capability for spamBlocker, virus scanning for FTP and POP3 traffic, and unlimited file size scanning for AV.