Integration of Webroot’s IP Reputation Service to Power F5’s IP Intelligence Offering

Bracknell, UK – June 25, 2012 – Webroot, a leader in delivering Internet security as a service, today announced a partnership with F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), the global leader in Application Delivery Networking (ADN). F5 will integrate Webroot’s IP Reputation Services into its Traffic Management Operating System (TMOS) to provide enterprise customers with the best protection against rapidly evolving Internet-based threats. The rollout also enhances application performance and availability and develops stronger context-based security.

The first F5 product to take advantage of this capability is F5’s Application Security Manager (ASM) product, a key component of F5’s Application Security and Data Centre Firewall Solutions. In addition, F5’s community of developers can now access Webroot’s IP intelligence through the TMOS platform via F5’s iRules technology to get additional leverage across a variety of use cases.

“Applications running across networks encounter a wide range of security challenges,” said Mark Vondemkamp, Senior Director of Product Management, F5 Networks. “IT managers don’t want the complexity of managing different single-purpose appliances. By integrating the industry’s most comprehensive IP Reputation intelligence into our product platform, our customers can take advantage of added protection against malicious sites without any extra management burden.”

The integration of IP intelligence into TMOS will provide F5 customers with better visibility into the context of inbound connections and control over their network resources by identifying inbound requests from malicious IPs and stopping known malicious traffic before it enters the network. This drives better network performance and security. F5 customers also gain visibility on outbound communication from infected endpoints to malicious IP addresses controlled by botnet command and control operations so that they may shut down those connections.

“We are excited to join forces with F5 Networks, which shares Webroot’s mission of making security management easier for today’s busy IT professionals,” said Craig Whetstone, senior director of Strategic Alliances, Webroot. “Together with F5 and its community of developers, we can help their customers address the challenge of securely delivering critical business applications backed by up-to-the-minute protection against today’s rapidly evolving Internet threats.”

Webroot’s IP Reputation Service consolidates IP threats from the Webroot Intelligence Network and publishes a dynamic data set of high-risk IP addresses. It delivers updated threat data within minutes and protects against attacks from multiple threat sources. Armed with the latest intelligence and predictive risk analysis for IPs, it reveals inbound and outbound communication with malicious IPs and enables flexible policy reporting and implementation. Features of Webroot’s IP Reputation Service include:

    Comprehensive and dynamic threat coverage: Webroot’s IP Reputation data is comprised of millions of malicious IP addresses and is continuously updated to address the highly dynamic nature of IP threats such as botnets and web attacks.

    Extreme accuracy:  Advanced machine learning enables high volume and extremely accurate disposition of malicious IPs.

    High performance: Lightweight cloud services have an uptime record near 100% with minimal latency.

    Flexible deployment: A high-performance web-based API that includes production-quality sample code to enable partners to quickly integrate the service into their solutions and perform other high-end functions.

TMOS is the universal product platform shared by F5’s BIG-IP product portfolio, which is ICSA-certified as a network firewall. F5’s IP Intelligence services are also available on shipping BIG-IP appliances, BIG-IP Virtual Edition, and VIPRIONs using F5’s iRules technology.