Check Point works to strengthen SSL capabilities

Check Point, whose VPN-1/Firewall-1 is one of the best-selling VPN gear, is working on an initiative called Web Security, which is scheduled to roll out next year.

While the company has been vague about details, the new product line will apparently include beefed-up Secure Sockets Layer remote access capabilities, an area in which it has not tried to compete very strenuously.

The plans call for integrated authentication and authorization as well as simplified sign-on. In most cases, the last of these means that when a user authenticates to the SSL termination server, that sign-on will also extend to signing users on to whatever servers they are trying to reach.

The new Web product will also protect Web servers from network layer and application layer attacks, Check Point says, but it doesn’t specify how. The possibilities could include proxying traffic to these servers or isolating them on a network segment that is protected by Check Point’s firewall, which includes Application Intelligence, its application layer security.

The product will also check whether desktops have the appropriate security in place before granting them access to the network. This endpoint security is technology focused on by other vendors and has been incorporated in many IPSec VPN and SSL remote access products via partnerships.

The overall objective of the initiative is to grant different levels of secure access over the Internet from company-issued machines as well as personally owned computers and computers at Internet kiosks. Somehow, this would all be incorporated with Check Point’s existing IPSec VPN client software.

Because Check Point is a major vendor in this area, this announcement should be noted, and so it is being noted here. But because it is so vague, it’s not enough to enter into any current buying decisions companies might be making. All anyone can do is wait to hear more about the actual products when they are announced.

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