Every day, hackers become more sophisticated in their attempts to breach corporate networks. Over the past few years, attacks such as Nimda, Code Red, SQL Slammer and MS Blaster targeted application vulnerabilities and infected computers worldwide. More recently, hackers have exploited peer-to-peer and instant messaging applications to propagate their attacks. As these attacks become more dynamic and malicious in nature, businesses need to stay one step ahead by employing a firewall with the most robust detection and prevention solution available. The SonicWALL Intrusion Prevention Service (IPS) is a high-speed, scalable solution delivering complete protection from application exploits and malicious traffic targeting all points of the network. Featuring a configurable, ultra-high performance deep packet inspection engine and a dynamically updated database with over 1,700 attack and vulnerability signatures, SonicWALL IPS protects against known buffer overflow vulnerabilities in software, as well as various worms, Trojans, application exploits and the use of instant messaging and peer-to-peer applications. The extensible signature language used in the deep packet inspection engine provides a proactive defense against newly discovered application vulnerabilities. While many attacks originate outside the network, the threat of internal attack is just as real. Protecting confidential information from unauthorized access across company departments is critical. SonicWALL IPS manages this risk by providing network administrators with the tools to enforce intrusion prevention not only between each network zone and the Internet, but also between departments located on different internal network zones. SonicWALL IPS prevents another potential source or vulnerability by allowing administrators to monitor and manage the use of instant messaging and peer-to-peer file sharing applications, closing a potential backdoor that could be used to compromise the network. The vast signature database in SonicWALL IPS can be tailored to meet the needs of both large and small network environments. Per-signature configuration flexibility, combined with the option to configure a custom set of detection or prevention policies by network zone, reduces the number of false positives often found in other intrusion prevention solutions. SonicWALL IPS provides comprehensive logging of all intrusion attempts with the option to filter logs based on priority level, enabling administrators to highlight high-priority attacks. SonicWALL ViewPoint and Global Management System both offer granular reporting based on attack source, destination and type of intrusion for greater insight into malicious activities targeting any point on the network. With its powerful performance, leading-edge features and extensive management capabilities, SonicWALL's Intrusion Prevention Service delivers the network protection today's businesses require and the low total cost of ownership they expect.