Palo Alto Bolsters Network Security with Inline Deep Learning Protection

Network security is a proactive behavior. Cultivating reliable, secure network connectivity and access requires measured maneuvers, comprehensive planning and putting the right pieces in place. Innovation is delivering a modern approach, as attacks continue to grow in sophistication, the enterprise and IoT can look to the cloud for protection.  

Cybersecurity leader Palo Alto Networks announced a counter-punch to attacks rolling out the fourth generation of PA-3400 and PA-5400 Next Generations Firewalls (NGFWs), and unveiled PAN-OS 10.2 Nebula.

At the heart of the Nebula upgrade is inline deep learning, an industry first for collecting, analyzing and interpreting zero-day threats. This translates to nearly 50% more evasive threats detected and six times faster prevention. The release includes several new and enhanced security services.

IoT Security 2.0 delivers device visibility leverages ML to ensure automated policy creation for devices seen and unseen. Advanced Threat Prevention takes the wraps off a new intrusion prevention system (IPS), employing AI and deep learning techniques in the cloud, taking analysis “offline,” “inline.”

Advanced URL Filtering features real time, inline deep learning–powered analysis to guard from web-based, ransomware and evasive attacks.  AIOps is here. The new service leverages ML to predict NGFW disruption before negative impact at better than 50%. Palo extended DNS Security to defend against cutting edge DNS-based attacks, touting 40% better DNS-threat coverage over the competition.  

"Palo Alto (News - Alert) Networks' industry-leading machine learning-based platform applies techniques that help customers handle sophisticated threats and meet end-to-end demands across network, endpoint, and cloud security. The company enables enterprises to go beyond standard threat protection by building a strong security posture and resilience," explained Rajarshi Dhar, industry analyst, Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert).

In the PA-3400 and PA-5400 Series ML-powered NGFWs, Palo Alto promises security performance improvement by a factor of three, spanning the most robust data center, smallest branch office, corporate campus and enterprise edge. In addition to enhanced performance, the newly released firewalls offer up to half the rack space usage and better energy efficiency.

"Security approaches are too often reliant on an initial victim being exploited. Yet, with attackers as agile and efficient as they are today, organizations require real-time prevention to protect their environments," noted John Grady, senior analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group (News - Alert) (ESG). "Palo Alto Networks recognizes these issues and is expanding its machine learning capabilities by placing Deep Learning detection inline to prevent attacks before they ever impact victim one."

Palo Alto is a network security pioneer, homesteading the next frontier of enterprise and IoT security.

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