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BorderWare Announces SIPassure SIP Firewall
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2004-09-14
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BorderWare Technologies, the benchmark provider of messaging security solutions, today announced SIPassure SIP Firewall, the world's most comprehensive SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) firewall.
Initially aimed at the emerging VoIP (Internet telephony) market, SIPassure is a hardened appliance that manages and protects the flow of VoIP-specific SIP communications, enabling enterprises to fully realize the business benefits of deploying VoIP solutions such as reducing long distance costs, utilizing presence-based applications (i.e. find me, follow me) and unified messaging. BorderWare is making available two systems, an enterprise and a carrier model, to select customers.
Developed over the past 12 months and designed to sit alongside SIP-based IP PBXs such as Cisco CallManager and Avaya Communications Manager, SIPassure follows the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) SIP standard, and deploys at the network edge or in the DMZ and manages all inbound and outbound SIP sessions. It delivers more functionality and security than existing SIP Session Border Controllers (SBCs), proxies and redirectors. SIPassure:
- prevents voice spam, DoS/DDoS protection (RTP, SIP REGISTRAR), voice mail bombing (vbomb) and packet-level intrusion prevention
- provides robust firewall features including stateful inspection with policy-based packet filtering and SIP and RTP message validation
- functions as a SIP proxy server, redirect server, and registrar server (IETF RFC 3261)
- functions as an incoming and outgoing proxy, providing integrity checks for malformed SIP messages, ensuring that only correctly formatted messages are forwarded
- provides NAT (Network Address Translation) and firewall traversal (RTP proxy)
- includes comprehensive reporting and auditing
- supports SNMP for integration with network management frameworks (i.e. HP OpenView, IBM Tivoli, etc.)
High Security, High-Availability, F5 Partnership
As indicated, the BorderWare SIPassure SIP Firewall will be available in two models, aimed at enterprises and carriers. The system architecture for both models is built around BorderWare's S-Core operating system, which is integral to the Common Criteria EAL4+ security certifications of BorderWare's MXtreme Mail Firewall and its other proxy-based firewall products. SIPassure will also borrow from the MXtreme failsafe clustering architecture for high-availability (HALO, stateful failover, and cluster management), and further integrates with F5 Network's BIG-IP to manage and shape SIP traffic.
"BorderWare clearly understands how its comprehensive messaging security significantly contributes to the availability and overall productivity of business-critical communications," said Erik Giesa, Vice-President of Product Management and Marketing at F5 Networks. "We are pleased that they are extending their existing email-related iControl partnership with F5 Networks to include policy-based support for secure SIP-based applications. Just as the combination of MXtreme and BIG-IP provides an unsurpassed architectural solution for email security and availability, the tandem of SIPassure and BIG-IP will do likewise for SIP applications in carrier and enterprise environments."
Threat, Abuse and Disruption Prevention
Like HTTP and SMTP, SIP has emerged as the dominant session protocol for real-time Internet-based (IP) communications. It provides communications applications - instant messaging (IM), VoIP, video conferencing, etc. - the convenience and benefits that HTTP provides for web services and SMTP provides for email. However, SIP is also susceptible to similar types of threats that plague HTTP and SMTP. SIPassure is designed to protect SIP-based VoIP applications against Denial-of-Service attacks, session flooding (continuous calling via Internet Protocol), eavesdropping and session hijacking, voice spam, session spoofing and caller impersonation.
"As the SIP-enabled VoIP revolution unfolds, security will become the industry's central concern. Since voice is now just the payload of an IP packet, all the perils that plague enterprise servers exist for the unprotected IP PBX," said Elizabeth Ussher, Vice President, Infrastructure Strategies, META Group. "Imagine the bandwidth havoc of a 'MyDoom' multiplied a hundred or a thousand fold, and you can imagine the scope of the problem. Enterprises must get ahead of the curve by providing a secure environment for SIP-based communications."
"The introduction of the SIPassure SIP Firewall embodies BorderWare's 10-year legacy and expertise in application-specific firewalls," said John Alsop, CEO, BorderWare Technologies. "As the market for email security continues to expand, BorderWare has increasingly become the company of choice, and MXtreme, the product that sets the benchmark. SIPassure is the equivalent of MXtreme for the emerging SIP-based VoIP market, and attests to our vision and leadership in messaging security."
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SecurityProNews is a daily online and email publication focusing on internet security issues.
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