Control the Application, Block the Threat
Applications are integral to virtually all cyber threats. In
some cases, the application is the threat, such as a botnet
communicating via a peer-to-peer network. In other cases the
threat is enabled by an application that provides a vector for the
threat or obscuring it from security solutions, such as an SSL
encrypted browser session that obscures the delivery of malware.
By leveraging App-ID™, Palo Alto Networks provides visibility
into all applications, where they can be controlled by policy and
fully inspected for threats. Undesirable applications such as P2P
file sharing, external proxies or circumventors, can be summarily
blocked, or limited to the few users with a valid use case.
Additionally, staff can easily restrict applications by their ability
to tunnel other applications, transfer files, or history of being
used by malware. These controls can instantly reduce the attack
surface of the enterprise. Applications that are permitted can
be controlled and inspected at a very granular level for viruses,
spyware and vulnerability exploits. App-ID enhances the threat
prevention logic through the use of more than 100 application
and protocol decoders, which further reveal exactly where to
look for different types of threats