Nominum Launches Vantio ThreatAvert to protect Fixed and Mobile networks

Redwood City, USA, October 24, 2013  ̶  Nominum^TM, the provider of integrated subscriber, network, and security solutions for service providers, today announced the launch of Vantio ^TM ThreatAvert, a unique product for averting threats in fixed and mobile networks. A key element of this new product is the Nominum Global Intelligence Xchange (GIX), which provides a foundational security layer with continuous real-time threat updates. This combination delivers far greater security than a DNS firewall by neutralizing threats that originate from within the network itself.

Service providers have seen huge growth in attacks originated inside their networks. These attacks take two forms – Inside/In, where attacks are launched inside the network on internal resources such as routers, DNS servers, gateways and  mobile EPC (evolved packet core) resources – and Inside/Out, also launched inside the network, but against external resources such as websites, network assets, enterprises and other end-users.

Network security architecture is predominantly focused on defending networks against external threats. As cyber-attacks become more sophisticated network security needs to evolve to match emerging threats. By addressing attacks planted inside the network service providers will be able to maintain network integrity and ensure an optimal level of performance for the end user. 

Vantio ThreatAvert leverages Nominum’s precision policy capabilities that can segment, identify and enforce policies by users or traffic types. It provides a level of policy granularity that is unmatched by any other security competitor and is capable of throttling attacks with configurable rate limiting capabilities. Leveraging these unique features,Vantio ThreatAvert delivers two primary benefits:

*Proactively stopping attacks before they start

*Preventative throttling of new attacks to instantly curtail their impact

The GIX network, with a ‘best in class’ list of malicious domains and URLs, shares information amongst carriers to provide an early warning system and offer better protection globally. Together, Vantio ThreatAvert and GIX protect both internal and external networks from malicious traffic.

Simple to deploy and lightweight, Vantio ThreatAvert is built on leading Vantio CacheServe DNS software with a proven track record of detecting and preventing bots and bot-related activity.  It defends against multiple attacks including botnet related activities, malware exploits, DNS amplification, DoS / DDoS, and outbound spam.

Gary Messiana, Nominum CEO, says: “Service Providers drive revenue growth by providing the quality of experience customers demand. Vantio ThreatAvert is a next step innovation that deters attacks against network assets to ensure ‘always on’ availability and increase subscriber engagement and retention. Service providers have a suite of solutions in place to defend their networks from external threats but a whole new level of security is required to deal with the threats now emanating from within the network.”

“Service Providers face more complex threats every day, which leads to a poor customer experience such as slow Internet connections, outages, data exfiltration and more. This diminishes a provider’s reputation, making it harder to add new customers or keep existing ones,” said Sanjay Kapoor, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Strategy for Nominum. “The DNS can and should do more than ‘just DNS’ and Vantio ThreatAvert does exactly that.”

Vantio ThreatAvert will be available as software and as an appliance in the first quarter of 2014. A range of communications service providers around the world, including  Codetel, Telstra, LINKdotNET, EnergiMidt and Cablevision Argentina, have already invested in the solution