SonicWALL secures iPhone iPad access to corporate resources

Stuart Corner
Friday, 02 December 2011 04:23

Business IT - Security

SonicWALL has released a software client for the iPhone and iPad that provides secure access via SSL VPN to corporate IT systems via SonicWALL firewalls and universal threat management devices.

The app is available as a free download from the App Store and requires iOS 4.2 or above. According to Marvin Blough, SonicWALL's vice president world wide sales, "This is a client for the iPhone and iPad which allow full SSL VPN connectivity into our secure remote access products."

He explained that the product, the SonicWALL Mobile Connect App, went beyond what is presently available in the iPhone and iPad and claimed it also offered functionality beyond that of SSL VPN clients offered by Juniper Networks and F5.

"In the iPhone and iPad today there is a IPSEC VPN client, but it does not give you any control over what is happening on the iPhone or iPad or what sort of data is flowing back into the system'¦And we are going further than [Juniper and F5] because we are providing scanning and malware detection as well as the endpoint control that they offer."

However he acknowledged that corporate IT was likely to have other products in place to scan incoming traffic for malware.

Blough said: "Our client creates a secure tunnel from the device into corporate resources'¦We are providing two factor authentication, we are providing certificate recognition. It brings the same high level of security that you get on a desktop device to the iPhone and iPad. We are bringing a higher level of security to mobile devices than is available today.

"The difference between what we offer and IPSEC VPN is that we identify the user so we can then decide what parts of the system they have access to - it is just as if they were on the local network."

Blough said versions for Android and Windows 7 and he expects these to be available in the first half of 2012.