Robin Wauters

Open source innovator and Snort creator Sourcefire announced Sourcefire 3D System 4.9, with the new Sourcefire Virtual 3D Sensor and Sourcefire Virtual Defense Center. These new virtual appliances will enable users to deploy the company’s leading security solutions within their virtual environments, increasing protection for both physical and virtual assets. Available during the second half of 2009, the Sourcefire 3D System 4.9 also features the industry’s first Policy Layering capabilities that deliver increased customization for large or multi-organizational networks, including cloud or virtual implementations.

With the new Virtual 3D Sensor and Virtual Defense Center, Sourcefire is enabling customers to:

• Secure virtualization – Protecting virtual infrastructure from internal and external attacks with virtual security appliances
• Virtualize security – Leveraging cost- and energy-saving benefits of virtual security appliances to improve security efficiency

As part of the Sourcefire 3D System 4.9, the new virtual appliances allow organizations to inspect traffic between virtual machines, while also making it easier to deploy and manage sensors at remote sites where resources may be limited. They also enable Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) and cloud computing companies to easily implement Sourcefire’s leading security solutions for increased protection. MSSPs can configure multiple Virtual Defense Centers to support multiple customers from a single VMware server, increasing the efficiency of management efforts.

Users can deploy Virtual 3D Sensors on VMware ESX and ESXi platforms to inspect traffic between two or more virtual machines (VMs), while also using physical Sourcefire 3D Sensors to inspect traffic going into and out of a VMware virtual environment. Deployed as software running within VMs, the Virtual 3D Sensor also makes it easier for users to inspect traffic on remote segments of the network where local IT security resources may not exist (e.g., retail stores, remote offices) or where little rack space remains in the datacenter.

The Virtual 3D Sensor will provide simultaneous execution of Sourcefire IPS, RNA (Real-time Network Awareness) and RUA (Real-time User Awareness) functions. Customers can deploy the Virtual Defense Center to monitor any combination of up to 25 virtual or physical 3D Sensors. They can also opt to monitor their Virtual 3D Sensors from the same physical Defense Center they use to monitor their physical 3D Sensors.

In addition to the new virtual appliances, Sourcefire 3D System 4.9 delivers new policy management capabilities that allow organizations to easily customize security to support the varying user requirements of expansive multi-department/organization networks, as well as virtualization and cloud computing implementations. With the industry’s first Policy Layering capability, Sourcefire users can create policy “building blocks” to capture specific Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) requirements by organization, by site, by department, or even by user.

Sourcefire is enhancing its market-leading dashboard to include new custom query widgets, providing users with increased control over the way data is presented. With Sourcefire 3D System 4.9, Sourcefire is also improving the overall manageability and detection accuracy of RNA to include new application and service detectors, auto-configuration and simplified packet-level forensics.

The Sourcefire 3D System 4.9 release, including the Virtual 3D Sensors and Virtual Defense Center, will be available during the second half of 2009.