Outpost Firewall Pro is a discontinued

personal firewall A personal firewall is an application which controls network traffic to and from a computer, permitting or denying communications based on a security policy. Typically it works as an application layer firewall. A personal firewall differs from ...

developed by Agnitum (founded in 1999 in

St. Petersburg, Russia Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Overview

Outpost Firewall Pro monitors incoming and outgoing network traffic on Windows machines. Outpost also monitors application behavior in an attempt to stop malicious software covertly infecting Windows systems. Agnitum called this technology "Component Control" and "Anti-Leak Control" (included into

HIPS In vertebrate anatomy, hip (or "coxa"Latin ''coxa'' was used by Celsus in the sense "hip", but by Pliny the Elder in the sense "hip bone" (Diab, p 77) in medical terminology) refers to either an anatomical region or a joint. The hip region ...

-based "Host Protection" module). The product also includes a

spyware Spyware (a portmanteau for spying software) is software with malicious behaviour that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send it to another entity in a way that harms the user—for example, by violating their priva ...

scanner and monitor, along with a pop-up blocker and spyware filter for

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Windows line of operating systems ( ...

and Mozilla Firefox. (Outpost's web surfing security tools had included black-lists for IPs and URLs, unwanted web page element filters and ad-blocking. The technology altogether is known as "Web control".) Version 7.5 adds new techniques to help PC users block unknown new threats before their activation: * ''Removable media protection'' (so-called "USB Virus Protection", part of the ''Proactive Protection'' module) blocks unsigned programs set to run automatically upon the connection of a removable media. * ''SmartDecision technology'' (so-called "Personal Virus Adviser", basis of the ''Proactive Protection'' module) facilitates decision-making process. Version 8 introduces further improvements as well as

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for download via MSDN and TechNet on August 15, 2012, and later to ...

compatibility and a redesigned user interface; version 8 also has extends

x64 x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set, first released in 1999. It introduced two new modes of operation, 64-bit mode and compatibility mode, along with a new 4-level paging mo ...

host-based intrusion-prevention system (HIPS) support. Outpost Firewall Pro allows the user to specifically define how a PC application connects to the Internet. This is known as the "Rules Wizard" mode, or policy, and is the default behavior for the program. In this mode, Outpost Firewall Pro displays a prompt each time a new process attempts network access or when a process requests a connection that was not covered by its pre-validated rules. The idea is to let the user decide whether an application should be allowed a network connection to a specific address, port or protocol. Outpost Firewall includes pre-set rules for many popular applications. Users could optionally submit rules they had created. First versions for Outpost Firewall Pro (1.0–4.0) allow users to create their own plugins and add other

third-party Third party may refer to: Business * Third-party source, a supplier company not owned by the buyer or seller * Third-party beneficiary, a person who could sue on a contract, despite not being an active party * Third-party insurance, such as a Ve ...

plugins to meet specific needs. Later versions do not have the plugin programming interface.

Online assistance

Outpost Firewall Pro users developed an unofficial web forum fed by Agnitum since 2002 to discuss product features and support. The forum is moderated by experienced senior users of Outpost Firewall Pro and offers help and support for technical advice and program assistance.

Achievements

Outpost Firewall Pro's self-protection technology aims at detecting attempts to modify or disable its services or hinder program protection, and received accolades by Comparison Testers as being capable and sophisticated at detecting all known methods of disabling it without user permission. The testing site Matousec.com (performing a test-set of leak-tests to all known software including PC firewalls), consistently gives Outpost Firewall Pro its highest ratings in PC firewalls independent comparisons. Outpost Firewall Pro has more than 30 awards in 15 countries in computer media and test labs since 2002. The product was also licensed by several security software publishers in 2003–2010: Sophos (UK, USA),

Lavasoft Adaware, formerly known as Lavasoft, is a software development company that produces spyware and malware detection software, including Adaware. It operates as a subsidiary of Avanquest a division of Claranova. The company offers Adaware in th ...

(Sweden),

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

(Japan), Bullguard (UK), CAT- QuickHeal (India), Novell (USA), AVG (Czech Republic), Avast (Czech Republic), Proland Software (India), and others.

Editions

* Outpost Firewall Pro: A shareware

with inbound-outbound PC program actions control and port stealthing plus anti-spyware and web surfing security plus HIPS engine. * Outpost Firewall Free: A

freeware Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for t ...

version which includes a web and local PC firewall with access control and port stealthing, plus HIPS engine. *

Outpost Security Suite Outpost may refer to: Places * Outpost (military), a detachment of troops stationed at a distance from the main force or formation, usually at a station in a remote or sparsely populated location * Border outpost, an outpost maintained by a so ...

Pro: Includes personal firewall, anti-virus, anti-spam, web surfing security tools and HIPS. Anti-spam has been dropped from version 8 onwards as it duplicates functions built into the most popular web and PC mail clients and is thus redundant. * Outpost Security Suite Free: Free but limited edition for

Internet Security Internet security is a branch of computer security. It encompasses the Internet, browser security, web site security, and network security as it applies to other applications or operating systems as a whole. Its objective is to establish rules ...

Suite features (PC firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam and host intrusion prevention system HIPS).

Criticism

Outpost can generate a large number of security alerts, which some experts believe will lead to an inexperienced end-user habitually dismissing all alerts, even important ones. This firewall is preferred by experienced users as Agnitum's direction is to give the end user complete control to all aspects of their system to avoid unwanted changes by malicious software, disclosure of personal information and malware. In advanced security mode, Outpost's Component Control will notify the user every time a network enabled application has a changed component and Anti-Leak Control will notify the user whenever an application performs a potentially dangerous operation such as overwriting another application's memory space. In practice this can result in such a high number of alerts that they can quickly become intrusive. To mediate this, Outpost includes the option to apply validated presets automatically, to allow for a secure configuration, and yet provide ease of use.

Discontinuation

On December 9, 2015,

Yandex Yandex LLC (russian: link=no, Яндекс, p=ˈjandəks) is a Russian multinational technology company providing Internet-related products and services, including an Internet search engine, information services, e-commerce, transportation, map ...

acquired Agnitum in order to use their technology in the

Yandex Browser Yandex Browser ( Russian: Яндекс.Браузер) is a freeware web browser developed by the Russian technology corporation Yandex that uses the Blink web browser engine and is based on the Chromium open source project. The browser checks w ...

. Valid license holders were given until January 31, 2016 to exchange their license keys for a 1 year license of

Kaspersky Internet Security Kaspersky Internet Security (often abbreviated to KIS) is an internet security suite developed by Kaspersky Lab compatible with Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Kaspersky Internet Security offers protection from malware, as well as email spam, phis ...

References

Footnotes

(Website Review and user ratings)
Bullguard License Agreement, saying that firewall is based on the Outpost

External links

{{Firewall software Firewall software Shareware