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Being online is fraught with dangers: Internet worms, spyware agents, Trojan horses, hijackers and more can wreak havoc, causing anything from slow performance to system crashes to full-blown identity theft. And to provide you with the kind of protection you need in these days of cyberthieves and online extortionists, your firewall must be able to monitor all inbound and outbound traffic and protect you from any unauthorized intrusion by rendering your PC invisible to anything that you haven’t authorized to see it

Outpost Firewall PRO Benefits

• NEW! Protection from spyware and identity theft
  New anti-spyware capabilities built into the program protect your computer against the rapidly increasing threats from spyware and ID theft. Spyware cannot enter, activate on, or transmit information out of computers protected by Outpost 3.5. The ID Block feature lets you determine which specific items of personal information, for example bank account numbers, are blocked from ever leaving the computer.
  
  
• Know what's happening on your PC at all times
  Outpost’s Network Activity Monitor watches every connection between your computer and the Internet, alerting you immediately to any communications that may be unauthorized so you can take appropriate action.
  
  
• Automatic, intelligent protection against hacker attacks
  Outpost’s Attack Detection automatically blocks network probes, zombie attacks, and other remote attempts to access your PC, using its continually-updated intrusion definitions database.
  
  
• Control how applications communicate
  Outpost’s Component Control, Hidden Process Control, and Open Memory Control let you decide what applications and processes on your PC are allowed to do and what - if any- outbound connections they may make. Spyware can’t phone home from an Outpost-protected PC.
  
  
• Understand the threats
  Every time Outpost 3.5 asks you for information regarding action to be taken, the new Smart Advisor helps you to choose the best course of action by displaying context-sensitive hints and live advice. So you’ll never need to wonder whether you’ve made the right security decision, and you’ll learn something new about firewall security every time.
  

Whats New: Outpost Firewall PRO 3.5
Product Info: Outpost Firewall PRO
Download: Outpost Firewall PRO 3.5

Drafted by Paranoid2000 From Outpost Forum
Outpost 3.5 - What to expect

Note: If you have followed the setup instructions in A Guide to Producing a Secure Configuration for Outpost for Application DNS, then this will not be practical under 3.5 since it has removed support for user-created or modified preset rules. While existing configurations will work, users with this setup should consider remaining with their current version of Outpost and contacting Agnitum to request this feature be reinstated.

Note 2: Beta-testers have reported issues which have yet to be fixed in the released version and some do not consider this as being ready for release. Please check the Known Issues list at the end and only install 3.5 if the extra features are likely to outweigh the reported problems.

Note 3: The rules auto-creation feature has been found to have potentially serious security implications, sometimes creating non-removable rules if the Allow Once option of a Rules Wizard popup is selected. This means that rules could be created unintentionally so it is strongly recommended that this feature be disabled (Options/Policy/Do not create rules automatically).

Forum View: Outpost 3.5 - What to expect

Agnitum's Rate Our Support Service

Announcing Agnitum's Rate our Support feedback service. In order to gain feedback and in the interest of continually improving the level of customer service and the quality of customer support, Agnitum would like interested users to visit the link provided below and comment on any experiences that they have had with Agnitum Support. Agnitum requests that you provide a Ticket Number when providing feedback.

Submit: Support Service

Agnitum Newsletter (Thursday,April 27, 2006 3:02 PM)

Agnitum Newsletter (27 April, 2006)

• Product Update: Outpost Pro 4.0 to deliver superior proactive security
• Awards Update: Outpost Pro collects four new awards from around the world
• Special Offer: Log in to multiple websites securely with AMUST 1-Login - $10 off!

Product Update: Outpost Pro 4.0 to deliver superior proactive security
 

We have exciting news for Outpost Firewall Pro fans around the world - Agnitum is going to release a new version that will feature even greater and more proactive security than you have today (and than any other personal firewall product can provide!)

Last week we started beta-testing of this new version, which we expect to publish in June 2006. We’ll bring you a progress update in next month’s newsletter. Meanwhile, et’s take a closer look at the new functionality you can expect from Outpost Pro 4.0:

Anti-Leak Features

Version 4 will deliver proactive security functionality that will block all outbound security holes. These holes are often referred to as leaks, hence the term ‘leak test’ to describe the tests created by security experts to find weaknesses in firewalls and other security products.

Most of the techniques used in leak tests are already used in spyware, Trojans, keyloggers, and Internet worms. These techniques take advantage of security flaws discovered in Windows operating systems, browsers and security software products, including suites, firewalls, anti-spyware and anti-virus programs.

Version 4 will block all currently-known techniques for bypassing security protection, including Wallbreaker, ZAbypass and PC Audit leak-tests. With this addition, Outpost Firewall Pro will become the most effective solution available to prevent sensitive data leakage from individual PCs.

Spyware Signature Analyzer

Although Outpost Pro already provides effective proactive measures to block even unknown spyware, it is important to also use a powerful signature-based analyzer to combat spyware at all stages of its malicious activity.

The spyware signature analyzer in Outpost 4.0 will provide better protection against multiple varieties of spyware, including unknown variants. The spyware scanner will use the unchanged part of the file, not the whole file, to more precisely analyze results.

Exclusive Application Verification

Most firewalls use the MD5 algorithm to make sure that applications requesting an Internet connection are legitimate. They use this approach to, for example, verify that iexplorer.exe is truly Microsoft Internet Explorer and not a Trojan or keylogger masquerading as a legitimate application.

Unfortunately, the MD5 algorithm can be bypassed using recently discovered hacking techniques, significantly reducing their ability to protect users’ machines. So Outpost Firewall Pro Version 4.0 will use the higher-security Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) 256 verification routine to identify applications during the automatic creation of network access rules through ImproveNet. This will enable Outpost to be much more precise in identifying an application, thus ensuring the  creation and distribution of the optimum rule sets, which ultimately delivers greater security for our customers.

64-bit support

Outpost Firewall Pro 4.0 will provide full support for 64-bit computers and operating systems.

Additional improvements

Version 4 will also improve overall usability and performance to ensure that all users can easily benefit from this additional security.

More news to come in our May Newsletter next month - stay tuned!

Forum News: Upcoming Outpost 4.0
View Source: Agnitum Newsletter