Palo Alto Networks today announced another round of firewall software and hardware updates including its latest version of PAN-OS software and a new set of its next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) for branches, campus locations, and data centers.

The security giant dubbed its latest PAN-OS iteration Nova, taking another step in combating zero-day threats. The software runs the Palo Alto Networks’ NGFW. The vendor introduced the previous version — Nebula — in February targeting sophisticated, zero-day attack detection.

“We’ve observed a significant increase in unique malware samples over the last year along with an increasing level of malware sophistication. A new approach is required to detect this advanced malware,” explained Anand Oswal, SVP of network security at Palo Alto Networks, adding that Nova “stops 26% more zero-day malware than traditional sandboxes; detects 60% more injection attacks; simplifies security architecture; and helps organizations adopt cybersecurity best practices.”

Nova comprises more than 50 product updates that include the new Advanced WildFire service for thwarting evasive zero-day malware and enhanced advanced threat prevention (ATP) service for injection attack detection. The Advanced WildFire service is built on a custom hardened hypervisor designed to allow run-time memory analysis, along with stealthy observation and automated unpacking for hiding from malware and defeating advanced evasions.

The new PAN-OS also integrates with the vendor’s next-generation cloud access security broker (CASB), which was unveiled at last year’s Ignite event. Palo Alto Networks delivers this capability via its Prisma Access 3.0 platform, which uses machine learning (ML) to automatically identify new or unsanctioned software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, classify them, and apply appropriate security policies.

The vendor enhanced this CASB with SaaS security posture management (SSPM) capabilities, aiming to detect and eliminate misconfigurations in more than 60 enterprises' SaaS applications.

Nova also includes updates on security web proxy support and AIOps capabilities.

Palo Alto Networks Builds More NGFWs

Palo Alto Networks earlier this year added the PA-3400 and PA-5400 Series ML-powered NGFWs family for the higher-end market along with the Nebula software announcement.

Now, the vendor wants to bring this next-generation firewall capability to small and large branches, campus locations, and data centers, claiming up to five-times higher performance than the previous generation.

The new set includes the PA-445 and PA-415 Series for small branches of the distributed enterprises and small and medium businesses; the PA-1400 Series for large branch locations and small enterprise campuses; and the PA-5440 for large campus locations and data centers.

The new NGFWs are slated to be release next month.