IBM ISS to Launch Branch IPS

IBM ISS on Monday will roll out a low-end intrusion prevention system (IPS) aimed at enterprise branch offices, ATMs, point-of-sale systems, and kiosks, as well as small- to medium-sized businesses, Dark Reading has learned.

The new desktop-sized IPS appliance -- the Proventia Network IPS GX3002 -- gives IBM ISS a lower-cost option for smaller sites and businesses than the Proventia Network IPS G400, which was overkill for some smaller businesses with four ports and support for two network segments, says Alain Sergile, an IBM ISS product manager. The new GX3002 is priced less than half of the price of the G400, at $4,000.

"This is to fill our [IPS] portfolio," Sergile says. The device operates on a single network segment at up to 10 Mbit/s of throughput.

Sergile says initial customers of the new IPS are mostly in the financial services and banking industries, as well as some manufacturing companies, with branch sites.

Whether the price point will be right for smaller companies is unclear, however. Rob Ayoub, industry manager for network security at Frost & Sullivan, says he sees the GX3002 as more of a solution for branch offices of larger companies, as well as for mid-sized companies. "It depends on the user base. [Smaller] companies looking for IPSes are probably a little more security-conscious... or are doing sensitive work."

"We're definitely hearing more about IPSes moving out of just the largest companies and into mid-tier ones," he says.

IBM ISS joins IPS vendors such as Cisco, Juniper, Sourcefire, and TippingPoint in the low-end IPS market. Sergile says the main difference with IBM ISS's new IPS is that it includes a protocol analysis module for catching unknown threats. It also integrates with IBM's Proventia Management SiteProtector system.

Sergile says those financial services companies and retailers that currently run IPSes for their ATMs, kiosks, and POSes have been doing so via software. "It's easier to manage if you have a dedicated piece of hardware and don't have to continually upgrade the IPS with the OS."

— Kelly Jackson Higgins, Senior Editor, Dark Reading