New AGT, Stonesoft combination to provide unique high availability IT security solutions for Middle East region

The two companies will maximise their efforts to significantly increase the level of security for the region's government agencies, public institutions, private companies and the people. AGT in its alliance with Stonesoft acts as supplier in a partnership that will provide an all encompassing state-of-the-art IT-security package benefiting both the public and private sector.

Germany-based AGT is a leading supplier of premier security products, solutions and services predominantly in the field of IT, but also in telecommunications, physical security and border management. Utilising partnerships with cutting-edge technology providers, the company conveys state-of-the-art and tomorrow's technology from Germany and Europe to international clients. AGT's security portfolio consists of an extensive range of security products, solutions and services, tailor-made to suit clients' needs, requirements and wishes.

AGT has expended considerable effort in developing the market in the region in order to upgrade IT-security to worldwide standards. Anas Chbib, Managing Director of AGT, is committed to the concept of physical and cyber security as a total package, as well as proper product selection, installation and training for the region.

"We are clearly stating that AGT is determined to pursue long-term commitments to both the Middle East and our European partners like Stonesoft," said Chbib. "We plan to train our Middle East partners in the best practices and provide them with case studies from Europe, which they can share with prospective clients. AGT and its partners will not leave enterprises, government agencies and the people of the Middle East isolated. We are not prepared to accept the current shortages in IT-security and will provide European-made, premier class security for the region."

Stonesoft is the award-winning developer of StoneGate™, an enterprise firewall and VPN solution with load balancing technology built in. StoneGate High-Availability Firewall and Multi-Link VPN offer the best combination available of high security, performance and availability for companies deploying business-critical network applications. More premier class products are already in the pipeline: Stonegate will further extend its StoneGate Product Family as early as Q1/2004 with StoneGate IPS, an intrusion detection and response system with intelligent analysis capabilities.

With StoneGate IPS more accurate event detection is enabled through the context-sensitive use of multiple detection methods. A sensor rule base allows administrators to predetermine and automatically apply the right detection method for each traffic type. An analyser component also performs automated event correlation. Going beyond single event detection, it analyses suspicious events in depth and correlates multiple events to intelligently detect trends and determine their significance. This eliminates the need to pass a flood of data to administrators to manually analyse events.

Jari Valvisto, Director Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe for Stonesoft, comments: "Stonesoft feels it is placing itself in an ideal position to maximise its penetration of the Middle East market by partnering with AGT. This unique solution combination and AGT's experience in the region, including a large network of trained and capable resellers, can provide enhanced, high-security solutions for enterprise users. The Middle East Security Initiative and StoneGate IPS will support us in increasing the awareness of the security needs of large companies and government institutions of the region."

The prime target markets for the alliance will be all types of government agencies including intelligence, the banking sector, internet service providers (ISPs) and telecommunications enterprises.