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Intel’s McAfee buys Finnish firewall specialist Stonesoft for $389M

David Meyer — Mon, 06 May 2013 07:39:09 +0000

McAfee has bought Finnish network security outfit Stonesoft for $389 million in cash. It’s the biggest purchase the U.S. giant has made since it was itself bought by Intel for $7.68 billion back in 2010.

Although it’s always been very important, network security seems to be attracting an increasing amount of attention these days, largely due to high-profile hacks. The Stonesoft acquisition, should it go through the usual regulatory hoops, will give Intel a boost in the areas of firewalls, evasion prevention systems and secure VPN services.

Here’s how McAfee president Michael DeCesare put it in a statement on Monday morning:

“With the pending addition of Stonesoft’s products and services, McAfee is making a significant investment in next-generation firewall technology. These solutions anticipate emerging customer needs in a continually evolving threat landscape.”

McAfee will blend Stonesoft’s services with its own existing portfolio, in particular its IPS Network Security Platform and its Firewall Enterprise product, and it looks like Stonesoft’s “next-generation” firewall will continue to be a product in its own right. In the statement, Stonesoft CEO Ilkka Hiidenheimo noted that “the combination of the two companies allows Stonesoft to benefit from McAfee’s global presence and sales organization of over 2,200 employees, best-in-class threat research and technology synergies.”

Intel said in January that it intended to “deliver more integrated solutions and comprehensive protection across mobile devices, endpoints, servers, and network through an extensible framework,” and would embark on a series of acquisitions, development initiatives and new partnerships to do so. The Stonesoft buy appears to be a pretty loud shot in that salvo.

Stonesoft’s secret sauce is its Security Engine, which can adapt to act as firewall, unified threat management system, server load balancer or VPN concentrator as needed. The company’s military-grade firewalls can be deployed as software or in the form of hardware or virtualized appliances. It’s not yet clear what will happen to the parts of Stonesoft’s portfolio not mentioned in the statement, such as its intrusion prevention system, which is also powered by the Security Engine.

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Boingo Wi-Finder for iOS smartly adds data usage tracking

Kevin C. Tofel — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 07:00:05 +0000

Boingo Wireless, the company with a virtual Wi-Fi network comprised of more than 500,000 hotspots, officially added a data usage feature to its app for iOS on Thursday. The new Boingo Wi-Finder for iOS is available in the iTunes App Store and remains free of charge, although Boingo’s network services typically have a cost associated. The company does have some free Wi-Fi options, most recently a collaboration with Google for free Wi-Fi access sponsored by Google Offers.

The data usage tracker is exactly what a wireless network finder app should include as it demonstrates the benefits of offloading data from expensive cellular networks to lower priced, or free, Wi-Fi hotspots.

I took an early look at the new software on my iPhone 4S and it couldn’t be simpler to use. You just enter the amount of mobile broadband data your smartphone plan allows, as well as your costs on a per Gigabyte basis. The app also needs to know what day of the month your data plan billing cycle starts. After that, the app tracks both Wi-Fi and cellular usage, providing information on how much money you’re saving through using Wi-Fi.

The tracking information appears in an easy-to-read graph and there’s a constantly updated pie chart showing the percentage of time your iPhone or iPad is using Wi-Fi vs cellular data. The software also projects three metrics for the month, based on your usage history: Total data usage; Cellular usage; and Wi-Fi usage. The savings from using Wi-Fi is calculated through your per Gigabyte broadband cost.

Boingo’s updated app keeps the original features from its 2011 debut, so you can use it to find Wi-Fi hotspots nearby. It also includes a free VPN function for secure Wi-Fi connections. I like the addition of the data usage tracking because it can provide a true picture of data usage on both cellular and Wi-Fi networks. We know that Wi-Fi offload can help reduce cellular network demand, but according to research from Parks Associates, 50 percent of smartphone owners don’t know how much data they use each month.

Sure, you could look at your smartphone bill, but that’s after the fact — when you may have overages to pay — and it’s too late to take advantage of Wi-Fi offloading at that point. A combined data usage tool with a Wi-Fi finder provides the opportunity to proactively avoid overages or bandwidth throttling, helping to save money and give a better mobile experience at the same time.

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Olympic winners: How NBC’s authentication helped VPN providers

Janko Roettgers — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 19:03:22 +0000

NBC is streaming some 3,500 hours of video live from the London Olympics – but access to the live streams is restricted to pay TV subscribers who have access to MSNBC and CNBC as part of their TV bundle.

That leaves out quite a few viewers. Cord cutters, for example, but also subscribers to low-cost satellite bundles have to follow the games on TV, where coverage is limited and tape-delayed.

Or they have to look elsewhere — and a number of more tech-savvy viewers are turning to VPN providers to access live streams from the BBC or other foreign media organizations. One provider told us that installs of his software tripled since the games started.

