How would you know if a system on your network was leaking data to Nigeria?

How can you get a simple global heat map?

Being able to assess incoming threats in real time, export reports that inform key decision makers and analyze network usage as it ebbs and flows is a vital tool for fighting the threats, vulnerabilities and attacks that businesses around the world face. In network security, visibility is protection. Unfortunately, a recent survey by the SANS Institute shows that only 10 percent of respondents felt confident analyzing large data sets for security trends, even though 77 percent are collecting logs and monitoring data from various systems and security devices.

And, this lack of visibility gets worse. In a recent survey conducted by WatchGuard and Slashdot of security professionals, WatchGuard found that:

• 51 percent of respondents reported having only limited or even zero visibility into which applications are consuming bandwidth.
• 51 percent of respondents could not identify which geography a detected threat originates from.
• 40 percent of those surveyed would take multiple hours or even multiple days to compile a compliance report for 48 hours of traffic.
• 33 percent of respondents would either require more than an hour identify the source of a problem in their network or were unable to identify sources regardless of time frame, posing a huge security risk for their networks.

To date, security professionals have had to rely on log data and perhaps some basic geomaps (or use complex and costly SIEM solutions). At times, those logs can feel like drowning in a sea of data. But, all of this is about to change. Today, WatchGuard announces the availability of WatchGuard Dimension – free with the new WatchGuard OS 11.8 and standard on any new XTM appliance.

Analyze ALL THE DATA

A recent report from Frost & Sullivan analyst Frank Dixon recommends that “reporting tools need to aggregate information across multiple security service to enable a singular view, allowing for ease in management and greater effectiveness of network security problem diagnosis.”  WatchGuard Dimension is a big data-style network security visibility solution that’s now standard on WatchGuard’s flagship XTM Unified Threat Management platform. To learn more about the importance of increased visibility in UTM systems, you can read this white paper that outlines the factors companies need to consider.

Get instant visibility to top-line security issues. Instantly grasp activity by top user, site or app. Home in on risk sources. Now you’re armed with actionable insight, delivered in a unified view. Here are the key features of WatchGuard Dimension:

Executive Dashboard: Provides a high-level view of the various data streams being monitored. With just a click, users can drill all the way down to individual log data, as needed.

Executive Reporting: With the Executive Reporting function, users can choose from more than 70 comprehensive reports, with both summary and detail options tailored for C-level executives, IT directors, compliance officers and small business owners. Summary report options include specific HIPAA and PCI compliance reports, plus the ability to pre-schedule reports for delivery to key stakeholders in a user’s organizations. These reports can be exported to sharable PDFs.

Hierarchical TreeMap:WatchGuard Dimension’s TreeMap, called FireWatch, filters traffic in a way that instantly brings your eye to the most critical information on active users and connections, as well as who and what is using the most bandwidth. The TreeMap view also provides options to pivot, drill-down and filter.

Global ThreatMap: ThreatMap features multiple, interactive configurable views on a world map, making it possible to have real time views of threats per region. That information is critical to helping users identify and fine-tune defenses against those attacks.

Building a product like this is not just something we do lightly. We know there will be some adjustments to the new user interface. The survey data we mentioned earlier highlights the difficulty of utilizing raw data logs to quickly assess a threat or analyze data consumption to make assertive policy decisions. WatchGuard Dimension is now available with WatchGuard’s 11.8 launch of its XTM security platform solution. But there’s more in the release too. We have added Data Loss Prevention to the platform and updated the Web user interface to make it responsive and compatible with mobile devices.

Ready to try it out? For complete Dimension information and features, please click here.

Keep your eye out for these five top threats and follow WatchGuard Technologies basic security tips and you’ll surely enjoy a happy holiday season, and hopefully nab a cool treat for you and your family during this shopping season.

LogicalTech is one of the leading Professional Partner with WatchGuard Technologies in Australia. Find out more by contacting an authorized WatchGuard reseller, LogicalTech today.

This special technology report is submitted by Cassidy Poon, National Marketing Manager for LogicalTech Group and Cassidy Poon is one of Australia’s leading B2B Enterprise Technology Media Publicist.