WatchGuard(R) Technologies, has released results lab tests of the WatchGuard Firebox X Peak 8500e UTM appliance, which was tested by Miercom and recently published as a cover story in Communications News. Testing focused on both effectiveness of the solution as well as performance in terms of throughput and blocking.
As stated in the Communications News feature, "Comprehensive security provision is asking a lot of one box, especially at enterprise level demand. Three of the four tested units failed to block many of the security threats delivered by the three security effectiveness test systems. The WatchGuard Firebox X Peak 8500e was the exception and performed well on all security effectiveness tests."
"It is time to set the record straight. Some vendors claim that superior throughput equals winning a competitive review, but that is very misleading. At the end of the day what counts is superior security. On the security battlefield, what is going to be more useful - a tank or a sports car?" asked Eric Aarrestad, Vice President of Marketing at WatchGuard Technologies. "There may be faster UTM products out there, but this test confirms that none are better at blocking threats than WatchGuard."
To validate this, WatchGuard refers to the data as published in the Communications News review:
-- WatchGuard - blocked 99 percent of threats generated by BreakingPoint
Systems' BPS-1K security appliance
-- Juniper - blocked 48 percent of threats by BreakingPoint
-- Fortinet - blocked 44 percent of threats by BreakingPoint
-- SonicWall - blocked 50 percent of threats by BreakingPoint
The BreakingPoint system delivered a strike level 5 test that included exploits, network worms, denial-of-service attack, reconnaissance attacks, Trojan horse and backdoor intrusions.
The Communications News review further states, "The WatchGuard approach to security is different than the others in this review. Using proxy-based technology, all traffic is blocked except for that allowed by the network administrator. This system provides the most security since all traffic is treated suspect and not allowed to enter the LAN, preventing the propagation of threats."
"Miercom is proud to announce that the WatchGuard Firebox X Peak 8500e has earned the Performance Verified certification based on recent hands-on product testing. The WatchGuard appliance provides comprehensive network security that is capable of blocking threats, even on non-standard, non-assigned ports, and when compared to the competitive average, WatchGuard provides superior vulnerability effectiveness," said Robert Smithers, CEO Miercom. "Because of these factors, WatchGuard earns the right to be Miercom Performance Verified."
Monday, 23 February 2009
Viewpointe
Viewpointe(R), today announced key test results of its risk mitigation tool, Viewpointe Image Integrity(TM). Viewpointe Image Integrity is designed to help financial institutions manage the risks associated with check image and data mismatches that can occur during check processing.
The Viewpointe Image Integrity tests revealed several potential benefits to financial institutions using this tool to mitigate risks in check image processing. In testing, the tool identified mismatches with 100 percent accuracy. Mismatches can negatively affect a financial institution, and could result in a customer data privacy breach. Such breaches can be expensive to remediate, can harm customer relationships and brand reputation and diminish trust between image exchange partners. With the risk associated with mismatches significantly mitigated, customer privacy is better protected and, as a result, the financial institution's reputation is as well.
Testing of Viewpointe Image Integrity also revealed that mismatch identification was more accurate than Viewpointe's previous image quality tool. The Viewpointe Image Integrity engine categorized 65 percent fewer items as suspects than the image quality solution did, demonstrating the engine's ability to filter out "noise" related to the MICR line. The outcome is that this tool delivers a smaller, more accurate suspect file requiring manual review by the financial institutions. As a result, financial institutions using this tool could potentially reduce the staff hours dedicated to suspect review.
The Viewpointe Image Integrity tool specifically identified mismatches in the testing pool with 100 percent accuracy in the following areas:
-- Identified a total of 81 mismatch possibilities from 81 unique
possible scenarios that could result in mismatched items
-- Identified the entire file of 15,000 image and metadata mismatched
items, tested in multiple scenarios, as suspect
-- Found miscellaneous mismatches that typically occur from data key
errors, including transpositions, missing digits and extra digits
-- Distinguished the difference between similar numbers (for example, 1
and 7, 3 and 8, and 5 and 6)
-- Consistently scored files and identified potential suspects; the same
results were achieved every time Viewpointe Image Integrity processed
each set of items
"With nearly 78 percent of financial institutions participating in the exchange of check images, and the industry now processing almost 14 billion items annually, the demand for higher quality, targeted image integrity and risk management tools has increased sharply," said Diane Scott, president, Viewpointe Emerging Business.
