Forum Systems, a pioneer in API security technology, has announced industry-first new capabilities in its 2017 Silver ‘ASTORS’ Award Winning Forum Sentry API Security Gateway that enables enterprises and government organizations, to securely leverage the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for key business initiatives.
Further advancing the state-of-the-art in API security gateway technology, Forum Sentry now features a REST API for rapid deployment in virtual, cloud and containerized environments.
Now, more than ever, organizations are adopting on-demand platforms to power their businesses.
In fact, Forrester forecasts that in 2018 “more than 50% of global enterprises will rely on at least one public cloud platform to drive digital transformation and delight customers.”
Addressing these realities, while offering maximum deployment flexibility, Forum Systems is making Forum Sentry available in an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) form factor to ensure customers launch security-hardened Amazon EC2 instances.
Additionally, the new REST API supports autonomous deployment and fully automated provisioning of Forum Sentry in elastic computing environments.
“Amazon and other major cloud providers require customers to allow root administrator access to their infrastructure,” explains Forum Systems CEO Mamoon Yunus.
“While a boon to the cloud companies – which benefit from a wealth of monitoring and metrics data – these pathways lay bare customers’ operating systems to potential attack and compromise.”
“By routing their network traffic through Forum Sentry, organizations can securely harness the power of virtualization, cloud computing, and containers – and achieve peace of mind.”
The only API security gateway to achieve NIST FIPS 140-2 Level 2 and Common Criteria NIAP Network Device Protection Profile certification, Forum Sentry protects and accelerates data exchange and API service access across networks and business boundaries, significantly reducing the cost and complexity of centralizing security, identity, and governance.
Serving as an information broker deployed as a logical API protecting applications and services, Forum Sentry precludes clients from directly accessing application and services tiers.
This unmatched level of security prevents identity compromise and enables SSO authentication and session management achievement – without required code changes or manipulation to backend systems.
(The Forum Sentry API security gateway enables enterprises to manage complex API access in an agile, highly secure manner. Forum Sentry is a tier 0 edge solution that is fully compliant with leading security standards. Courtesy of Forum Systems and YouTube)
To continue to differentiate itself from the competition and deliver customer value, Forum Systems introduced several other key capabilities in this latest version of Forum Sentry, including:
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Richer Performance Metrics, Analytics and Reporting Capabilities
- Forum Sentry now provides more granular visibility into individual transaction latencies (with seven-segment latency breakdown).
- Additionally, customers can seamlessly integrate with any Big Data analytics engine or monitoring infrastructure for:
- Real-time and historical traffic flow profiling,
- Archiving, and
- Heuristics learning of APIs, cloud services and on-premises application performance behavior
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Support for the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) System Wide Information Management (SWIM) Program
- Forum Sentry now complies with the FAA SWIM information sharing platform for secure identity using SAML, Binary Security Tokens and Username token formats.
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Compliance Exacting Critical Infrastructure Security Mandates
- Forum Sentry is now certified to comply with the strict cryptographic requirements of the U.S. Presidential Executive Order on Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure, and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre.
Lead Analyst at KuppingerCole
Notably, in a recent KuppingerCole Executive View: Forum Sentry API Security Gateway report, Senior Analyst Alexei Balaganski, acknowledged Forum Sentry as an “integrated platform for API and service security, access management and legacy application modernization with a strong focus on ‘security by design.’”
Emphasizing that Forum Sentry is “still the only product on the market where security forms the integral foundation of the architecture,” Balaganski deemed it “recommended for evaluation by any organization looking for the highest grade of security and reliability for their API infrastructure.”
The 2017 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program
American Security Today’s 2017 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Awards Presentation Luncheon at ISC East was an overwhelming success, with distinguished guests from National, State and Local Governments, and Industry Leading Corporate Executives from companies allied to Government.
Over 100 professionals gathered from across North America and the Middle East to be honored from disciplines across the Security Industry in their respective fields which included:
- The Department of Homeland Security
- The Department of Justice
- The Security Exchange Commission
- State and Municipal Law Enforcement Agencies, and
- Leaders in Private Security
The 2017 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Presentation Luncheon
Recognized for their Innovative Training and Education Programs, Outstanding Product Development Achievements and Exciting New Technologies to address the growing Homeland Security Threats our Nation is facing.
American Security Today was formed after careful reflection of 9/11 and its aftermath when the Department of Homeland Security was established and there was an immediate explosion of new products and solutions for what was perceived as an imminent second attack on primary targets in the United States.
As time moved forward from 9/11 itself and in recent years, the threats to our nation have evolved from a large scale 9/11 type attack to:
- Domestic and International Terrorist Attacks carried out by ‘lone wolves’ and coordinated individuals
- Cybersecurity breach attacks against our government agencies, financial institutions and critical infrastructure facilities
- Unprecedented urban violence
- Cultural shifts and societal media bias, which make it increasingly difficult to secure our nation in this constantly evolving threat environment.
These current circumstances have put forward another rapid expansion of new ideas, products and solutions to combat these ever changing challenges.
These changes have called for a new generation of security experts in the Homeland Security and Public Safety fields who need real time knowledge of our ever growing threats.
These experts include the Government at the Federal, State and Local levels as well as from Private Firms specializing in Physical Security, Port Security, Law Enforcement, First Responders, Military and Private Security responsible for implementing coordinated security measures to ensure our Nation’s Security and improve Public Safety.
Together, each of these entities work together seamlessly on the front lines of protecting our communities, to ‘Keep our Nation Secure, One City at a Time.’
AST focuses on Homeland Security and Public Safety Breaking News, the Newest Initiatives and Hottest Technologies in Physical & IT Security, essential to meeting today’s growing security challenges.
To highlight the tremendous accomplishments of agencies and firms receiving this prestigious award, check out American Security Today’s 2017 December ‘ASTORS’ Champions Edition – ‘Year in Review.’
Forum Systems is the leader in API Security Management. Providing centralized security, identity, and integration for API communications, the Forum Sentry API Security Gateway enables enterprises to manage complex API strategies in an efficient, agile, highly secure manner.
Processing more than 10 billion transactions per day worldwide, and architected on “security-first” design principles, Forum Sentry delivers unparalleled protection against modern API vulnerabilities.
Forum Sentry is the industry’s only API security gateway to achieve NIST FIPS 140-2 Level 2 and Common Criteria NIAP Network Device Protection Profile certification for enabling secure connectivity between users, applications and the cloud.
