Threat actors are demonstrating the capability to bypass protection offered by conventional endpoint and perimeter security solutions. Enterprises must in turn evolve their defenses to incorporate a different kind of protection, one that NSS Labs defines as a breach prevention system (BPS).

Through constant analysis of suspicious code and identification of communications with malicious hosts, breach prevention solutions are capable of providing enhanced detection of advanced malware, zero-day attacks, and targeted attacks that could bypass defenses such as next generation firewalls (NGFWs), intrusion preventions systems (IPS), intrusion detection systems (IDS), antivirus/endpoint protection (including host IPS), and secure web gateways (SWGs).

NSS test reports are designed to address the challenges faced by IT professionals in selecting and managing security products. The scope of this methodology includes security effectiveness, performance, stability and reliability, and total cost of ownership (TCO).