CyberGuard Offers Total Stream Protection

Called Total Stream Protection (TSP), the suite--introduced at the RSA Conference in San Francisco--incorporates five components designed to enable companies to define and enforce security policies based on the two-way stream of packets on a network. The technologies, which are built into CyberGuard's network security appliances, reassemble the packets and examine the entire stream in realtime, according to the company.

The TSP Defender component prevents unauthorized users or systems from connecting to a company's network or consuming network resources, while TSP Protector terminates encrypted communications so the contents can be inspected and secured. TSP Dispatcher uses load balancing, clustering and performance optimization technologies to maximize network throughput and reliability, and TSP Inspector detects and prohibits illegal or banned protocol-specific commands and other Layer 7 data from crossing the network. Finally, the TSP Enforcer component applies security policies based on a user's request and the business application being used.

So far, about 65 percent of TSP has been implemented, said Pat Clawson, CEO of CyberGuard, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The suite will evolve to include support for VoIP protection, for instance, as well as fight emerging security threats, he said.