LISLE, IL--(MARKET WIRE)--Sep 3, 2008 -- Athena Security, creators of AthenaVerify, has announced the release of FirePAC, ideal for simplifying firewall configurations, supporting device migration and automating firewall reviews. FirePAC provides unparalleled precision in pinpointing the rules that can be cleaned from a firewall.

A pragmatic tool that saves precious time for network engineers, FirePAC works for any size business. It is the most cost-effective and affordable solution available today. It ensures a correct configuration that allows only essential services in and out of the firewall.

Due to the limited number of tools for verifying firewall policies, most configurations are riddled with policy errors. A firewall policy error either creates exposures that allows malicious traffic to enter private networks or blocks legitimate traffic and disrupts business operations, which in turn could lead to irreparable, and often severe, consequences.

"Because they were the first network security solution deployed by most organizations, firewall policies have grown out of hand," says Richard Stiennon, a security industry blogger for Network World. "Tools to evaluate, simplify and optimize firewall rule sets are becoming required elements of a security department's capabilities."

Common errors in a firewall configuration range from incorrect rule ordering and grouping of network objects, to improperly comprehending the complex interactions between multiple routing, address translation, and filtering rules. A manual rule-by-rule inspection of the configuration can present a misleading view of the firewall's behavior because it hides the inter-relationships between the rules. FirePAC is an expert at understanding the rules in context to the entire ruleset which is the most accurate way to identify policy conflicts.

FirePAC makes it possible to confidently remove the ACL rules that create policy conflicts while keeping the semantics of the firewall unchanged. It runs the analysis offline without any packet transmission and poses no risk to production networks. These key qualities are tremendously useful for several important security operations initiatives, such as migrating from Cisco PIX to ASA, or reducing the amount of manual effort and expense required to perform in-depth firewall reviews.

"Athena designed FirePAC to help relieve some of the high pressure demands of being a network professional," says Adarsh Arora, CEO of Athena Security. "It saves time so network engineers can more quickly correct network errors, troubleshoot, and prevent or mitigate impending network issues. Not only is it easy to use and install, but it is available as downloadable software for free evaluation and online purchase."

Athena FirePAC offers three essential must-have capabilities for every network engineer:

Policy Analysis -- FirePAC's normalized end-to-end firewall policy analysis shows the impact on packet flow when all the ACL, NAT and routing rules are combined together in addition to the device's implicit behavior. It also performs 90+ firewall audit checks and shows which ACL rules are executed for any specified policy query.

Anomaly Detection -- Anomalies are several classes of rules that are redundant, overlapping or conflicting. FirePAC provides reports that pinpoint more rules for optimizing a configuration than any other product available today.

Policy Comparison -- FirePAC allows users to detect policy errors before they are deployed to production networks. It can compare two revisions of a configuration file and automatically calculate the impact on firewall service availability.

Pricing and Availability

Athena FirePAC is immediately available for download at Athena Security's website. Pricing starts at $1,495 for any size rule set with the first year of maintenance included. For more information please visit Athena Security's website or contact the Athena Security sales department at 630-353-1900.

About Athena Security

Athena provides comprehensive analysis tools for managing and simplifying firewall configuration complexity. We make this possible by revealing the precise relationship between firewall rules and network services in a single device or across an entire network. Developed to address the operational needs of network engineers, Athena's products provide safe, offline analysis with the strength, attention to detail, scale and flexibility necessitated by companies of all sizes. For more information, please see http://www.athenasecurity.net.

     Media Contact:
      
     Anjali Gurnani
     Athena Security
     Phone: 630-353-1900 x21
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