Palo Alto Networks blocks 93.4 percent of real-world threat exploits in the latest NSS Labs IPS test

Palo Alto Networks™, the network security company, announced that it completed rigorous IPS testing by NSS Labs with threat detection results exceeding 93 percent and network performance rates well above the stated datasheet IPS performance for Palo Alto Networks PA-4020.

NSS Labs—a world leader in independent security product testing and certification—used a total of 1,179 live exploits, making it the industry’s most comprehensive IPS test to-date. The PA-4020 was tested against a wide variety of traffic that varied by payload size, protocol, attack target and end-user delay time to ensure a reliable, real-world test bed. Beyond detecting 93.4 percent of the total threat exploits within the test bed, additional Palo Alto Networks results highlights consisted of:

•    Correctly handling all of the tested IPS evasion techniques, which cyber criminals use to circumvent security products
•    Blocking 97 percent of targeted attacks aimed at end-users within the network
•    Maintaining 115 percent of the stated datasheet IPS performance for the PA-4020

“Many enterprises are faced with the realization that their network security infrastructure is lacking capabilities needed to address today’s top security concerns, and are re-evaluating the effectiveness of existing products,” says Rick Moy, president, NSS Labs. “Our mission is to provide these enterprises with empirical data and insight to help them make informed decisions and ultimately improve their protection against modern-day threats.”

A key factor in achieving these top-rated NSS Labs test results is the innovative research organization assembled at Palo Alto Networks. The Palo Alto Networks Application and Threat Research Team are active in the research community, aggressively pursuing both new vulnerability research and mitigation of all types of threats. The team has discovered nine Microsoft vulnerabilities in the past 12 month including two of the critical vulnerabilities in the June Microsoft Security Bulletin where vulnerable systems were susceptible to an attacker taking complete control through commonly used media applications.

“The industry and customers have already recognized us as the best-in-class application firewall, but the NSS Labs report articulated that Palo Alto Networks has indeed brought best-in-class performance in other critical traffic and threat management,” said Nir Zuk, founder and CTO at Palo Alto Networks. “Test results from an organization renowned for its industry expertise in IPS testing vindicate the groundbreaking work that Palo Alto Networks Application and Threat Research team has achieved.”

Bitrate is the registered distributor for Palo Alto Networks in South Africa and Sub-Sahara Africa. For further information on Palo Alto Networks and how the PA-4020 can assist your network structure in preventing modern-day threats, contact Bitrate on +27 (11)606-3736 or info@bitrate.co.za.