To assess the accuracy of Viewpointe Image Integrity, Viewpointe processed more than 14 million items, developed 400 unique test cases and conducted multiple testing scenarios. Also, Viewpointe Image Integrity was tested head-to-head with Viewpointe's previous image quality product (discontinued in 2008) to compare the accuracy of both tools in finding problems in check image files.
In testing, Viewpointe Image Integrity was also able to ignore quality issues typically identified as "suspects" by image quality products that do not ultimately result in a pay/no-pay decision. This allows financial institutions to focus on errors that could truly prevent payment of an item, such as when an item is not ready for posting due to data keying errors, missing or incomplete account data or non-numerical data. Also, the tool identified items that are potential mismatches as well as those with missing, truncated or transposed account numbers and encoding errors - all of which are corrections that could be completed the same day that the item is presented.
"These test results reveal that the Viewpointe Image Integrity tool can help shrink the size of their suspect files compared to what their current image quality solution may be yielding, and can help identify errors with greater accuracy than ever before. This can minimize the time that human resources must spend looking for items that are truly problematic, and can help financial institutions catch more mistakes before they are visible to their customers," added Scott.
The Viewpointe Image Integrity tests revealed several potential benefits to financial institutions using this tool to mitigate risks in check image processing. In testing, the tool identified mismatches with 100 percent accuracy. Mismatches can negatively affect a financial institution, and could result in a customer data privacy breach. Such breaches can be expensive to remediate, can harm customer relationships and brand reputation and diminish trust between image exchange partners. With the risk associated with mismatches significantly mitigated, customer privacy is better protected and, as a result, the financial institution's reputation is as well.
Testing of Viewpointe Image Integrity also revealed that mismatch identification was more accurate than Viewpointe's previous image quality tool. The Viewpointe Image Integrity engine categorized 65 percent fewer items as suspects than the image quality solution did, demonstrating the engine's ability to filter out "noise" related to the MICR line. The outcome is that this tool delivers a smaller, more accurate suspect file requiring manual review by the financial institutions. As a result, financial institutions using this tool could potentially reduce the staff hours dedicated to suspect review.
The Viewpointe Image Integrity tool specifically identified mismatches in the testing pool with 100 percent accuracy in the following areas:
-- Identified a total of 81 mismatch possibilities from 81 unique
possible scenarios that could result in mismatched items
-- Identified the entire file of 15,000 image and metadata mismatched
items, tested in multiple scenarios, as suspect
-- Found miscellaneous mismatches that typically occur from data key
errors, including transpositions, missing digits and extra digits
-- Distinguished the difference between similar numbers (for example, 1
and 7, 3 and 8, and 5 and 6)
-- Consistently scored files and identified potential suspects; the same
results were achieved every time Viewpointe Image Integrity processed
each set of items
"With nearly 78 percent of financial institutions participating in the exchange of check images, and the industry now processing almost 14 billion items annually, the demand for higher quality, targeted image integrity and risk management tools has increased sharply," said Diane Scott, president, Viewpointe Emerging Business.
To assess the accuracy of Viewpointe Image Integrity, Viewpointe processed more than 14 million items, developed 400 unique test cases and conducted multiple testing scenarios. Also, Viewpointe Image Integrity was tested head-to-head with Viewpointe's previous image quality product (discontinued in 2008) to compare the accuracy of both tools in finding problems in check image files.
In testing, Viewpointe Image Integrity was also able to ignore quality issues typically identified as "suspects" by image quality products that do not ultimately result in a pay/no-pay decision. This allows financial institutions to focus on errors that could truly prevent payment of an item, such as when an item is not ready for posting due to data keying errors, missing or incomplete account data or non-numerical data. Also, the tool identified items that are potential mismatches as well as those with missing, truncated or transposed account numbers and encoding errors - all of which are corrections that could be completed the same day that the item is presented.
"These test results reveal that the Viewpointe Image Integrity tool can help shrink the size of their suspect files compared to what their current image quality solution may be yielding, and can help identify errors with greater accuracy than ever before. This can minimize the time that human resources must spend looking for items that are truly problematic, and can help financial institutions catch more mistakes before they are visible to their customers," added Scott.
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