From security to free TV

Virtual private networks, or VPNs, have been around for a long time. The corporate world uses this technology to offer remote workers secure access to PCs in their office. Security-conscious web workers have been paying for VPN services to encrypt the traffic they’re sending over public Wi-Fi hotspots. And an increasing number of TV fans have been using VPNs to access foreign streaming services.

The technology behind these different use cases is fundamentally the same: A user connects to a remote server, which then forwards the traffic to other servers. One benefit can be that the connection between the user and the remote VPN server is encrypted. Another is that to other servers, it looks like the user is accessing them from a different IP address.

That second part is what a number of VPN providers have been cashing in on. Video services like Hulu or Netflix regularly block all traffic from countries they’re not officially launched in yet. Users can circumvent this by accessing a VPN provider that offers them an IP number from the same country as the service they’re trying to access.

Suddenly, we all want to be British

The BBC blocks access to its Olympics live streams to anyone who doesn’t have a U.K. IP address.

Usually, this means that users in other countries access VPNs to pretend that they live in the U.S. Hulu is especially popular with foreign VPN users, and some have even figured out how to pay for Netflix with a U.S. credit card and then access it from abroad. But during the London games, this trend was suddenly reversed — and everyone wanted to be British.

Case in point: VPN provider AnchorFree, which targets foreign Hulu fans with a special offering called Expat Shield, usually serves 93 percent of its software downloads to users outside of the U.S. However, during the Olympics, 46 percent of all new users came from the States.

But Americans weren’t the only ones looking for access to the BBC’s streaming offering. Business was up across the board for Expat Shield during the games. A company spokesperson told us that the service usually registers around 3,400 new users per day. During the games, that number went up to almost 10,700.

VPNs are here to stay

Of course, those are small numbers, which might explain why NBC doesn’t care about the money VPN providers are making with the circumvention of its pay TV authentication wall. (AnchorFree’s offering is ad-supported, but many other companies are charging between $5 and $15 for access to their servers.) Even if tens of thousands of viewers were paying for VPN services, it would still be a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of millions NBC makes with retrans fees they’re charging cable providers.

The same is true for foreign rights, which is why territorial restrictions for services like Hulu and Netflix aren’t going to go away anytime soon. Of course, that also means that people who are tech-savvy enough are going to use VPNs to access foreign video providers. And the Olympics likely helped to introduce a whole bunch of new users to this idea.

Image courtesy of (CC-BY-SA) Flickr user mark sebastian.

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Cloud computing infrastructure: 2012 and beyond

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 06:55:39 +0000

Cloud computing continues to change and shape the technology industry, and these days discussions are about more than simply reorganizing the IT department. New developments in chip and hardware architectures, finding greener data centers, regulatory concerns and simplifying data analytics are all discussions currently circling through the industry. For this report, GigaOM Pro has gathered six of its analysts to discuss these topics and others in current cloud market. Here we present several areas to consider when thinking about your business in the cloud.

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Hotspot Shield lets your Android surf safely over public Wi-Fi

Kevin C. Tofel — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:00:54 +0000

Looking for a little safety and mobile privacy at that public hotspot? AnchorFree’s Hotspot Shield app might be worth the look for your smartphone: The company launched an Android version of the mobile app in Google Play on Thursday, complementing its iOS edition that was introduced last year. The software is a multi-purpose utility, combining VPN web browsing with anti-malware and broadband data compression.

Normally, I’m not a fan of security focused software; I generally find that if you’re smart about what you install and where you surf online, your risk of infection is fairly minimal. But given how open the Android Market is — apps aren’t under vigorous review — and a history of widespread malware apps hitting Android devices, I don’t think such solutions are a bad idea. And by combining other useful features, such as private browsing on public networks and reducing bandwidth, Hotspot Shield becomes a little more compelling.

There are two versions of Hotspot Shield: One free and one called “Elite”, which costs $1.99 per month or $19.99 for a year’s subscription. The free version offers unlimited VPN (virtual private network) browsing and protection from about a million known security threats, but to add the data compression and more widespread protection — roughly 3.5 million malware, phishing and spam threats – you’ll have to ante up the monthly or yearly fee. Owners of multiple Android devices only have to pay one time, which is nice. You can also get the Elite version for free by completing some advertising offers that earn credits towards the Elite price.

Again, I personally don’t buy into some of the security hype, but there’s no harm in cheap insurance. And HotSpot’s VPN service brings not only privacy and protection when surfing on a handset, but also can help get to sites or services that could be blocked on a network. Add in the data compression, which could hedge against potential data overage charges and Hotspot Shield sounds like a potent mobile combo.

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Consumer VPN provider AnchorFree raises $52M from Goldman Sachs

Ryan Kim — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:55:33 +0000

AnchorFree, maker of the Hotspot Shield consumer virtual private network, has raised $52 million in a Series C financing from Goldman Sachs. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company has raised $63 million in total since launching in 2005.

