The benefits of application detection

Abstract

Social networks are vying for users' attention, even at work. This presents security risks and sometimes takes up a great deal of bandwidth. With next-generation (NG) firewalls, administrators can at last analyse the traffic by application – blocking it if necessary. How does the firewall identify various applications? How can the administrator manage rights and regulations? And how should those responsible for the networks handle the control they have regained? Social networks are vying for users' attention, even at work. This presents security risks and sometimes takes up a great deal of bandwidth. With next-generation (NG) firewalls, administrators can at last analyse the traffic by application – blocking it if necessary. How does the firewall identify various applications? How can the administrator manage rights and regulations? And how should those responsible for the networks handle the control they have regained? NG firewalls allow administrators to create more complex and finely tuned rules for blocking or limiting certain types of traffic. Klaus Gheri of Barracuda Networks looks at how this works and how administrators can benefit.