Article Chapter 8: Finjan Stops Malware at the Gateway

George, R. (2009). Finjan Stops Malware At The Gateway. Information Week, March 16, 2009, 42-43

Firewalls and virus engines are increasingly useless as hackers, spyware developers and crimeware groups figure out how to avoid enterprise IT shops. Finajan is trying to tackle this problem by developing SP-6100 a midrange secure gateway appliance. This allows real-time behavioral analysis to thwart spyware developers who have figured out the inner workings of traditional URL filters and spyware engines. The Sp-6100 run on IBM server hardware and takes URL and signature-based protection to the next level by actually executing the code of the site you’re visiting in a sandbox in real time.
For example, a site may be deemed safe by a traditional URL filter, but a detailed behavioral check by Finjan might reveal an attempt to write to our registry. Finajan also has the ability to scan for and block sites that are attempting to exploit specific Windows or Internet Explorer vulnerabilities.
I chose this article because it related to chapter eight and is a security feature that can be purchased by a firm in order to protect itself from malware. I also chose this article because it describes a new appliance that can be used in sync with McAfee, Kaspersky, Sophos and Websense which are signature based URL and virus filters. I have McAfee and my laptop was infected with several viruses. So this is an indication that firewalls and virus engines are becoming useless and there is a need for better security appliances that users can subscribe too.