In recent weeks, Aventail and MCI announced they will be partnering with MCI to deliver SSL VPN technology, and Aventail plans to introduce new features to its Remote Access suite of services, including technology to detect online fraud and scramble user passwords sent over MCI's global network.Īventail has not seen any decrease in business as a result of new competition from Cisco and others, according to Daniels.
That allows remote users to securely connect to networks from any computer with an Internet connection and a Web browser, including home computers and public kiosks.Īn early leader in the market for SSL VPN, Aventail now faces competition from a number of other technology companies, including established players in the networking equipment market like Cisco, which added SSL VPN features to its VPN 3000 Series Concentrator in November.Ĭheck Point also plans to announce on Monday a new Web security gateway appliance called Connectra that combines SSL VPN remote access with an integrated Web server and endpoint security, also from Zone Labs, which Check Point recently purchased.
As a result, they are typically "clientless," meaning they do not require a separate software application to be installed on the remote user's machine. As opposed to VPNs that use IPsec, SSL VPNs rely on the SSL protocol, which is a part of most common Web servers and Web browsers and is widely used to secure e-commerce transactions. SSL VPNs are an increasingly popular technology for providing remote users with access to network resources such as e-mail, software applications and network file servers. Customers using those products will be able to use them seamlessly with Aventail's EX-1500 appliance to inspect remote clients for virus infections or the presence of spyware or Trojan horse programs before allowing them to establish an SSL VPN connection, Daniels said.
Aventail is integrating support for Zone Labs' Clientless PC Security and WholeSecurity's Confidence Online products. The new management feature will speed the creation of access policies and reduce typos and other user errors, Daniels said.įinally, Aventail said it was partnering with three companies to help its customers secure their networks from vulnerable or compromised SSL clients. A new user interface and an object-based policy model in Version 7.1 lets administrators browse LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), Microsoft Active Directory or Radius directories to select users, user groups or policies, automatically building the policy language.
Previous versions of ASAP required administrators to write access policies using a complex syntax. The workspace and vault are destroyed at the end of each session, erasing any data stored there, Aventail said.Īventail also improved the policy management features in ASAP 7.1. Department of Defense's clearing and sanitizing standard, known as DoD 5220.22-M, she said.Īn optional feature, called Aventail Secure Desktop, provides even more secure handling of SSL VPN data by creating a virtual workspace and temporary, encrypted "vault" on client machines where session data is downloaded and stored. The new Cache Control feature is thorough enough in removing data to comply with the U.S.
The new software is more thorough in searching out data that is temporarily stored by Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser during SSL VPN sessions. Aventail's products have long cleaned temporary files, e-mail file attachments, cookies, Web pages and other data left on machines.