AnchorFree’s HotSpot Shield tool has been downloaded 60 million times with 100 million monthly user sessions and more than two billion page views per month, according to the company. The service provides users with a temporary IP address and encrypts their data so they can browse safely. HotSpot Shield is popular with travelers and web users in countries with censorship LAWS, allowing them to browse without being tracked. It also provides a level of malware protection by detecting unsecured Wi-Fi networks and blocking known malware sites.

In November, the company launched its first mobile app for iOS, which has been downloaded 1 million times. The service also added data compression that can cut down data usage by up to half. An Android app is still in the works.

AnchorFree co-founder and CEO David Gorodyansky said in a statement that the money will go toward expanding the company’s business as it tries to grab a bigger piece of its addressable market of 1.6 billion users who it feels need a secure browsing solution, Internet privacy, and freedom online. AnchorFree offers free ad-supported versions for the Mac and PC along with paid versions that offer more malware protection and faster browsing. The iPhone app is free for seven days and then charges for additional HotSpot Shield protection.

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The iPad gets its own VPN with iSimplyConnect

Erica Ogg — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 12:00:08 +0000

As the dynamics of how we work change — we’re away from offices, on mobile devices, and often dependent on a mobile broadband connection — the tools to enable easy access and smooth experiences of getting that work done are beginning to pop up. The latest example is iSimplyConnect, a pay-as-you-go VPN service specifically built for the iPad and aimed at smaller companies.

iSimplyConnect, which officially launches on Tuesday, is a service that lets workers access their company’s network remotely via an iPad (or iPhone). The service is a monthly subscription, which means you only pay for the months you choose to use it. Asavie, the company behind the service, charges $15 a month for up to three users, $40/month for up to 10 users, $95/month for 11 to 25 users and $180/month for 26 to 50 users. It’s different than something like LogMeIn or GoToMyPC in that it provides a secure network connection behind your company’s firewall and your personal work computer doesn’t have to be turned on for iSimplyConnect to work.

Though this new service is its first direct-to-business-customers venture, the company behind iSimplyConnect is not new to telecom or networking. Asavie, based in Dublin, Ireland has been providing secure networking services to partners like Vodafone, Telefonica and AT&T for almost a decade. But with seven years of working on the core, proprietary technology, CEO Ralph Shaw said it was time to figure out a way to also offer a new service directly to end users.

iSimplyConnect targets businesses of about 50 employees or fewer. It can work fine for companies with thousands of employees, Shaw said, but those are the kind of companies who already have huge contracts with systems integrators who handle this kind of service themselves via technology from Juniper or Cisco, he figures. Shaw and company are looking to be a cheaper, cloud-based alternative for small companies that don’t have a ton to spend on VPN services but want just-as-good security and ease of use.

It’s pretty good timing, too, as Apple looks to have another hit on its hands with the new iPad. And while consumers are snapping them up, these iPads are likely getting used at work: an NPD survey at the end of 2011 found that 73 percent of small- and medium-sized businesses planned to buy tablets in 2012, and “most” indicated those tablets would be iPads, according to NPD. And tablets are not just tools for checking corporate e-mail — they’re for creating presentations, charts, reports, documents, data visualizations, filling out forms and much more more. So it’s natural that workers would want access to secure files and documents even when away from the office.

Risk factors and the iPad

The iPad, besides growing in popularity among business customers, Shaw says, is attractive to companies weighing enterprise IT security concerns, “because it’s effectively a closed environment from an enterprise perspective. It’s much safer to use, and from security and risk perspective you’re minimizing your risks round losing data and so forth. It’s a much better design for controlling risks that enterprises worry about all the time.”

iSimplyConnect’s core technology enables Asavie to provide a virtual VPN, and it all takes place in the company’s data centers in Dublin, Denver and at another location in the U.K. Here’s the technical explanation of what goes on once you’ve hooked your iPad up to the service, according to Asavie:

Once connected our service securely routes the device’s traffic to the customer’s Office Network. The iSimplyConnect Server, during installation, enrolls in our public key infrastructure (PKI) and gets issued with an X.509 Certificate for all future authentication to our cloud. The iSimplyConnect Server maintains an always-on connection to our cloud by connecting (outbound) via TLS on TCP port 443. This means that you don’t need a static IP address or open and/or port-forward on interface firewall. When your iPad communicates over their iSimplyConnect VPN, their connections “magically” appear from behind the iSimplyConnect Server.

But one thing iSimplyConnect is basing its appeal on is its ability to hide all that complicated technology — to make it seamless and not frustrating for the end user. “We’ve tried to boil it down as simple as possible,” said Shaw. “We’re taking pain away … the complexity, we’ve brought it up to the [data] center and hidden it from the customer.”

