McAfee has announced the release of its next generation firewall, McAfee Firewall Enterprise version 8, that provides application and identity controls.

With this, McAfee has expanded existing application protection delivered by its enterprise firewall appliance product line, giving security administrators visibility, recognition and policy enforcement of over thousands of applications that are invisible to conventional firewall technology, said a company statement.

By integrating with McAfee’s real-time, cloud-based global threat intelligence, McAfee Firewall Enterprise and McAfee Firewall Enterprise Profiler provide increased visibility into external and internal threats and vulnerabilities, protecting customers more efficiently and reducing both compliance and operational costs, it added.

The pioneering user-based activity monitoring and visualization technology provides a level of clarity not possible with other network security products, the statement said.

According to McAfee, the next generation capabilities include significant advancements in firewall management, application discovery and protection, and integrated layers of threat protection.

The McAfee Firewall Enterprise gives security administrators visibility, recognition and policy enforcement of thousands of applications, providing them with additional control.

'Mobile users, modern web-based applications and ever more sophisticated cyber criminals have combined with the economic environment to create the perfect storm,' said Charles Kolodgy, research vice president, IDC Security Products.

'By expanding application protection capabilities, backed by the researchers at McAfee Labs, McAfee provides a new value proposition to customers,' he noted.

“McAfee Firewall Enterprise provides comprehensive application threat and malware blocking, as well as industry-leading URL filtering and reputation-based blocking capabilities. With this new release, McAfee is expanding the level of application protection customers can receive from their firewall,” Kolodgy added.

McAfee Firewall Enterprise is the first and only firewall to use a global reputation-based technology, including reputation-based blocking and geo-location to filter unwanted traffic before it hits the network—stopping attacks before they happen, said a top official.

“The release of our next generation firewall is intended to disrupt a stagnant firewall market that has failed to keep pace with the threat landscape.  Last generation firewalls don’t effectively enforce relevant business policies and are simply too hard and expensive to manage,” said Dan Ryan, executive vice president and general manager of the Network Security business unit at McAfee.

'McAfee Firewall Enterprise appliances are available this quarter, starting at $1,500. Exact pricing depends on customer requirements, selected model and associated add-on modules,' said Ryan.

The McAfee Firewall Profiler appliance price starts at $9,750 and Firewall Enterprise Control Center starts at $2,400, he added.-TradeArabia News Service