Firewall Solutions from SECURE COMPUTING®
Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) Appliances: Industry's Strongest Firewall Protection

Consolidating all major perimeter security functions in one system, Secure Computing's Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) appliance is the strongest self-defending perimeter firewall in the world. Built with a comprehensive combination of high-speed application proxies, TrustedSource™ reputation-based global intelligence, and signature-based security services, Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) firewall defends networks and Internet-facing applications from all types of malicious threats, both known and unknown. Enterprises use Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) firewall to secure access to their networks and protect Internet-facing applications, as well as monitor and manage employee use of the Internet, kill hidden attacks in packet streams, block viruses and spyware in file transfers, and create a forensic-quality audit trail for regulatory compliance and reporting.

There are many different types of firewalls, but not all firewalls eliminate all types of threats. The most common packet-based firewalls operate at the network layer of the OSI model, which is the third layer. Unfortunately, the most dangerous attacks take place at layers above that, and cannot be detected. In fact, over 70 percent of attacks are targeted at specific applications. The application firewall functions at the highest layer of the OSI model, offering the greatest level of protection possible.

In the past, there was a tradeoff in firewalls between the level of security, and the performance. However, faster processors have narrowed this performance gap, and today, application firewalls offer excellent performance on par with any other type of firewall.

Secure Computing's Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) is an application firewall that runs proxies, which prevent direct connections between a trusted server or client, and an untrusted host. Each proxy is application-specific, and they examine the entire packet, unlike packet filtering gateways, which only examine parts of the header. The Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) has over 40 application-specific proxies, including deeply aware application filtering for email, Web, Oracle, Citrix, SQL, VoIP, and other high-use Internet protocols. Each proxy can be configured according to the unique use of applications.

This type of firewall complies with the recommended positive security model, which allows only legitimate and acceptable traffic into the network, and denies everything else. Other types of firewalls use the negative security approach, which identifies traffic that is already known to be threatening, denies access to it, and then allows access to everything else. The problem with the negative approach of course, is that it allows in zero-day attacks that have not yet been identified.

The Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) appliance is the strongest self-defending perimeter firewall in the world. In addition to high-speed application proxies, Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) is integrated with TrustedSource reputation-based global intelligence and signature-based security services. This powerful combination eliminates both known and unknown threats of all types.

The Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) is built on the patented SecureOS® hardened operating system and Type Enforcement technology. Although there are some software-based firewalls that can run on any generic application server, it is more secure if the firewall operates on its own separate device running a hardened operating system. This eliminates the vulnerabilities of commercial operating systems, and also eliminates unconstrained privileges and extraneous services that could become an avenue of attack. Running as an appliance on a hardened OS makes the Sidewinder firewall invulnerable to attack. The Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) is a multi-function device based on the concept of Unified Threat Management (UTM), which combines multiple, in-depth security functions, while lowering costs and simplifying management.

IDC, a leading analyst firm, defines Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) as a Unified Threat Management (UTM) security appliance. These security appliances integrate multiple security functions with a firewall under one unified management to improve the security posture of networks while simultaneously reducing equipment and administration costs. Broadly deployed in the largest government and corporate networks in the world, Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) is a multi-function firewall appliance that delivers true enterprise-class features and performance, while most other UTM devices are only appropriate for small to mid-sized organizations. Secure Firewall's (Sidewinder) multi-gigabit performance capabilities and hardware monitoring and redundancy features allow its multiple security functions to run simultaneously, including its multi-layer application firewall, TrustedSource reputation services, ASICs-accelerated IPS, anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam, URL filtering/blocking, VPN encryption services, and more.

Security products should be more secure than the work stations, network devices, and servers that they protect. Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) is the only network gateway appliance and application firewall to have ever achieved the pre-eminent EAL4+ Common Criteria certification for application layer firewalls. Its unique, unequalled CERT advisory record and zero emergency security patches over the 11+ year life of Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) set it apart from all other enterprise firewalls. Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) customers have never been interrupted by emergency security patch projects so common place in the security industry today where security products themselves need to be continually patched for security vulnerabilities. Not having to apply emergency security patches to Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) firewall delivers tremendous time savings and is yet one more reason why Secure Firewall's (Sidewinder) self-defending design is so confidently trusted by our customers.

Type Enforcement technology

Business and government organizations of all sizes have embraced the Internet as a preferred medium for conducting mission-critical operations. One significant factor these organizations have had to address in this e-business evolution is an unprecedented demand for security to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of their critical data and services. The best starting point for building reliable security that protects a company's assets is to install network perimeter-based protection with powerful capabilities that match the security needs of the organization. Secure Computing Corporation is the provider of the strongest network security gateway and firewall solutions available today. Secure Computing has achieved this level of reliability by combining application firewall and application-layer gateway and VPN technology with our own patented Type Enforcement® technology. Type Enforcement technology is a critical element of the SecureOS operating system, on which Secure Computing's Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) operate.

Secure Computing developed Type Enforcement technology to provide integrity for critical government computing systems targeted at the highest level (AI) of the U.S. Government's Trusted Computing Systems Evaluation Criteria. Since then, Type Enforcement technology has evolved into a powerful mechanism for protecting the integrity of any mission-critical system, including network and application firewalls.

The Type Enforcement feature of SecureOS provides strong separation of:

1. The operating system from applications
2. Applications from each other

For more information on Secure Computing's Secure Firewall (Sidewinder) solutions, please visit our
Firewall pages.