I can vouch that this took very little time to set up and I didn’t have to have experience as a sys admin to understand the process. To use iSimplyConnect you need an always-on Windows machine or server, and once you install the software (which is free for the first 15 days) on it, you then download the free app from the iOS App Store to each user’s iPad. Once you input your email address and PIN to let you join your company’s network, you’re in business. A little “VPN” icon on the top left corner of the iPad will tell you when it’s on. You’ll never have to even open the app again on your iPad, unless you want to mess with the settings.

It’s a smart move to target mobile workers with iPads as it’s a growing segment. But being cheap and easy to use doesn’t mean that far bigger companies couldn’t push iSimplyConnect out of the way some day. As for whether iSimplyConnect might expand its appeal and work on competing mobile platforms some day, Shaw basically said that the company will wait to see if a decent tablet competitor emerges.

“At the moment our belief is it’s Apple’s market. Our conentration is to be No. 1 with No. 1. That’s where we’re at and our focus,” he said. “We don’t see others ready for prime time at the moment. Our focus is very much on trying to do as good as we can with the iPad.”

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The new IT manager, part 1

Dow Brook Advisory Services — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:55:53 +0000

The days of IT departments dictating which computing assets would be used and how are numbered, in large part because of three trends that are converging on organizations and their IT departments: cloud computing, mobile computing and the consumerization of IT. This first section of our three-part report describes and quantifies each of these trends, demonstrating that they are real now, growing rapidly and perilous to ignore.

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Quality of the cloud: best practices for ISVs

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:53:22 +0000

Demand for cloud computing continues to increase exponentially as consumers, businesses and government agencies seek to defer the expense of acquiring, operating and maintaining infrastructure and applications to third-party service providers. Likewise, software publishers are finding the cloud computing model an efficient and effective mechanism for delivering their products as a service and as an operational expense to their customers. For independent software vendors, cloud computing is opening up new markets and making their applications more accessible and affordable to scores of new customers. For a multitude of reasons, many ISVs are choosing to forego data center development and are partnering with hosting providers that have the infrastructure, resources and expertise in managing and delivering cloud services. This report provides ISVs with guidance on partnering with hosting companies, establishing criteria for selecting a hosting service, metrics for measuring hosting performance as it relates to cloud services delivered and an understanding of the responsibilities they retain even when outsourcing a large part of their services functions to a third party. Companies mentioned in this report include Microsoft, Google and Salesforce.com. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial.

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AnchorFree’s Hotspot Shield for iOS protects browsing, crunches data

Ryan Kim — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:00:16 +0000

AnchorFree, which distributes the world’s most popular consumer virtual private network (VPN), is bringing its Hotspot Shield to iOS devices. If this sounds somewhat familiar, it may be because AnchorFree released a work-around hack to make use of Hotspot Shield on the iPhone in 2008. But unlike that previous long multi-step process, AnchorFree is now going with a full native app that offers not only safe, private browsing but a new data compression service similar to Onavo that can potentially halve a user’s data consumption.

Hotspot Shield for iOS provides users with a protected gateway that allows them to browse safely on unsecured networks, keeping their passwords, financial information and other data secure. Hotspot Shield provides people with a temporary IP address and encrypts their data so they can browse safely, away from prying eyes. Hotspot Shield is already used by about 10 million people around the world, especially by web users in countries with censorship.

The privacy aspect alone should appeal to users who travel abroad or visit a lot of hotspots. And with the rise of mobile devices, the computing burden is shifting to smartphones and tablets, which are in danger from the same security threats that face their desktop cousins.

But Hotspot Shield is also offering a second service to entice users. It’s got a data compression feature that can cut down data usage by up to half, helping users stay under the data caps that are in use by most cellular carriers. Hotspot Shield compresses all text and images through its servers but doesn’t address video yet. Users can choose between high, medium and low settings to set how much compression is applied, which affects image quality.

David Gorodyansky, co-founder and CEO of AnchorFree said the app has taken a while because of scaling and engineering issues. But he said it comes at an opportune time, as mobile devices are exploding and data caps are being used to constrain network traffic. Gorodyansky thinks the move into data compression made sense, and says it will be just the first of more features added to Hotspot Shield.

“It’s logical step for us because we’re already securing the data stream so it makes sense for us to speed up the traffic and optimize it and make it as beneficial to users as possible,” he said.

Users can try the app for free for seven days, and then subscribe to service for 99 cents a month or $9.99 a year, with one subscription covering multiple iOS devices. AnchorFree is also throwing in two hours worth of free Skype calls for users who subscribe. An Android version is expected later this year.

As I mentioned before, the increasing use of data caps is bringing out a lot more companies touting their data crunching tools. You have to be okay with a company handling your personal traffic, but in the case of AnchorFree, many users already trust it with their data, so the company has a good head start.

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