Network Threat Detection
Business Wire | October 20, 2023
Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR), the leader in secure, AI-driven networks, today announced the expansion of its Connected Security portfolio with new products and capabilities that empower organizations to seamlessly extend security services and Zero Trust policies across distributed data center environments. The new Juniper Connected Security Distributed Services Architecture uniquely integrates Juniper’s unified security management paradigm with best-in-class routing and AI-Predictive Threat Prevention to bring much-needed operational simplicity and scale to data center security. In addition, four new high-performance firewall platforms deliver unmatched performance in a compact footprint that minimizes cost, space and power consumption.
With the adoption of edge computing, multicloud, 5G and IoT, business data is increasingly distributed across geographically dispersed locations, making it harder to secure and manage. To adapt to this changing environment, organizations need a new modern data center architecture that delivers reliability through automated data center operations, scalable performance to support the most stringent workloads (e.g., AI model training) and comprehensive data security, regardless of where the data resides.
The newest enhancements to Juniper’s Connected Security portfolio provide a secure bridge for customers to facilitate their transition to a modern data center, at their own pace. This is achieved via the following unique innovations:
Juniper’s Connected Security Distributed Services Architecture: Juniper is the first in the industry to deliver an architecture design that fully decouples the forwarding and security services layers that have traditionally been combined in a single firewall appliance. By decoupling these layers, customers can utilize their existing Juniper MX series routers as an intelligent forwarding engine and load balancer. This unique design gives customers independent scaling flexibility without chassis limitations, multi-path resiliency and cost efficiency. When coupled with Juniper Security Director Cloud, the operational experience is as simple as managing one logical element, regardless of the quantities and form factors of any additional firewall engines added to the architecture.
AI-Predictive Threat Prevention: Building on Juniper’s Adaptive Threat Profiling and Encrypted Traffic Insights, AI-Predictive Threat Prevention automatically generates custom signatures unique to the customer’s environment through a proxy-less architecture. Coupled with AI, customers gain even more effective malware prevention at line rate. Additionally, the enhanced URL filtering solution provides more granular control, with more than 200 categories to choose from and support for up to 200 languages, as well as a new portal for better insights on web content and easy recategorization. The AI-powered security solution enables customers and partners to predict and find real threats faster, leaving human experts to focus on more strategic security tasks.
Four new best-in-class high-performance firewalls: The new Juniper Networks SRX firewalls (SRX1600, SRX2300, SRX4300, SRX4700) are 1RU in size, scale up to 1.4 Tbps and include built-in Zero Trust capabilities, delivering the industry’s highest firewall throughput performance per rack unit. The new platforms feature wire-speed MACsec along with natively embedded TPM 2.0 chips and cryptographically signed device IDs that allow security administrators and network operators to easily verify the trust posture of devices remotely and mitigate the risks of supply chain attacks. These new firewalls, like the whole SRX family, support industry-standard EVPN-VXLAN Type 5 integration, providing full fabric awareness to security operators and allowing them to respond to threats faster.
When combined with Juniper’s Connected Security Distributed Services Architecture, these additions to the Juniper SRX series family offer customers even more options to build and expand their data center architectures securely and with sustainability objectives top of mind.
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Network Threat Detection
GlobeNewswire | October 18, 2023
Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT), the global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security, today announced the expansion of its SASE Points-of-Presence (POPs) to new locations through a partnership with Google Cloud. The partnership allows Fortinet to leverage Google Cloud’s global network edge locations closest to their regions of presence, which deliver dedicated interconnect and 99.99% service availability, to accelerate the expansion of Fortinet’s Universal SASE solution.
Single-vendor SASE is a critical architecture organizations adopt to connect their hybrid workforces securely. A robust network of SASE POPs that are scalable and globally available is crucial to delivering a superior user experience while enabling a strong security posture.
By leveraging Google Cloud, Fortinet Universal SASE is even better positioned to serve a more extensive global footprint, ensuring that customers can seamlessly connect and secure their hybrid workforces to critical applications, said Michael Xie, Founder, President, and Chief Technology Officer of Fortinet. This partnership will expand our global POP resources and accelerate customer adoption of Fortinet’s Universal SASE solution. And because our SD-WAN solution is natively integrated with our SASE offering, Fortinet’s global SD-WAN customers now have an even broader ability to easily adopt integrated cloud-delivered security to implement a comprehensive Universal SASE solution.
