are often a businesses’ first line of defence, forming a virtual checkpoint to protect computers and other network devices from attack. They act as sentinels, monitoring network traffic and enforcing rules regarding network use. However, traditional firewalls do not integrate with endpoint security solutions and do not have access to either global threat intelligence or local threat intelligence.

So says Jayson O’Reilly, director of sales and innovation at DRS, a provider of McAfee security solutions. “Without this integration, companies cannot hope to defend themselves against many of today’s advanced and sophisticated threats. High profile breaches that have littered the headlines in recent months have illustrated this problem, with many of these companies only realising they’ve been attacked days or weeks after the initial breach happened.”

With this in mind, he says McAfee has introduced a framework that brings network and endpoint together through centralised management. “The framework also integrates with both global and local threat intelligence to deliver visibility across all threat vectors.”

The ‘Security Connected framework’ is an integrated portfolio combining products and services that work together to protect the business from advanced threats. “These include network security, built-in intelligence and advanced management offered with an extensible architecture for partners. All solutions integrate with endpoint security to share real-time information, threat intelligence and workflows.”

O’Reilly says the days when a standalone security appliance did the job are long gone. These devices are quickly overwhelmed by the complexity and speed of today’s advanced threats. “However, McAfee’s network security framework offers maximum availability, security, integrity, flexibility and manageability with the lowest possible overhead and risk.”

He says the McAfee portfolio of integrated network protection technologies is a large one, and includes McAfee Threat Intelligence Exchange, McAfee Advanced Threat Defense, McAfee Network Intrusion Prevention, and McAfee Next Generation Firewall.

“A recent McAfee report highlighted the role of advanced evasion techniques employed by advanced threats, as well as what the real cost to and impact on businesses in terms of mitigation and remediation. McAfee’s Next Generation Firewall, through the company’s global threat intelligence, has access to the latest network threats, cutting down threat identification time and lessening the impact on network performance.”

According to O’Reilly, the ability to quickly identify and pre-empt advanced threats is a major business differentiator as organisations look to protect their most valuable asset – their proprietary information and intellectual property. “McAfee Threat Intelligence Exchange enables businesses to orchestrate security controls to pinpoint patterns, identify anomalous behaviours, protect assets against the lasted malware as well as prevent the exfiltration of data in real-time. Protection is multiplied when network security solutions are connected to each other, to intelligence sources, to endpoints and other security tools. Many solutions offering collective security analysis can only be far more effective than a single solution,” he concludes.