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Palo Alto launches version 5.1 of GlobalProtect! It offers greater security for remote endpoints

14 April, 2020

Since it went on the market the GlobalProtect App of Palo Alto Networks was very successful. The solution certainly became essential for enterprise security since it guarantees a greater security of remote endpoints. In addition to expanding the visibility and control of users, applications and content within the network, the application focuses on users and mobile or remote accesses.

To understand how it works, GlobalProtect acts similar to a VPN, sending traffic from a “secure tunnel”, but with the difference that the application automatically connects to the closest Palo Alto Networks firewall, deployed in a hub, in a branch, or a private cloud. What is the result? Better performance, greater ease of use and a greater protection.

A world leader in cyber security, Palo Alto Networks has been releasing new versions of its popular application to continue contributing to organizations overcome the security challenges, making the most of the advances in artificial intelligence, automation and orchestration.

Just on February 24, 2020, Palo Alto Networks updated the GlobalProtect Application with version 5.1. What improvements does it bring? How much could it bring to the security of your data center? We invite you to continue reading our post: We have all the details.

What’s new in of GlobalProtect App 5.1?

1. GlobalProtect for Windows 10 UWP for ARM64 devices: The application in this new version extends the enterprise security protection, which enables the application of the same next generation firewall-based policies that are applied within the physical perimeter to ARM64 devices run by Windows Universal Windows Platform (UWP).

2. GlobalProtect for IoT devices: The new version allows you to expand Firewall capabilities such as user ID, application ID and HIP to protect the traffic of your IoT devices. GlobalProtect for IoT is available for Windows, Ubuntu, Raspbian and Android devices. With the application for IoT it is possible to offer greater protection to traffic and extend the application of security policies to your IoT devices. After configuring GlobalProtect for IoT, the application authenticates with the GlobalProtect portal or gateways using client certificates and, optionally, a username and password, and establishes an IPSec tunnel. If the connection through IPSec does not work, it is possible to configure the GlobalProtect application to use an SSL tunnel.

3. Biometric Sign-in Support: Palo Alto wanted to offer enhanced usability, so they have added support for biometric sign-in to GlobalProtect. In this case, end users must supply a fingerprint that matches a trusted fingerprint template on the endpoint to use a saved password for authentication to GlobalProtect portal and gateways. On iOS X, GlobalProtect also supports facial recognition with Face ID.

4. Software support: Starting with GlobalProtect™ App 5.1 with PAN-OS 9.1.

5. Operating system support: Windows and macOS. You can now configure exclusions for specific local IP addresses or network segments when you enforce GlobalProtect for network access. By configuring exclusions, you can improve the user experience by allowing users to access local resources when GlobalProtect is disconnected.

6. Compatibility with OS: Android, Raspbian, Ubuntu or Windows IoT Enterprise. As of Android application, GlobalProtect now incorporates the ability to admit the single sign-on (SSO) SAML for Chromebooks. End users will be able to authenticate to GlobalProtect by taking advantage of the same login they use to access their Chromebook device or account.

7. GlobalProtect Gateway Latency Reporting: GlobalProtect in its new version was also designed to troubleshoot connection and performance issues for a specific user. The application now collects and reports telemetry information for latency between the GlobalProtect gateway and the endpoint. This way you can easily identify the gateway to which the user is connected, the current stage of the connection, and statistics about the pre-tunnel and post-tunnel network latency.

8. Operating system support: macOS. The GlobalProtect application can now automatically detect and inherit proxy settings on macOS endpoints. Now you can deploy GlobalProtect on macOS endpoints that do not have a direct internet connection and that route traffic through a proxy server. GlobalProtect for macOS supports both the use of PAC files and manual proxy configuration.

9. Single sign-on: GlobalProtect already allows single sign-on for macOS endpoints. This undoubtedly improves the user experience by reducing the number of times users must enter credentials when they log in. By logging into macOS, the GlobalProtect app acquires and uses credentials to authenticate with the GlobalProtect portal and gateways.

Keep up to date with Palo Alto’s latest updates! Here we show it:

Upgrade	Product	Version
February 24, 2020	GlobalProtect	5.1
February 19, 2020	PAN-OS	8.1
February 19, 2020	Cortex XDR, Cortex
February 18, 2020	Prisma, VM series
February 13, 2020	Traps	6.1
February 12, 2020	Prisma, Prisma Cloud
February 11, 2020	WildFire, Prisma Access, Panorama, GlobalProtect, PAN-OS	9.1
February 7, 2020	Prisma, Prisma Cloud, Prisma Cloud Compute Edition
February 6, 2020	WildFire, Prisma Access, Panorama, VM-Series, PANOS	8.1
February 5, 2020	Cortex, Cortex XDR	7.0
January 30, 2020	GlobalProtect	5.0
January 29, 2020	WildFire, Panorama, VMSeries, PAN-OS	9.0
January 28, 2020	Endpoint Security Manager, Traps	4.2 4.2
January 27 , 2020	Prisma, Prisma Access, Prisma Access (Panorama managed)
January 23, 2020	WildFire , Panorama, VMSeries, PAN-OS	7.1
January 22, 2020	Prisma Access (Cloud managed), Prisma, Prisma Access
January 18, 2020	Traps, traps management service	5.0
January 17, 2020	Prisma, Prisma SaaS

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