Symantec announces new intrusion prevention solution for desktops, servers

Symantec, the global leader in information security, has announced Symantec Critical System Protection 4.5, a comprehensive intrusion prevention solution for desktops and servers on Windows, Unix and Linux platforms.

Scheduled to be available later this month, Symantec Critical System Protection defends against day-zero attacks, maintains system compliance, and proactively protects applications and the operating system on clients and servers by enforcing behaviour-based security policies.

"Symantec Critical System Protection demonstrates our commitment to providing customers with the most innovative and effective protection for endpoint clients and servers," says Patrick Evans, regional director of Symantec Africa.

"With this solution, Symantec has extended the endpoint security infrastructure by adding a layer of robust protection against new malicious threats."

When deployed alongside Symantec Client Security or Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition, Symantec Critical System Protection specifically safeguards applications and operating systems without the need for updates.

It delivers powerful behaviour-based intrusion prevention technology to protect clients and servers against unknown malicious behaviour. Buffer overflow and memory-based attack protection provide added defence against the most sophisticated attacks, while a high-performance firewall monitors network traffic with the ability to block inbound and outbound connections by port, protocol and IP address range.

A centralised management console allows Symantec Critical System Protection to manage both clients and servers. Using the management console, security policies can be configured to implement controls for compliance auditing. Symantec Critical System Protection contains more than three-dozen predefined reports, including detailed and aggregated summary data on agents, events and policies.

In addition, the management console can be configured to deliver automatic notification alerts to ensure rapid response to high priority incidents.

To reduce the complexity of administration, Symantec Critical System Protection provides out-of-the-box configurable security policies for applications and operating system functions. These policies automatically adapt to the operating system and applications installed, eliminating the need for administrators to configure different policies for different types of machines. Symantec Critical System Protection also prevents internal misuse with "de-escalation" of administrative user privileges, which restricts access to critical system components to protect against unauthorised tampering and malicious behaviour.

Symantec Critical System Protection 4.5 is scheduled to be available in late June through Symantec's worldwide network of value-added resellers, distributors and systems integrators. Organisations seeking a reseller or distributor should contact Symantec at http://enterprisesecurity.symantec.com.