VPNC Update for January, 2006

Welcome to the latest issue of the VPNC Update. We hope you find the news in this issue valuable.

VPNC Year In Review, Year Looking Forward

2005 turned out to be a very strong year for the SSL VPN industry, with many new vendors entering the market, and many established vendors adding significant new features to their existing products. In January, VPNC announced its first SSL Interoperability logos for VPNs. In April, VPNC followed with the SSL Firefox Interoperability logos, and in September, we added the SSL File Access Interoperability logos.

Although VPNC did not add any new tests to its IPsec interoperability series of logos, it added many new systems from both new and long-established vendors. Systems that received new IPsec interoperability logos include those from D-Link, Internet Security Systems, NETGEAR, Nokia, Qno, and SonicWALL; over a dozen systems which had significant software upgrades were re-tested and passed the tests without problems. There are now 42 systems with the Basic Interoperability logo, all interoperating with each other.

We expect 2006 to bring noticeable progress in both sides of the secure VPN market, as well as in the trusted VPN market.

In the past few months, many SSL VPN vendors have upgraded their products to allow more testing of the remote client before the client can connect to the corporate network, thereby protecting the network from systems infected with malware. This, plus better tunneling of more protocols, will allow them to expand their presence in the security market in the coming year.
There will be many vendors with IPsec products running IKEv2, which could help rejuvenate the IPsec remote access market, particularly in large corporations. On the low end, as vendors adopt the new standard for IPsec cryptography suites (see RFC 4308), setup of IPsec systems will become easier. As the number of NATs continues to rise, IPsec's NAT-traversal features will become even more valuable. VPNC hopes to have new interoperability testing and logos for all three of these areas in the near future.
The trusted VPN market will continue to grow as more large organizations invest in long-distance VoIP networks with guaranteed quality of service.

All told, 2006 looks like a very exciting year for the VPN industry and VPNC.

VPNC Testing News

This month, one member with a new system received both the IPsec Basic Interoperability and IPsec AES Interoperability logos:

Internet Security Systems, Proventia

See the VPNC testing page for full lists of all the VPNC members' products which have proven interoperability.

Recent VPNC Member Press Releases

See the VPNC member list for a complete list of VPNC members.

AEP Networks
AEP Netilla Security Platform Achieves High Marks in Network World's SSL VPN Interoperability Testing

AEP Networks
AEP Networks Unveils Latest Netilla Security Platform SSL VPN, Featuring Client Machine Identity and Seamless Citrix and Windows Terminal Services Support

Caymas
Caymas 220 Named As Best 50 Business Products Of 2005

Caymas
Caymas Systems Positioned In The "Visionary" Quadrant On 3q05 SSL VPN Magic Quadrant

Check Point
Check Point Advances Internal Security with New InterSpect NGX

Cisco
Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2006 Ships With Linksys Router

D-Link
D-Link Unleashes Netdefend Line Of High Performance Firewall, VPN And Application Security Appliances For Small-To-Medium Business

eSoft
eSoft ThreatWall Named Finalist in Two Categories for SC Magazine Awards 2006

F5
Dragon Airlines Selects F5's FirePass SSL VPN Solution to Give Its Staff Around the World Reliable Access to the Corporate Network and Applications

F5
F5 Networks Named a Top 50 Technology Innovator for 2005 by IT Week Magazine

Internet Security Systems
Internet Security Systems Adds Artillery to the Battle against Spyware

Ixia
Ixia's IxTriplePlay Toolset Contributes Significantly to Successful Moonv6 Network Test Event

Juniper
Magic Quadrants Position Juniper Networks in Leaders Quadrant for SSL VPN and Network IPS Appliances

Juniper
Juniper Networks SSL VPN Series Wins "Editor's Choice" Award from Hong Kong IT Publication

NETGEAR
NETGEAR ProSafe Smart Switch Line Clear Market Leader with Dominant Revenue Share in Fastest Growing Category of Switches in 2005

NETGEAR
NETGEAR Elevates Its Commitment to Quality With Extension of Lifetime Warranty to Entire ProSafe 7000 Series of L2 and L3 Managed Switches

Nortel
Nortel Acquires Tasman Networks to Strengthen End-to-End Convergence Solutions

Novell
Novell Revolutionizes Identity Management to Enhance Security and Compliance Across the Enterprise

Novell
Novell to Provide Security, Systems Management and Linux to United Kingdom's National Health Service

SafeNet
SafeNet Completes Acquisition of Eracom Technologies AG

SonicWALL
Spencer Gifts Charters SonicWALL To Protect Nationwide Retail Network

VPN Standards News

We have RFCs! The suite of standards that make up IKEv2 and the minor revisions to IPsec have finally made it through the RFC publication process. In the IETF, a document becomes a standard when it is approved by the IESG, which in the case of IKEv2 was 15 months ago. However, many people don't think that protocols are "real" standards until the RFCs are published.

The new IKEv2 RFC, RFC 4306, is being actively used by VPNC members. VPNC is doing early in-house interoperability testing of IKEv2 for its members, and expects to to be issuing interoperability logos for IKEv2 in the first half of this year. (VPNC is glad to work with its members while their products are in beta test in order to help assure them of interoperability before they launch.)

An important adjunct document, RFC 4307, describes the cryptographic algorithms that implementers need to use when creating IKEv2 systems. A companion to the new IKEv2 RFC is the IKEv2 Clarifications document. It collects the observations of developers who are creating IKEv2 implementations. The clarifications document is nearly complete, and is expected to become an Informational RFC. There will also be a new version of the IKEv2 RFC that includes the clarifications; work on that document has just begun, but should not take long to complete.

A list of the other RFCs and Internet Drafts related to VPNs is always available from the VPN standards page on the VPNC web site.

Upcoming VPN-related Events

RSA Conference 2006
San Jose, California / February 13-17, 2006
The RSA Conference is one of the largest security-specific expositions in the world. It has a very wide educational track and a large exposition floor; many VPNC members exhibit at the show every year. VPNC's director, Paul Hoffman, will lead the panel on "The Future of One-way Hash Functions in the IETF".

About This Mailing List

The VPNC Update is a low-volume, one-way newsletter to inform people about news in the VPN industry. Subscription is open to everyone, members and non-members alike. Previous issues of the newsletter can be found here. If you have questions about the content of VPNC Update, or suggestions or information for future issues, please send them to Paul Hoffman, VPNC's director.

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