07/14/2004

Forum Systems, a provider of trust management and threat protection Web services security solutions, announced immediate availability of the Forum XWall for Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004.

Forum offered these details:

Forum XWall adds to ISA Server 2004's advanced protection and ease of use capabilities with the ability to protect Web services applications against new and emerging threats and minimize downtime. Forum XWall is an add-on solution that is simple to install with a consistent user interface for ISA Server 2004, an advanced application layer firewall, VPN and Web cache solution enabling customers to easily maximize existing IT investments by improving network security and performance.

"We are pleased to be one of the first to combine the advanced protection and ease- of-use benefits of ISA Server 2004 with XML Web services security," said Wes Swenson, president and CEO, Forum Systems. "As we move to an intelligent data-level networking world, customers need solutions that maintain integrity, interoperability and availability as confidential information flows across the company to trusted partners."

As enterprises begin to deploy Web services beyond the firewall to collaborate, communicate and conduct electronic commerce with partners and customers, they face increased risk from a growing class of "hidden" security threats, including XML viruses, denial-of-service attacks and unauthorized data corruption.

Forum XWall running with ISA Server 2004 can help remove the complexity associated with deploying secure Web services for small and medium-sized businesses to large enterprises alike. The solution helps better control untrusted access to machines, messages and data while helping to prevent malicious information-borne threats as well as interoperability errors and data misuse - before they reach the application.

Building on Microsoft ISA Server 2004's enhanced application filtering architecture, Forum XWall provides XML, SOAP and Web services filtering for XML-related security checks. This ensures that Web services traffic for both inbound and outgoing XML and Web services is closely examined. Forum XWall allows users to centrally manage WSDL documents, automate complex XML Schema validation, simplify Web services registration with UDDI directories, enforce design-time and run-time WS-I Basic Profile testing, create fine-grained access control for WSDL operations and SOAP messages, and configure XML intrusion prevention rules.

"Customers have told us that they are increasingly deploying Web services to enhance business processes, but they are concerned about security," said David Gardner, business development manager of the Security Business and Technology Unit at Microsoft Corp. "Forum XWall technology running on ISA Server 2004 provides one of the first solutions to help customers effectively secure their Web services deployments."

Forum XWall is one of the industry's first Web services security solutions equipped with data authentication, SSL concentration with XML intrusion prevention and WS-I Basic Profile interoperability enforcement at the network edge - the only way to protect against hidden XML viruses, data corruption, denial of Web service attacks and service failures before they reach the application. Forum XWall helps ensure critical applications are appropriately accessible and continuously available by allowing network administrators to enforce perimeter policies that check the integrity of data and control access to exposed enterprise Web services.