Research Finder
Find by Keyword
Palo Alto Networks: Assuring Quantum Security Readiness for Customers
Palo Alto Networks unveils new multi-cloud network security capabilities for its software firewall portfolio aimed at assisting organizations meet the demands of evolving quantum security environments.
Key Takeaways
- Palo Alto Networks is preparing organizations for quantum computing with its comprehensive Enterprise-Wide Quantum Readiness solution, including a new Quantum Readiness Dashboard for visibility into cryptographic risks.
- The company has introduced cipher translation technology to instantly upgrade applications to a quantum-safe state, even if they do not natively support new encryption standards.
- For multi-cloud and AI environments, the new Automated Multi-Cloud Network Security platform automatically discovers, deploys, and scales security for dynamic workloads.
- The updated portfolio expands AI-Powered Protection with features like an Advanced DNS Security Resolver for enhanced threat detection and an evolution to Device Security to protect all connected devices.
- The new release simplifies operations through Effortless Management, offering tools for migration and a new Zero Trust dashboard within the Strata Cloud Manager.
The News
Palo Alto Networks, a global cybersecurity provider, announced new security solutions developed to help organizations navigate the evolving quantum landscape, and to keep pace with highly dynamic cloud and AI environments. For more information, read the Palo Alto Networks press release.
Analyst Take
Palo Alto Networks has released new portfolio capabilities designed to help organizations prepare for quantum computing and secure their dynamic cloud and AI environments. These portfolio enhancements can give organizations the visibility and defenses they need to manage workloads in a multi-cloud world and accelerate their quantum readiness.
Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS 12.1 Portfolio Details and Innovations
Palo Alto Networks unveiled key innovations in its PAN-OS 12.1 Orion to directly meet the demands of the evolving security landscape. The update focuses on four main areas, beginning with Enterprise-Wide Quantum Readiness to help organizations prepare for the future threat of quantum computing. The company is offering a comprehensive solution that includes a new Quantum Readiness Dashboard that gives firewall and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) customers a complete view of their cryptographic risks. This is paired with breakthrough cipher translation technology to instantly protect older applications, along with 14 new quantum-optimized firewalls to handle advanced cryptography.
Underpinning Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS 12.1 Orion is Precision AI, Palo Alto Networks' proprietary system designed to enhance cybersecurity defenses. It uses machine learning, deep learning, and generative AI to proactively identify and neutralize threats. By continuously analyzing massive amounts of data in real time, Precision AI can anticipate threats and automates defenses, allowing security teams to focus on strategic tasks including improving business outcomes. The system helps organizations mitigate risk by addressing security vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. Using AI to combat AI-powered attacks, Precision AI provides real-time detection and prevention, automatically defeating threats as they emerge.
For complex cloud and AI environments, PAN-OS 12.1 Orion brings Automated Multi-Cloud Network Security, offering a network security platform that automatically discovers all assets, deploys tailored security, and scales protection for dynamic workloads as needed. This automation can simplify security management and ensure that protection keeps pace with rapidly changing environments.
The update also expands the company's AI-Powered Protection. This includes new Precision AI-powered features like an Advanced DNS Security Resolver (ADNSR), which provides enhanced threat detection. Additionally, PAN-OS 12.1 introduces the evolution to Device Security, which can discover, assess, and protect every managed, unmanaged, and IoT device across the enterprise.
Single-Query DNS tunneling, in-memory API vector analysis, and Encrypted Sliver C2 prevention are threat detection capabilities within Palo Alto Networks' Cloud-Delivered Security Services (CDSS). Powered by Precision AI, these services can deliver enhanced and more precise threat detection from the initial attack to post-exploitation phases. This offers real-time, end-to-end protection for an organization's entire security infrastructure.
Moreover, the new release is designed for Effortless Management and Operations. It unifies and simplifies security through Strata Cloud Manager. The platform now includes new tools for easier migration, a stronger Zero Trust posture dashboard, and Strata Copilot, which provides natural language-driven assistance to streamline operations.
Palo Alto Networks introduced 14 new fifth-generation Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) across three distinct product families, each engineered to provide robust performance and security for specific environments. The PA-5500 Series is purpose-built for data centers, offering up to four times the performance of its predecessors with quantum-optimized processing and 400 Gbps interfaces. For integrated branch offices, the PA-500 Series delivers top-tier Layer 7 security in a compact design that includes simplified Zero Touch Provisioning. Lastly, the PA-455R-5G is a ruggedized firewall with 5G connectivity, purpose-built for harsh industrial and outdoor settings.
PAN-OS 12.1 Orion is built to simplify multi-cloud security. It continuously assesses every cloud and AI asset for risks, then automatically deploys and scales the security capabilities best-suited to protect them. The platform also creates a complete multi-cloud security fabric with microperimeters to contain threats.
