* Astaro updates Linux-based security appliance
Astaro recently updated its Linux-based security appliance – a platform targeted at IT pros interested in a Linux-based security server or appliance, but hesitant to dive into a roll-your-own system building project.
The firm released the latest version of its Astaro Security Gateway, a hardware platform that includes built-in firewall/VPN/intrusion detection system (IDS). The new version includes features such as spam blocking, as well as expanded support for protecting against more types of attacks, hacking methods and viruses.
Previous versions of the platform supported IPsec and point-to-point tunnel protocol (PPTP) VPNs, stateful packet inspection firewall and content filtering capabilities, as well as some intrusion detection and filtering capabilities.
Astaro has bumped up its security capabilities by over 50%, with the ability to detect 100,000 virus signatures and 2,000 different traffic patterns associated with back-door intrusion and denial-of-service attack activity. Spam blocking is also being introduced to the platform, where incoming mail messages can be inspected, assigned a “spam score” and then filtered according to the criteria – either bouncing the messages, or collecting them in a directory.
The Astaro Security Gateway is based on Astaro Security Linux, a modified version of the operating system optimized for security and speed. The software is free of extraneous tools not relating to security, such as word processing, e-mail server or desktop GUI packages, and includes management applications built specifically to manage and configure security settings. The platform uses more than 80 open-source network security packages, including Snort and Netfilter.
The Astaro appliances range in price from $700 to $4,000, depending on memory and processor configurations.
