The Sentry Security Platform (SSP) from Wiresoft Net is targeted to SMBs and provides combined security capabilities for the network perimeter; including anti-virus, anti-spam, firewall, and VPN connectivity features. SSP Upgrades the vendor's previous Sentry security appliance.

The 3-port (LAN, WAN, WAN failover) products can be installed as a router, including built-in DHCP client and server capabilities; or as a transparent bridge behind the organization's existing VPN/firewall. When acting as a bridge, certain functions are inapplicable to the appliance and are therefore not available (including PPTP and IPSEC VPN services and advanced self-configuring firewall protection).

Anti-virus capabilities of the appliance are facilitated via an embedded scanning engine (Clam A/V), which scans inbound FTP, HTTP, POP3, and SMTP traffic running through the appliance. The vendor notes that the appliances also support an arbitrary number of external scanning engines. Virus updates are provided automatically every two hours. The virus scanning is based on a collection of transparent proxies built-into the appliance, which automatically intercept requests from the user, place the request to the appropriate Internet server, receive and validate the response, and then--if clean--forward that response back to the requesting user. Sentry employs a transparent proxy for each of the protocol streams it monitors--FTP, HTTP, POP3, and SMTP--and each proxy can be selectively enabled or disabled by the administrator per their needs.

With the release of the Sentry Security Platform, the anti-spam mechanism now combines both a challenge-response methodology and more common heuristic and Bayesian analysis filters to protect both SMTP and POP3 accounts. With the challenge-response mechanism, unknown senders are asked to verify their authenticity before the message is allowed to be delivered to the user. When the sender first verifies their message, they are added to the recipient's personal whitelist. Personal blacklists are also supported; as are global white/blacklists.

Firewall capabilities, by default, allow network users to access the network but do not allow Internet users to access the network; with the ability to modify rules provided via a configuration interface. Traffic logging features are included; as is NAT translation with support for PPTP, IPSEC, FTP, TFTP and IRC (among others) passthrough.

Finally, the VPN capabilities of the appliance allow for both PPTP (128 bit; for individual clients accessing the appliance) and IPSec connections (3DES encryption with a 4-hour rotating key on each IPSEC tunnel; for connecting the appliance with other remote VPN routers).

In addition to the appliance hardware, the vendor's ANA (Automated Network Administrator) service is now a part of the Sentry Security Platform. ANA, a cluster of servers maintained and operated by the vendor, provides remote, automated appliance monitoring and updating features. Sentry communicates with the ANA cluster in order to receive A/V updates; and when it does, it also provides status information to the ANA cluster. ANA knows the Sentry should be "checking in" at least once every two hours; and therefore, if an individual Sentry does not receive a successful update within 24 hours of its release ANA can take proactive corrective actions; including notifying appropriate personnel or directly accessing the Sentry via SSH to attempt to correct the problem. According to the vendor, ANA is "...able to take lessons learned from one Sentry and perform preventive maintenance on other Sentry systems on the Internet." ANA can also deliver/install new Sentry features to existing Sentry systems as they are developed.

SSP is available now, with single annual subscription prices including monitoring and support services (no per seat licensing). One year is priced at $1,495; three years, inclusive, is $1,795. Following the initial purchase, renewals are $300 for one year and $600 for three years.

Contact Wiresoft for further information.

product submission by EITPlanet Staff

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