Category: Media Coverage

Inside Cybersecurity: NSS Labs issues whitepapers on enterprise AI governance, launches testing initiative

Posted on by NSS Labs

Cybersecurity testing firm NSS Labs has published a series of whitepapers to help organizations address artificial intelligence security governance and has launched a new program to evaluate the effectiveness of AI protection systems.

“We’re at the beginning of the AI revolution and everyone has questions. These papers provide a framework for how to think about securing AI as well as practical guidance for governance of what their AI systems are permitted to do and why. Yes, AI security is a technical issue, but it is also a governance issue,” Vikram Phatak, CEO of NSS Labs, said in a March 18 press release.

The first whitepaper from NSS Labs lays out the argument for enterprise AI security to be “treated as a system-level and governance challenge,” according to the release.

The second whitepaper provides topic areas and questions buyers should ask to evaluate the security of an AI product.

Read the full article here.

InsideCybersecurity: Cyber Assessment Firm Identifies Evasion Vulnerabilities in Enterprise Firewall Products

Posted on by NSS Labs

A nonprofit cyber assessment firm found vulnerabilities in the ability of widely used enterprise firewall products to block transport and network-layer evasions commonly deployed by cyber attackers, in a report examining the effectiveness of security offerings.

“Enterprise Firewalls are constantly evolving to combat new attacker techniques and tools but sometimes that evolution takes a wrong turn. A vendor can have a near-perfect detection engine but if attackers can bypass that engine it gives them a clear path through your defenses,” CyberRatings.org CEO Vikram Phatak sad in a Nov. 5 release.

CyberRatings is a nonprofit organization conducting independent testing of cybersecurity products through its testing partner firm, NSS Labs.

CyberRatings evaluated the “security effectiveness” of seven firewall products in 55 performance tests using 3,326 exploits, 11,311 malware samples, 5,752 evasion techniques in 53 evasion categories and 6,481 false-positive samples,” according to the report.

Read the full article here.

SDxCentral: Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet Given All Clear After Firewall Hiccups

Posted on by NSS Labs

Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet have received a clean bill of health for their firewall protections, while the jury is still out on current Cisco defenses.

CyberRatings.org recommended both Palo Alto and Fortinet after new tests confirmed they had patched evasions previously discovered by the security testing firm.

In tests carried out at the start of the month by CyberRatings’ testing partner NSS Labs, researchers found they were able to bypass protection using Layer 4 TCP evasions in both Palo Alto’s PAN-OS (version 11.2.8-c537) and Fortinet’s IPS (v7.01154), as well as evading Layer 3 IP in the Palo Alto operating system.

Both firms reacted quickly, with Palo Alto developing an updated PAN-OS firmware package (PAN-OS 11.2.10-c37) and Fortinet deploying an updated IPS package (v7.01165 (33.00064) to fix the vulnerabilities.

Read the full article here.

CyberRatings.org and NSS Labs Announce Follow-On Enterprise Firewall Results

Posted on by CyberRatings.org

Austin, TX – November 25, 2025 – CyberRatings.org (CyberRatings), the non-profit organization dedicated to providing confidence in cybersecurity products and services through independent testing, today announced Follow-On Test Results for the Fortinet FortiGate-200G and Palo Alto Networks PA-1410 Enterprise Firewalls.

Both products have improved their ratings from Caution to Recommended following submissions to NSS Labs to retest after developing new builds to address their earlier evasion resistance deficiencies published on November 5, 2025.

“Both Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks responded quickly and transparently to our original findings, issuing updates within days and requesting immediate retesting,” said Vikram Phatak, CEO of NSS Labs. “The speed at which these vendors addressed and resolved critical issues shows their commitment to their customers’ security.”

Read key findings in the full press release here.

CyberRatings.org and NSS Labs Announce 2025 Enterprise Firewall Test Results

Posted on by NSS Labs

Austin, TX – November 5, 2025 – CyberRatings.org (CyberRatings), the non-profit organization dedicated to providing confidence in cybersecurity products and services through independent testing, today announced the results of its latest Enterprise Firewall (EFW) evaluation.  Tests were conducted by NSS Labs and are now available at no cost on the CyberRatings.org website.

