New virtual appliances enhancing protection for physical and virtual environments

Sourcefire announced the Sourcefire 3D System 4.9, with the new Sourcefire Virtual 3D Sensor and Sourcefire Virtual Defense Center. These new virtual appliances will enable users to deploy the company’s security solutions within their virtual environments, increasing protection for both physical and virtual assets. Available during the second half of 2009, the Sourcefire 3D System 4.9 also features Policy Layering capabilities that deliver customization for large or multi-organizational networks, including cloud or virtual implementations.

With the Virtual 3D Sensor and Virtual Defense Center, customers will be able to:

• Secure virtualization – Protecting virtual infrastructure from internal and external attacks with virtual security appliances
• Virtualize security – Leveraging cost- and energy-saving benefits of virtual security appliances to improve security efficiency.

The new virtual appliances allow organizations to inspect traffic between virtual machines, while also making it easier to deploy and manage sensors at remote sites where local IT security resources may not exist (e.g., retail stores, remote offices) or where little rack space remains in the datacenter. They also enable Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) and cloud computing companies to easily implement Sourcefire’s security solutions. MSSPs can configure multiple Virtual Defense Centers to support multiple customers from a single VMware server, increasing the efficiency of management efforts.

The Virtual 3D Sensor will provide simultaneous execution of Sourcefire IPSTM, RNA (Real-time Network Awareness) and RUA (Real-time User Awareness) functions. Customers can deploy the Virtual Defense Center to monitor any combination of up to 25 virtual or physical 3D Sensors. They can also opt to monitor their Virtual 3D Sensors from the same physical Defense Center they use to monitor their physical 3D Sensors.

In addition to the new virtual appliances, Sourcefire 3D System 4.9 delivers new policy management capabilities that allow organizations to easily customize security to support the varying user requirements of expansive multi-department/organization networks, as well as virtualization and cloud computing implementations. With the Policy Layering capability, users can create policy -Å¡?„??building blocks-Å¡?„ù to capture specific Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) requirements by organization, by site, by department, or by user.

The dashboard will include new custom query widgets, providing users with increased control over the way data is presented. With Sourcefire 3D System 4.9, Sourcefire is also improving the overall manageability and detection accuracy of RNA to include new application and service detectors, auto-configuration and simplified packet-level forensics.