Zscaler Launches New Advanced Persistent Threat Protection with Fall 2014—Now Everyone Can Be Protected From Zero-Day and Advanced Threats

Zscaler, the Internet security company, today introduced the Fall 2014 release of the Zscaler Internet security and compliance platform. Available now, Zscaler Fall 2014 includes breakthrough new capabilities for Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) protection, guest Wifi security, global administration, policy management and reporting and instant assessment of security risks.

In a separate announcement, Zscaler also announced a new technology partner program with more than 20 partners that have integrated their security offerings with the Zscaler Internet security platform to deliver unmatched value and protection to organizations seeking the most comprehensive Internet security.

Zscaler Fall 2014 is being released at a time when cyber-security has become a board-level discussion. Global security incidents have increased by 48 percent since 2013 , demonstrating that existing hardware appliance-based approaches to security are not providing effective protection. With a new major brand in the news grappling with a high-profile security breach almost every week, a new approach to cyber-security is clearly needed.

Zscaler Fall 2014 is designed to protect organizations from today’s cyber-threat landscape. Malicious actors now include not only teenage hackers, but also criminal gangs and nation-states. Cyber-criminals are smart and sophisticated—focusing their attacks on end-users, hiding behind encryption, developing advanced threats and taking full advantage of the shift to cloud computing, the ubiquity of mobile devices and the Internet of Things.

As a fully integrated, carrier-grade, cloud-based Internet security platform, Zscaler Fall 2014 delivers robust Internet security, Advanced Persistent Threat protection, data loss prevention, SSL decryption, traffic shaping, policy management, security assessment and threat intelligence—all without the need for on-premise hardware, appliances or software.

“In a world where cyber-threats have outpaced the ability of organizations to protect themselves, Zscaler Fall 2014 is a major step forward that will help enterprises, governments and militaries around the world improve their Internet security and protect their intellectual property,” said Daniel Druker, Chief Marketing Officer at Zscaler. “As a cloud-based system deployed at massive global scale, we at Zscaler leverage trillions of transactions to prevent, detect and remediate the most sophisticated zero-day attacks and Advanced Persistent Threats—providing far better security than appliances, coupled with unmatched ease of administration and superior economics.”

Zscaler Fall 2014 Highlights

Zscaler Fall 2014 includes major new capabilities for Advanced Persistent Threat protection, guest Wifi security, next generation global administration and reporting, instant security risk assessment and more than 100 additional new features and upgrades.

Integrated Advanced Persistent Threat Protection

The new Zscaler Advanced Persistent Threat Protection is a complete, cloud-based solution for protecting from, detecting and remediating zero-day and advanced threats. 

Appliance-based solutions for APT protection are generally deployed in tap mode and as such can only detect and alert about threats. Zscaler APT Protection is always deployed in-line and as such can always block threats and stop infections from happening.  Zscaler APT Protection includes automatic Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) decryption, so it can inspect encrypted traffic, and incorporates multiple layers of security for defense in depth including automated behavioral analysis, sandboxing, detonation, forensics and analysis of suspected zero-day and advanced threats.

Zscaler APT Protection includes two unique features to provide unmatched security.  Automatic quarantine of suspicious files ensures that even the first person in the world that attempts to download a new zero-day threat remains safe from infection. Real-time cloud-wide updates ensure that the instant any new zero-day attack or APT is identified as malicious, all twelve million Zscaler users are immediately protected. This level of protection is literally thousands of times better than that provided by appliance-based approaches to advanced Internet security.

Zscaler APT Protection also excels at detecting infections and identifying and blocking botnet command and control traffic as well as attempt to exfiltrate information.  For example, Zscaler can automatically identify compromised point of sale devices and block them from transmitting credit card numbers to cyber-criminals and can identify personal computers that are infected by botnets and stop the transmission of customer information outside of the organization.

A cloud-based platform requiring no on-premise hardware or software, Zscaler APT Protection is uniquely designed to protect the entire global enterprise—including headquarters, branch offices, remote locations, mobile users, smart phone and tablets and even Internet-connected “things.” Zscaler APT Protection represents a breakthrough in security against zero-day and advanced threats and is vastly easier to manage than stacks of security appliances with much lower total cost of ownership.

Guest Wifi Protection

For many industries, providing guest Wifi access has become a cost of doing business.  But guest Wifi also introduces real risk—from legal and compliance risk arising from guests accessing pornography or downloading copyrighted movies to reputational risk from guest devices becoming infected with malware or exposed to cyber-threats.

Zscaler Guest Wifi Protection is a new, easy to deploy, low-cost system for managing and securing guest Wifi.  Designed for deployments from individual hotspots to tens of thousands of worldwide locations, Zscaler Guest Wifi Protection includes easy to use web-based tools for global administration, policy management, reporting and analytics. A simple change to DNS settings on existing access points seamlessly routes guest Wifi traffic through the global Zscaler Internet security platform for full inspection and threat protection. With Zscaler Guest Wifi Protection, organizations can confidently offer guest Wifi with carrier-grade security that is fast to deploy, easy to manage and extremely cost effective.

Unified Next Generation Graphical Administration and Reporting

Traditionally, enterprises have deployed dozens to hundreds of hardware appliances, typically from multiple vendors, across multiple locations, in an attempt to secure their organization.  This creates a massive administrative burden—policies and configuration have to be manually entered and managed for each device—and introduces security gaps due to inconsistencies, mis-configurations and operator errors.  Furthermore, hardware appliances are widely known for poorly designed, cryptic and hard to use administrative interfaces—hurting administrator productivity and causing even more errors.

Zscaler believes that in today’s world of cloud computing, the expectation for administrative user experience and productivity has been set by firms like Salesforce, Workday and Google.  The new web-based, next generation graphical administrative and reporting tools included with Zscaler Fall 2014 provide a modern, attractive user experience designed to maximize administrator productivity, ease of use and happiness.

With nothing more than an Internet connection and a Mac, PC or an iPad, an administrator can securely manage an entire, global Zscaler deployment—from administration to policy management, reporting, analytics and forensics.  Multiple Zscaler clients worldwide are already using the new Fall 2014 administrative interface to manage massive Internet security deployments, each spanning more than a hundred countries and hundreds of thousands of users. The benefits are unprecedented administrator productivity, better security and complete global visibility—all from a single pane of glass.

Instant Security Risk Assessment

The new Zscaler Security Preview offers an instant risk assessment to see how effective a company’s current security systems are at stopping threats, complying with regulations and safeguarding intellectual property.  Based on learnings and intelligence from more than 5,000 Zscaler clients, Security Preview provides a comprehensive security analysis and makes recommendations for closing any gaps.

Zscaler Fall 2014 Pricing and Availability

Available today, Zscaler Fall 2014 is priced on an annual, per-user subscription basis, ranging from $1 to $10 per user per month depending on deployment size, options and modules.  Guest Wifi Protection is $25 per location per month.