NSS Labs performed independent evaluations of seven leading Enterprise Firewall products using the Enterprise Firewall Test Methodology v3.0. The testing revealed a striking disparity in performance — Security Effectiveness ranged from 46.37% to 99.59%.

Firewalls were tested under encrypted enterprise-grade workloads using 3,326 exploits, 11,311 malware samples, 5,752 evasion techniques spanning 53 evasion categories, 6,481 false-positive samples, and 55 performance tests. Each firewall was required to maintain operational stability throughout testing.

Read key findings in the full press release here.

Futuriom: NSS Labs Launches Managed Cybersecurity Test Platform

Posted on by NSS Labs

The recently relaunched NSS Labs has released Minion by NSS Labs, a managed platform designed to validate the performance of cybersecurity products for service providers, enterprises, and vendors.

The remotely managed offering relieves customers of the burden of in-house testing while providing in-depth, objective validation of security products—a must, given the proliferation of cybersecurity threats in today’s AI-oriented environments.

“Security leaders need tools that let them compare and justify cybersecurity decisions with real evidence,” stated Ian Foo, Chief Technology Officer and EVP of Product, in a press release. “Our new data platform will modernize the way we share test data so that enterprises can make faster, smarter decisions across the organization.”

Minion Addresses the Needs of Three Markets

With Minion, NSS Labs is fulfilling a major need among cybersecurity customers of all types—namely, to get an unbiased, real-world view of the actual performance of products before they hit the network. To reach this goal, the platform offers a range of features that meet the requirements of three distinct constituencies.

Read the full article here: https://www.futuriom.com/articles/news/nss-labs-launches-managed-cybersecurity-test-platform/2025/08

Futuriom: NSS Labs Is Back! And That’s a Great Thing

Posted on by NSS Labs

It’s important to have quality independent testing of technology. That’s why I think it’s great that technology testing firm NSS Labs has been relaunched as NSS Labs 2.0.

Originally founded in 2007, NSS Labs was a respected testing firm that filled a vital role in independent testing for many years, putting out detailed testing of firewalls and other networking and security products from the top vendors. The original NSS Labs was taken over by a private equity company in 2019 and shuttered in 2020.

The reimagined NSS Labs has been created by original founder Vikram Phatak, who will now serve as the CEO of the new NSS Labs.

Read the full article here: https://www.futuriom.com/articles/news/nss-labs-is-back-and-thats-a-great-thing/2025/07

Inside Cybersecurity: NSS Labs relaunches to conduct product testing amid growing AI, quantum computing threats

Posted on by NSS Labs

NSS Labs is navigating an increasingly complex cyber landscape with the emergence of new artificial intelligence and quantum computing threats, as the product testing firm returns in a revamped structure five years after shutting down its operations.

“In cybersecurity, AI and quantum computing, we’re seeing a lot of changes,” NSS Labs 2.0 CEO Vikram Phatak told Inside Cybersecurity, emphasizing that “even large companies that are sophisticated are struggling to have hard data to make decisions.” NSS Labs 2.0 is launching today with a focus on evaluating tools and services for their ransomware, AI and post-quantum cryptographic system defense capabilities.

Read the full article here: NSS Labs relaunches to conduct product testing amid growing AI, quantum computing threats

SDxCentral: Security testing firm returns as NSS Labs 2.0

Posted on by NSS Labs

NSS Labs relaunched with a new ownership structure and leadership, seeing a return for the security testing firm after its dissolution in 2020.

Founder Vikram Phatak returns as CEO for what’s being dubbed as NSS Labs 2.0, with the firm announcing it is now “wholly owned and operated by its senior partners and executive team.”

That team continues a crossover with CyberRatings.org, where NSS Labs has been named the official testing partner as part of its return to operations.

Since 2022, the non-profit, which publishes public test results and research on cybersecurity tech, has offered The NSS Labs archive, a library of material from NSS’s operations prior to its dissolution.

Additionally, Cathy Main joins NSS as chief marketing and communications officer whilst continuing in the role of president at CyberRatings.org.

With its return, NSS Labs says it is tailoring confidential, data-driven testing services to enterprises, security vendors and service providers.

Read the full article here: https://www.sdxcentral.com/news/security-testing-firm-returns-as-nss-labs-20/