“Organizations worldwide rely on the Google Cloud for critical networking and access,” said Muninder Sambi, Vice President and GM of Networking at Google Cloud. “Our expanded partnership with Fortinet can enable high uptime for customers looking to support their hybrid workforces with Fortinet’s SASE solution, along with the advantages of using Google Cloud’s Cross-Cloud Network, which include lower costs and improved application experiences.”
Converging Networking and Security with Fortinet Universal SASE
Fortinet’s Universal SASE solution uniquely converges networking and security to support today’s hybrid workforce, expanding network edges and new microbranches to enable secure access to applications while providing high ROI through consolidation and improved digital user experience. Fortinet’s solution includes an extended portfolio of critical technologies and services that enable organizations to adopt a zero-trust security posture by effectively applying and monitoring context-based policies regardless of the resource a user is accessing. Fortinet Universal SASE offers a high-performance and scalable cloud network with best-in-class AI-powered security, unified management, and end-to-end digital experience monitoring to ensure secure access to web, corporate, and SaaS applications.
Fortinet is the pioneer and leader of secure SD-WAN, the foundation of its Universal SASE solution. Universal SASE uses the same FortiOS operating system and AI-powered security services as its secure SD-WAN and cloud-delivered security service edge (SSE) solutions. This unique integrated approach extends secure web gateway (SWG), zero-trust network access (ZTNA), cloud access security broker (CASB), and Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS) solutions to its Universal SASE solution, enabling seamless connectivity, consistent end-to-end threat protection, and optimal user experience.
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Enterprise Security
VentureBeat | September 27, 2023
Microsoft announced a series of new enterprise security features today that use artificial intelligence (AI) to help defend Windows 11 against increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. The tech giant claims its new AI capabilities will reduce security incidents by 60% and firmware attacks by 300% for businesses using the latest version of its software.
Microsoft’s vice president of enterprise and OS security, David Weston, explains in a company blog post that was published today specifically how AI is being used to fortify Windows 11 against sophisticated attacks, ranging from malware to firmware threats, and even nation-state attacks.
At the heart of this AI-focused security upgrade is the integration of Microsoft’s Pluton Security Processor and Secured-core PCs. Both systems leverage AI algorithms to isolate sensitive data and provide defense against potential threats. IT professionals should note that these Secured-core PCs are reported to be 60% more resilient to malware than non-Secured-core PCs, a significant improvement in system defenses.
Microsoft’s AI strategy also appears to be forward-thinking, with the company starting to adopt memory safe languages like Rust for traditional attack targets. Rust’s memory safety features without garbage collection make it an ideal language for building reliable and efficient systems, further multiplying the cybersecurity benefits.
The end of passwords? Microsoft’s groundbreaking move
Perhaps most notable among today’s announcements is Microsoft’s push towards a passwordless future, a move that could fundamentally alter the landscape of cybersecurity.
Microsoft’s AI will now be used to develop and implement passkeys — unique, unguessable cryptographic credentials securely stored on a user’s device, which have the potential to replace traditional multi-factor authentication. This is a substantial leap forward in phishing protection, making it considerably more difficult for hackers to exploit stolen passwords.
Microsoft says that its AI system analyzes more than 65 trillion security signals per day— with more than 4,000 password attacks every second — to identify suspicious login attempts and request additional identity verification when needed in the new system.
The company also revealed a new capability called Config Refresh that relies on AI to detect and revert unwanted changes to device policies in near real-time. This allows IT teams to lock down device settings while leveraging intelligence to accommodate legitimate policy updates.
Microsoft pioneers a new cybersecurity path with AI
The company’s commitment to AI solutions aligns with its longstanding strategy of positioning itself as a leader in enterprise computing. By weaving AI into the fabric of Windows 11, Microsoft is demonstrating its commitment to providing businesses with secure, reliable, and forward-thinking solutions.
Business analysts see this as a clear indicator of Microsoft’s strategy to leverage its AI prowess to drive growth and cement its position in the enterprise data and AI market. Given the increasing importance of cybersecurity in the modern business landscape, Microsoft’s investment in AI could pay significant dividends.
However, the real test of these new AI-powered features will be their effectiveness against real-world threats. As cyber threats continue to evolve, so too must our defenses. If Microsoft’s AI enhancements can live up to their promise, they will represent a significant advance in cybersecurity and a potent tool in the fight against cybercrime.
As AI continues to transform enterprise data and security, it’s clear that companies like Microsoft are leading the charge. By harnessing the power of AI, Microsoft is not just shaping its future but also the future of cybersecurity as a whole. Only time will tell how these developments play out, but one thing is certain: the era of AI-driven cybersecurity is here, and Microsoft is at its helm.
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