Cisco ASA 5550 Adaptive Security Appliance UC Security Edition

Cisco ASA offers a wealth of features that help organizations protect their networks against new threats securely connect, communicate, and conduct business; and flexibly extend security to various deployments.

Botnet traffic filter:

The proliferation of spyware, malware, and botnets, as well as user participation in Web 2.0 applications such as Facebook and MySpace, are increasing the demand for multiple levels of endpoint protection. The Cisco ASA Botnet Traffic Filter complements existing content security solutions by monitoring network ports for rogue activity and by detecting infected internal endpoints and bots sending command and control traffic back to a host on the Internet. The command and control domains and hosts associated with botnets and malware distribution are accurately and reliably identified using a dynamic database managed by the Cisco Security Intelligence Operations center. An annual license enables the Botnet Traffic Filter functionality and updates to the database.

Multicast group Network Address Translation (NAT):

Multicast applications include distance learning, telemedicine, and financial applications. The multicast group NAT feature enables the separation of internal multicast streams from external multicast streams for added security.

H. 239 support:

The Cisco ASA H. 323 inspection engine now supports H. 239, which defines rules and messages to establish an additional channel that can be used to show video. This feature enables Cisco ASA appliances to inspect H. 329 signaling from video endpoints.

ASA Phone Proxy media termination address for multiple interfaces:

The Phone Proxy requires a media termination address to terminate media from remote phones. For customers with security policies that prevent external routes on the internal network, this feature delivers the ability to configure the media termination address for multiple interfaces, eliminating the need to deploy a NAT device between the internal network and the Phone Proxy.

Transparent firewall mode support for IPv6 addressing:

Cisco ASA Software flexibly extends the support of IPv6 addressing in transparent firewall mode to enable quick ASA deployments into existing IPv6 networks without requiring IP readdressing.

TCP state bypass:

With Cisco ASA Software, business can selectively disable firewall TCP inspection on ASA appliances. This is useful for allowing certain traffic to flow through in asymmetric routing scenarios when two ASA appliances are in different locations that are not adjacent to Layer 2.

IPv6 support for AIP SSM modules:

The Cisco ASA now supports IPv6 capabilities on the Cisco ASA AIP SSM modules. Customers can send IPv6 packets from the ASA to the AIP SSM modules for both IPv6 and IPv4 IPS inspection. Minimum IPS software required is Cisco IPS software.

Cisco AnyConnect Essentials:

This feature offers basic AnyConnect tunneling support for customers who require VPN remote access but do not need Cisco Secure Desktop features or clientless SSL VPN capabilities. AnyConnect Essentials supports mobile connectivity options with the AnyConnect Mobile license. Upgrade to the full-featured AnyConnect Premium license (traditional AnyConnect) is available by applying a traditional AnyConnect license or shared license to the ASA appliance.