Enterprise IT vendor Cisco on Tuesday announced the launch of Cisco ASA with FirePOWER Services, a next-generation firewall.
Cisco ASA with FirePOWER Services combines firewall with Sourcefire next-generation IPS and advanced malware protection for integrated threat defense.
The new firewall provides full contextual awareness and dynamic controls needed to automatically assess threats, correlate intelligence, and optimize defenses to protect all networks.
Cisco ASA 5500 Series firewall with application control, Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention Systems (NGIPS) and Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) from Sourcefire are part of the new firewall, said Cisco.
At present, NGFWs have focused on policy and application control and have been unable to address advanced and zero-day attacks. Cisco ASA with FirePOWER Services changes this, taking a visibility-driven, threat-focused and platform-based approach.
Customers can purchase ASA 5500-X Series and ASA 5585-X Series firewall products with a bundled FirePOWER Services license.
This apart, customers can enable FirePOWER Services on existing ASA 5500-X Series and ASA 5585-X Series firewall products.
“Cisco ASA with FirePOWER Services is a major step forward for the NGFW market, empowering customers to deepen their protection from the data center, through the network, to the endpoint with the agility to identify, understand, and stop advanced threats in real-time and retrospectively,” said Christopher Young, senior vice president, security business group, Cisco.
In 2011, Oak Ridge National Laboratory was a victim of a targeted attack.
Kevin Kerr, CISO at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, said: “We cannot afford surprise malware attack to disrupt our operations, which is why we are looking at the next generation of protective tools. Cisco ASA with FirePOWER Services is among some of the tools we are considering to help us defend the Lab.”
Baburajan K
editor@infotechlead.com
