CyberGuard Corporation (NASDAQ: CGFW) a global provider of security solutions that protect the business-critical information assets of Global 2000 enterprises and government organizations, recently announced significant new capabilities for its Global Command Center central management platform. The new release, Global Command Center 3.1 (GCC 3.1), provides security professionals with a solid foundation for defining, managing and auditing security policies in a device-independent manner, which scales to very large networks.
The significant features of the GCC 3.1 include the integrated management of CyberGuard and non-CyberGuard security devices, improved management flexibility with intelligent filtering and graphical network topology tools, expanded Business Continuity capabilities and policy compliance reporting. It also adds improved threat mitigation through "actionable" reports and the PulseCast network lockdown feature, which allows security administrators to proactively manage "zero-day" attacks. These features make it easier to manage a large, multi-vendor security infrastructure while ensuring a high level of regulatory compliance.
"As network security has become more integral to regulatory compliance, it has simultaneously become more complex to administer. The proliferation of devices, applications and security policies has made many enterprise networks accidents waiting to happen," said Sami Mulla, Vice President – Middle East and North Africa, CyberGuard. "GCC 3.1 is a timely solution, as it quickly identifies policy inconsistencies across the network and allows those responsible for network security to take immediate control of network security".
Global Command Center's policy compliance reporting automates the process of collecting and comparing configuration data from all of CyberGuard firewall/VPN appliances, and alerts administrators when non-compliant systems are identified. Configuration audit reports make it easy to quickly determine what changes were made, when, and by whom, or whether the anomaly is due to a failure to apply the security policy to the affected system. These reports can be distributed automatically to security administrators and auditors charged with compliance monitoring.
“This solution will be extremely beneficial to the Middle East markets due to the increased adoption of security solutions in the region. As part of GCC3.1, security administrators are able to instantly respond to a network threat or unauthorized use of network resources with a single click while viewing a Global Command Center report,” added Mulla.
In addition, with CyberGuard's PulseCast technology, administrators can pre-define and then instantly deploy a restrictive security policy that locks down at-risk systems while preserving business-critical operations. When the attack is over, PulseCast restores the original policy settings.
GCC 3.1 also helps businesses make their networks more resilient with new Business Continuity features. It now enables administrators to store configuration data on up to four geographically dispersed database servers in a "master/slave" configuration. The master continuously assesses backup system availability and replicates configuration data to each of the backup servers for maximum reliability. Once the downed system returns to service, data will be updated and synchronized across all databases seamlessly and transparently. Global Command Center ensures that critical systems recover quickly and easily with minimal administrator intervention.
GCC 3.1 is available for immediate delivery. Global Command Center is available from CyberGuard's global network of partners.
