Reactivity Gatekeeper Simplifies Lockdown of Web Services Behind XML Firewalls
Free, standards-based plug-in protects the "last mile" within the corporate intranet
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 8, 2004 -- Reactivity, Inc., a leader in delivering instant and sustainable XML Web services security solutions, today began offering its free Reactivity Gatekeeper(tm) server-side plug-in, the fastest, easiest, lowest-cost way to protect the "last mile" of XML Web services -- behind the XML firewall and within the local network. Exemplifying Reactivity's agentless architecture, the compact Gatekeeper software offers a 100 percent standards-based, nearly zero-footprint solution that ensures that nobody working from within the organization can accidentally or deliberately gain unauthorized access to any Web service.
The SAML, XML Signature and SSL-compliant Gatekeeper installs on Web or application servers to protect Web services by ensuring that all XML or SOAP messages accepted by any Web service have been secured by the Reactivity XML Firewall(tm) and issued a valid SAML assertion. The Gatekeeper software can be configured to simply return an error if an unsecured message is received, or it can transparently reroute the message through the XML Firewall for inspection and validation, making it easy to maintain the centralized security policy enforcement advantages of the XML Firewall. The Reactivity Gatekeeper software can be used with one or several Reactivity XML Firewalls, ensuring the last-mile is secure and manageable as Web services use grows.
"Our free Gatekeeper software is the latest example of Reactivity's commitment to rapid and consistent deployment of secure Web services, combining quick and easy installation with low-cost maintenance and future-proof protection as systems grow," said Glenn Osaka, CEO and president of Reactivity. "Unlike agent-based solutions, we can offer effortless end-to-end Web services security based on open standards that allows seamless integration with a variety of SAML infrastructure components."
The Reactivity Gatekeeper is designed to work with other SAML infrastructure components, including SAML Authorities from Netegrity, Oblix, RSA Security and Tivoli, as well as Web services management solutions from Actional, Amberpoint, and others.
"The Web services interfaces for popular enterprise systems likely will be early and easy targets for malicious attacks, and enterprises should exercise extreme caution when deploying them, carefully securing their Web services connections and monitoring them for unauthorized traffic," said Ray Wagner, a research director at Gartner Research. "Standards don't address the problem of malicious content in XML messages, and consequently enterprises may require specialized mechanisms to reliably and securely deploy Web services."
The Reactivity XML Firewall is an XML proxy that sits at the edge of the corporate network and provides a secure deployment infrastructure for Web services. It eliminates the time-consuming and costly process of custom security programming, infrastructure integration and security policy maintenance for each XML Web service application. The Reactivity XML Firewall processes bi-directional message flow while performing all protocol and transport mediation, defending against XML attacks, ensuring trusted transactions are correctly validated and routed and providing a signed, auditable record of messages and events.
Pricing and Availability
The Reactivity Gatekeeper software plug-in is provided free with new purchases of the Reactivity XML Firewall, and is available for download by existing customers from the Reactivity web site. Please contact a Reactivity representative for more information.
About Reactivity
Reactivity provides the infrastructure to rapidly deploy secure Web services connections for business-critical applications to expedite their time to market. Reactivity is located in Belmont, California, and can be reached at http://www.reactivity.com, +1-650-551-7800 or http://[email protected].
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Reactivity Gatekeeper and Reactivity XML Firewall are trademarks of Reactivity, Inc. All other products and services mentioned are trademarks of their respective companies.