WatchGuard Technologies announces new APT Solution

WatchGuard Technologies has announced its new Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) solution – WatchGuard APT Blocker. Delivering real-time threat visibility and protection in minutes, not hours, APT Blocker identifies and submits suspicious files to a cloud-based sandbox, using the industry's most sophisticated full-system-emulation environment for detecting APTs and zero- day malware. The WatchGuard solution integrates with the company's visibility tool, WatchGuard Dimension, providing an instant, single view of advanced threats, along with other top trends, applications and threats covered by WatchGuard's security technologies.

APT Blocker comes pre-installed on all WatchGuard Unified Threat Management (UTM) and Next-Gen Firewall (NGFW) appliances with a free 30-day trial. By adding an additional layer to the deep-packet-inspection engine, WatchGuard's highly respected detection capabilities now extend from the universe of known threats (malware for which there is a known pattern) into the unknown.

"Nearly 88 per cent of today's malware can morph to avoid detection by signature-based AntiVirus solutions. That means today's AntiVirus solutions remain necessary for catching known threats but alone, they are no longer sufficient. APT Blocker's full-system emulation approach to sandboxing provides simple, rapid protection, which doesn't rely on a traditional, signature-based approach to detect and stop advanced malware; in a solution that scales to inspect millions of objects at any given time," said Corey Nachreiner, Director of Security Strategy and Research, WatchGuard Technologies.

WatchGuard's UTM and NGFW security platforms were purpose-built to simplify the process of adding newly-emerging technologies such as APT management, meaning customers can deploy this sophisticated technology in a couple of clicks.  Continuing the strategy of working with best-of-breed technology partners, WatchGuard has teamed with industry veteran and APT heavyweight, Lastline, for cloud-based, full-system-emulation inspection capabilities. Lastline's founding team has been doing advanced malware research for more than 10 years and their commercial products have significant credibility in protecting businesses against today's unknown APT threats.

APT Blocker is now available and comes pre-installed with a free 30-day trial with the launch of version 11.9 of WatchGuard's Fireware security platform, which includes other best-of-breed services such as: AntiVirus, AntiSpam, Application Control and DLP. Fireware also comes standard with WatchGuard Dimension, the company's award-winning, real-time visibility solution.