I find that to tackle the complexities of multi-cloud and AI, organizations need smarter, more flexible security. Palo Alto Networks has introduced new platform capabilities that automatically finds and fixes security risks. The Cloud Network and AI Risk Assessment scans cloud and AI assets to find where protection is missing. Software firewalls, cloud firewalls, and Prisma AIRS instances are automatically deployed, with all cloud infrastructure set up to direct traffic, incorporating a secure multicloud networking mesh.
The platform scales on its own and includes built-in load balancing, which means customers do not need to buy or manage extra products. This is an innovative system that can automatically discover, deploy, and scale security to keep up with today's fast-moving cloud and AI environments. As such, Palo Alto Networks' updated network security platform is a sharply differentiated solution due to its ability to automatically discover, deploy, and scale security to keep up with today's dynamic multi-cloud and AI environments.
Why Quantum-Safe Encryption is Essential
From my perspective, quantum-safe encryption is essential for organizations and businesses due to the looming threat of quantum computing to current cryptographic systems. Quantum computers, leveraging their immense computational power, could potentially break widely used encryption algorithms such as RSA and ECC by efficiently solving problems including integer factorization and discrete logarithms.
This vulnerability risks exposing sensitive data - financial transactions, intellectual property, customer information, and proprietary communications - to future attacks, particularly through harvest now, decrypt later strategies where adversaries collect encrypted data today for decryption once quantum technology matures. As businesses increasingly rely on digital infrastructure for operations and competitive advantage, ensuring long-term data security against quantum threats is essential to maintaining trust, regulatory compliance, and operational integrity.
Beyond immediate security concerns, adopting quantum-safe encryption is a strategic necessity for future-proofing organizational resilience. Transitioning to quantum-resistant algorithms, such as those being standardized by NIST (e.g., CRYSTALS-Kyber, CRYSTALS-Dilithium), requires significant time and resources to update systems, protocols, and applications.
I expect that organizations that proactively implement these measures can mitigate risks of disruption, avoid costly retrofits, and maintain a competitive edge in industries where data security is paramount, such as finance, healthcare, and defense. Moreover, early adoption signals to stakeholders - customers, partners, and regulators - a commitment to robust cybersecurity, fostering trust and ensuring compliance with evolving standards in a quantum future.
As a result, given the radical changes to the threat landscape from AI, complex architectures, and quantum computing, it becomes a top priority to partner with a cybersecurity company that has a clear vision and a proven ability to deliver such as Palo Alto Networks.
Looking Ahead
The quantum threat to encryption is no longer something to worry about in the future since it is a problem that requires action now. From my perspective, Palo Alto Networks is delivering the defense required for this new era with its latest portfolio innovations that cover every step of the quantum readiness journey. This means every Palo Alto Networks customer who uses the company’s newest software can rapidly become quantum safe. They can have the intelligence and infrastructure necessary to secure their most important assets against future threats immediately.
The cipher translation technology is crucial moving forward because it allows legacy applications to be instantly secured against emerging threats, particularly those from quantum computing, without requiring expensive and time-consuming redevelopment. This proxy-based solution translates outdated cryptographic methods into quantum-safe algorithms, ensuring that older but still essential applications can continue to function securely in a modern threat landscape.
The new PAN-OS 12.1 Orion capabilities demonstrate that Palo Alto Networks is not letting up on its portfolio development focus and marketing vision as it embarks on taking the steps necessary to complete its ambitious $25 billion acquisition of CyberArk.
Palo Alto Networks can help organizations fulfill their quantum encryption requirements over the next 12 months by providing and executing on its comprehensive approach that includes a new Quantum Readiness Dashboard to assess their current cryptographic risk. Furthermore, the company is offering cipher translation technology to instantly upgrade applications to be quantum-safe and has introduced Quantum-Optimized Hardware to ensure high-performance processing of post-quantum cryptography. These are the steps organizations need to take to avoid worst-case and persistent threats that can undermine the entirety of their operations and the ability to operate with
secure confidence.
Ron Westfall | Analyst In Residence
Ron Westfall is a prominent analyst figure in technology and business transformation. Recognized as a Top 20 Analyst by AR Insights and a Tech Target contributor, his insights are featured in major media such as CNBC, Schwab Network, and NMG Media.
His expertise covers transformative fields such as Hybrid Cloud, AI Networking, Security Infrastructure, Edge Cloud Computing, Wireline/Wireless Connectivity, and 5G-IoT. Ron bridges the gap between C-suite strategic goals and the practical needs of end users and partners, driving technology ROI for leading organizations.
Share
Steven Dickens | CEO HyperFRAME Research
Regarded as a luminary at the intersection of technology and business transformation, Steven Dickens is the CEO and Principal Analyst at HyperFRAME Research.
Ranked consistently among the Top 10 Analysts by AR Insights and a contributor to Forbes, Steven's expert perspectives are sought after by tier one media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and CNBC, and he is a regular on TV networks including the Schwab Network and Bloomberg.