Check Point Rolls Out New Internal Security Solution

Its InterSpect Internal Security Gateways, slated to ship this month, will come in four editions,and will be manufactured by Dell.

The InterSpect line is focused on protecting networks from internal security threats. Dell does not offer an appliance with similar software capabilities and will not be be selling the Check Point appliances, a Check Point executive said.

"We are seeing a huge demand for internal security solutions as more workers become remote and come back into the office with infected laptops and plug right into the network," said Gene Manyak, product marketing manager at Check Point, Redwood City, Calif.

"We've been working on this issue with customers, trying to come up with a strategy to defend against internal attacks," said Jeff Bennett, CEO of security integration and consulting provider SiegeWorks, Pleasanton, Calif. "Customers are definitely going to want to kick the tires with this product."

The InterSpect appliances offer five main defenses: Intelligent Worm Defender, network zone segmentation, quarantine of suspicious computers, LAN protocol protection and pre-emptive attack protection. When an infection is found, the appliance alerts the IT department and quarantines the infected machine or network zone.

Intelligent Worm Defender blocks the spread of worms inside the network via application intelligence and stateful inspection technologies, while the network zone segmentation function prevents unauthorized access between network zones and contains attacks within a subsegment of the network.

The appliance also quarantines infected devices and gives IT administrators the ability to patch unprotected devices while the infection is quarantined.

The LAN protocol feature uses Check Point application intelligence technology and supports protocols including Microsoft RPC, CIFS, Microsoft SQL, Sun RPC, DCE RPC and HTTP.

InterSpect's pre-emptive attack protection feature identifies known and unknown attacks using SmartDefense, which blocks network and application attacks by type and class.

"This is where the technology needs to be, proactive vs. reactive because these worms move so fast," Manyak said.

InterSpect 210 for protecting one workgroup is priced at $9,000; InterSpect 410 for multiple workgroup protection is $18,000; InterSpect 610 for Gigabit network protection is $36,000; and InterSpect610F with fiber interface support is $39,000.