Palo Alto Networks raises bar on battling sophisticated cyber attacks

SANTA CLARA, USA: Palo Alto Networks announced enhancements to its enterprise security platform that increase advanced threat detection and prevention capabilities for its customers worldwide.

Most significantly, this includes enhancements to the Palo Alto Networks WildFire™ service that enable quick discovery and elimination of previously unknown malware, zero-day exploits, and advanced persistent threats (APTs).

Cyber criminals are employing new stealth methods to evade traditional security measures, such as stateful firewalls, intrusion prevention systems and anti-virus (AV) systems. These legacy approaches often address only a single threat vector across a limited range of network traffic, resulting in a higher attack penetration rate and costly human incident response.

To better detect sophisticated attacks, a highly automated and scalable "closed loop" approach is required. One that begins with positive security controls to reduce the attack surface; inspects all traffic, ports, and protocols to block all known threats; rapidly detects unknown threats; then, automatically employs new protections back to the front line to ensure previously unknown threats are known to all and blocked.

The Palo Alto Networks enterprise security platform is pioneering this approach; it starts with its next-generation firewall as the core enforcement vehicle within the network, and is extended by the advanced detection and analysis capabilities delivered by the WildFire service, which is now used by more than 2,400 customers worldwide.