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Product and Solution Information, Press Releases, Announcements

In 2016, 76 percent of organizations reported falling victim to phishing.1 Company size and vertical industry played no role in likelihood of an attack, making it critical for companies to have protections in place against phishing, happy clickers, and other web-based threats. The Strongarm service monitors outbound DNS requests and blocks traffic to websites based on a list of known malicious domains. Furthermore, by monitoring requests at the domain level, Strongarm’s filtering capabilities extend to all ports and protocols. Integrating Strongarm into WatchGuard’s comprehensive unified security platform, will provide customers with the strongest possible protection from the widest variety of threats.

“Threat actors are constantly adjusting their techniques, always looking for new ways of exploiting vulnerabilities to steal valuable data,” said Corey Nachreiner, chief technology officer at WatchGuard Technologies. “This quarter, we found that script-based attacks – like the fake Python library packages discovered in September – appeared 20 times more than in Q2, while overall malware attacks shot through the roof. Staying vigilant regarding these developments is half the battle. Every business can better protect itself and its stakeholders by employing multiple layers of protection, enabling advanced security services and monitoring network logs for traffic related to the top threats mentioned in this report.”

“Hackers no longer discriminate based on location or the size of a business,” said Brendan Patterson, Director of Product Management at WatchGuard Technologies. “Small offices and home offices are just as likely to be targeted as enterprise locations, which is why they need access to the same enterprise-grade protection, including services like APT Blocker and Threat Detection and Response (TDR). As internet speeds continue to increase, we continue to improve the performance of our tabletop Fireboxes to ensure that security doesn’t restrict network performance or interfere with business goals.”

Autotask PSA is used by MSSPs, MSPs and ITSPs to enable end-to-end IT service management for their customers. Autotask helps improve business operations by consolidating multiple applications and functions into one platform, including service ticketing, project management, asset management, and customer relationship management. By integrating Autotask into the WatchGuard platform, MSSPs receive a unique combination of capabilities that automates the operations associated with the delivery of managed security services.

“Since we launched TDR, it’s been the only solution out there that combines the power of complete Unified Threat Management (UTM) network security services with endpoint detection and response capabilities,” said Andrew Young, SVP of product management at WatchGuard. “We’ve taken that a step further with our latest updates to TDR, extending APT Blocker’s advanced sandboxing capabilities from the network to the endpoint. Now, users can automatically place a potentially dangerous endpoint file under the microscope to observe its behavioral characteristics and objectives, and respond accordingly.”

“These new APs are all about improving the user experience and eliminating the need to sacrifice application performance for security. They’re perfect for demanding environments like tradeshows, auditoriums, large conference rooms, and shopping malls where lots of people with a variety of devices are trying to use the network all at once,” said Ryan Orsi, director of product management, Wi-Fi, at WatchGuard Technologies. “And, when managed with our secure, scalable, and feature-rich Wi-Fi management platform, WatchGuard Wi-Fi Cloud, customers get powerful WIPS, in-depth guest and airspace analytics, and invaluable marketing and guest engagement tools.”

Network defenses that don’t adequately process and inspect encrypted traffic leave employees, customers and partners vulnerable to cyber attacks. According to a 2016 Ponemon study, 41 percent of attacks in 2016 used encryption to either disguise their entry into the network or hide their connection to a Command and Control server. NSS Labs, Inc. forecasts that as adoption rates continue to climb, 75 percent of web traffic will be encrypted by 2019. A firewall that lacks the processing power necessary to inspect high volumes of encrypted traffic will either need to turn off some security services or compromise throughput in order to manage the burden.