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– October 19, 2010. WatchGuard® Technologies, a global leader of business security solutions, today unveiled new authentication features for its XTM line of multifunction firewalls. Included with the soon to be released WatchGuard firewall operating system, XTM 11.4, these new authentication abilities build upon WatchGuard’s years of experience with identity-based firewalling to allow businesses to better secure and manage user access throughout corporate networks. Additionally, the company is previewing new wireless features for its XTM 2 series of wireless multifunction firewalls, which gives businesses greater flexibility, functionality and cost reductions for meeting PCI DSS regulations.

"Having superior network protection is one piece of the security puzzle," said Tim Helming, Director of Product Management at WatchGuard Technologies. "Another key aspect of protecting businesses, their networks, applications and data, is ensuring that each user or group is associated with an appropriate security policy. With our new authentication features, corporate networks are better protected against misuse of resources than ever before."

The new WatchGuard XTM operating system release includes a bevy of authentication features, including terminal services and Citrix authentication, SSO with manual authentication, LDAP over SSL, authentication of users across heterogeneous environments, and authentication of segmented users across multiple domains.

With the new WatchGuard XTM 11.4 authentication features in place, administrators gain new tools to manage user policies. This helps to ensure consistent security policies are being enacted across all network segments and even in mixed environments, such as those with PCs, Macs and thin-client systems.

WatchGuard – Taking PCI DSS Protection to New Levels

As many businesses know, PCI DSS regulations require a litany of security protections to ensure payment card data is secure. In particular, wireless environments are subject to additional PCI DSS requirements. The new WatchGuard XTM 11.4 release includes new abilities to help businesses lower costs, simplify management and maintain a strong security posture for PCI DSS needs.

Continuing the push for superior authentication abilities, WatchGuard XTM 2 series wireless appliances will gain 802.1X authentication functions, which requires authentication before allowing users access to wireless networks. Designed for network environment flexibility, the XTM 2 series will support EAP, EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS and PEAP. Additionally, administrators will be able to select from WPA Enterprise, WPA2 Enterprise or WPA/WPA2 Enterprise to best match their network preferences.

Also new for the WatchGuard XTM 2 series wireless is the ability to detect rogue access points. As prescribed by PCI DSS, rogue AP detection must be conducted regularly. This generally requires businesses to purchase additional wireless gear to scan for and report on rogue devices. Now, the same XTM 2 series firewall can be used to detect, alert and report on rogue APs, thus saving businesses from purchasing, managing and monitoring multiple wireless appliances for their PCI DSS needs.

WatchGuard XTM 11.4 is free to WatchGuard XTM customers with a current LiveSecurity service contract. It will be available Q4, 2010.