In today’s security-focused world, astute businesses have implemented network-perimeter defenses, including firewalls, anti-virus scanners, intrusion-detection systems and authentication services, that focus on securing the network from external threats.

Yet, few organizations have paid enough attention to the real and dangerous threats of internal attacks – specifically those that occur unintenionally and unknowingly.

According to a recent report published by the META Group, more than half of the FBI’s top-20 menaces to Internet security in 2003 were categorized as application-layer threats, which often evade perimeter controls and spread like wildfire when brought into the network through insiders.

Over the past few years, there has been a proliferation of connection points into a company’s network, including wireless LANs, PDAs and telecommuter software. Moreover, today’s mobile workforce plugs into the network with these devices from remote offices, extranets and wireless-access points, often without anti-virus products activated or even installed. As a result, these unprotected devices, employed by legitimate users, are infecting networks with application-level worms at an alarming rate.

If you think your network is secure if you don’t use these new methods of network access, think again. Employees who surf the Internet while out of the office and plug their laptops in when they arrive are potential carriers of worms and viruses. Compuquip Technologies works closely with IT professionals to help them focus on the unique demands of internal security processes, especially in the wake of a host of privacy and security laws such as GLB, HIPAA and SOX that require such action. To meet these needs, we have deployed the first internal security gateway that complements perimeter systems and provides pre-emptive real-time protection against internal threats. The product is Check Point Software’s InterSpect™.

InterSpect blocks the spread of worms and attacks from one “carrier” device to the entire network while protecting “security zones” determined by management. By segmenting the network into multiple administrator-defined security zones, InterSpect prevents unauthorized access between zones and ensures that infected computers don’t compromise other users.

If suspicious activity is detected on any computer, InterSpect quarantines the computer and isolates the attack before it can compromise the entire network. And when an infected computer is quarantined, its user receives notification via a dynamic Web page which helps to eliminate needless time spent on troubleshooting the issue.

Compuquip Technologies is one of only a handful of Check Point Platinum Partners in the United States, and the only one in Florida. For more information about internal network security and Check Point’s InterSpect, contact sales@compuquip.com or visit http://www.checkpoint.com/products/enterprise/interspect.html