Dubai, Dec. 13th, 2006 (WAM)---Etisalat yesterday presented participantsat the Hacker Halted Conference held at the Sheikh Rashid Hall,Dubai International Convention Centre from December 11-12, 2006in Dubai with an informed perspective on the latest firewalltechnologies impacting the security posture of enterprises. Theconference was organized by 32Group and Dubai Informatics ComputerCentre with Etisalat being a gold sponsor of the event.

The presentation by Rashed Al Abbar , eSecurity Product Manager,Etisalat titled "New Firewall Technologies" highlighted the shiftin firewall technologies to a more versatile platform.

Traditional firewalls became redundant due to inherent limitationssuch as being geared only towards perimeter defense and not gearedto combat threats from within the enterprise itself. System administratorswere also forced to deal with complex firewall systems .

This growing complexity eventually forced security companiesto integrate security applications and services into a singlesystem giving rise to Unified Threat Management (UTM). Underthis product category, devices have a dedicated hardware (ASIC-Application Specific Integrated Circuit) for each security applicationon the appliance improving performance dramatically.

A UTM base approach can lead to less server proliferation allowingenterprises and managed security service provider to manage securityremotely. Protection from blended threats requires a comprehensivesecurity solution that contains unified layers of defense andresponse mechanisms with centralized management and this is wherea UTM device can play a major role.

In September 2004, IDC became the first industry analyst firmto recognize UTM as a product category predicting that this wouldsoon be the norm for the industry by end 2008.

According to Rashed Al Abbar," UTM reduces complexity with acomprehensive systems oriented modular approach that simplifiessecurity function selection, integration and support. Etisalatin its move towards becoming a managed security services provideris well positioned to offer such technology to enterprises andSMEs. A growing number of Fortune 100 enterprises , carriersand managed security service providers are turning to advancedUTM platforms to offer modular security more cost effectivelyand flexibly on a single system.

"Etisalat is pleased to be participating in such a relevant industryevent and this highlights our commitment to increase industryawareness and shape discussions on the latest technology trendsimpacting the security scenario today. " Etisalat 's Enterprise eSecurity Services currently help organisationsacross the UAE secure their infrastructure through PKI services,vulnerability assessment, managed security services and compliancemanagement with standards like ISO 27001.