Every day, new viruses and spyware infect businesses worldwide. Some have the ability to spread within hours and affect computers and networks of all sizes. Viruses, worms, Trojans and spyware programs cause serious financial damage to companies through data deletion, loss of productivity, network computer downtime, IT administrative overhead and bandwidth consumption. As these attacks become more dynamic and malicious in nature, businesses are forced to look past client-based protection and stop viruses before they have a chance to inflict damage.

SonicWALL has responded to these threats by developing scalable, high-speed gateway anti-virus, anti-spyware and intrusion prevention for our TZ and PRO Series security gateways. SonicWALL Gateway Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware and Intrusion Prevention Service delivers intelligent, real-time network security protection against viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans and application exploits. Utilising a configurable, high-performance deep packet inspection architecture, SonicWALL Gateway Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware and Intrusion Prevention Service secures the network from the core to the perimeter against a comprehensive array of dynamic threats including viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans and software vulnerabilities such as buffer overflows, as well as peer-to-peer and instant messenger applications, backdoor exploits, and other malicious code.

This unique solution features a high-performance deep packet inspection engine that delivers threat protection directly on the security gateway by matching downloaded, e-mailed and compressed files against an extensive signature database. Because new threats emerge daily and are often unpredictable, the signature database is constantly updated to deliver the highest protection possible against an ever-changing threat landscape. New signatures are created and added to the database by a combination of SonicWALL's SonicAlert Team and third-party sources. As an added layer of security, SonicWALL Gateway Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware and Intrusion Prevention Service provides application layer attack protection not only against external threats, but also against those originating inside the network.

Architecture

• Spyware Protection. SonicWALL Gateway Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware and Intrusion Prevention Service prevents malicious spyware from infecting networks by blocking spyware installation at the gateway and disrupts background communications from existing spyware programs that transmit confidential data.
• Real-Time Gateway Anti-Virus Scanning. SonicWALL Gateway Anti-Virus/Intrusion Prevention Service delivers intelligent file-based virus and malicious code prevention by scanning in real-time for decompressed and compressed files containing viruses, Trojans, worms and other Internet threats over the corporate network.
• Powerful Intrusion Prevention. SonicWALL Gateway Anti-Virus/Intrusion Prevention Service provides complete protection from a comprehensive array of network-based application layer threats by scanning packet payloads for worms, Trojans, software vulnerabilities such as buffer overflows, peer-to-peer and instant messenger applications, backdoor exploits, and other malicious code.
• Integrated Deep Packet Inspection Technology. SonicWALL Gateway Anti-Virus/Intrusion Prevention Service features a high performance deep packet inspection engine that uses parallel searching algorithms up through the application layer to deliver increased application layer, Web and e-mail attack prevention capabilities over those supplied by traditional stateful packet inspection firewalls. Parallel processing reduces the performance impact on the firewall and maximises available memory for exceptional throughput on SonicWALL security gateways.
• Ultimate Scalability and Performance. SonicWALL Gateway Anti-Virus/Intrusion Prevention Service is the first solution on the market to utilise a per packet scanning engine, making it unique in its ability to handle unlimited file sizes and virtually hundreds of thousands of concurrent downloads, offering ultimate scalability and performance for today’s networked environment.
• Inter-zone Scanning. SonicWALL Gateway Anti-Virus/Intrusion Prevention Service provides an additional layer of protection against malicious threats by allowing administrators to enforce intrusion prevention and anti-virus scanning not only between each network zone and the Internet, but also between internal network zones.
• Extensive Signature List. SonicWALL Gateway Anti-Virus/Intrusion Prevention Service utilises an extensive database containing thousands of attack and vulnerability signatures written to detect and prevent intrusions, viruses, worms, application exploits, and the use of peer-to-peer and instant messaging applications.
• Application Control. SonicWALL Gateway Anti-Virus/Intrusion Prevention Service provides network administrators with the ability to monitor and manage the use of instant messaging and peer-to-peer file sharing programs from operating through the firewall, closing a potential backdoor that can be used to compromise the network while improving employee productivity and conserving Internet bandwidth.
• Simplified Deployment and Management. SonicWALL Gateway Anti-Virus/Intrusion Prevention Service allows network administrators to create global policies between security zones and group attacks by priority, simplifying deployment and management across a distributed network.