Blue Coat Achieves DoD Approval for Web Gateway

Enterprise security vendor Blue Coat Systems has achieved official government approval for two of its secure web gateway solutions.

Both the ProxySG S400 and S500 are currently the only web proxy devices in the security industry to achieve certification from the United States Department of Defense (DoD) under its Unified Capabilities Approved Products List, according to the announcement.

Blue Coat achieved approval for its solutions with assistance from IT firm Tachyon Dynamics, which helped to test and validate the web gateways to the standard required by the government.

“We were extremely impressed by the expertise of Tachyon Dynamics in UC APL and network security,” said Diana Robinson, government certifications, NSS & specialized testing program manager for Blue Coat Systems, in a statement. “Tachyon’s experience and guidance throughout the process helped us in achieving certification.”

The DoD requires all IT equipment used by its agents to pass the UC APL certification process, which includes information assurance, interoperability and Internet protocol version 6 testing, according to Blue Coat. These tests can take up to a year to complete and ensure that all of the approved solutions comply with the DoD’s rigorous cybersecurity requirements.

Blue Coat is the latest in a string of vendors to receive government approval for its security solutions. In December, Dell announced it had received approval from the DoD for several of its networking products, including its S4810, S4820T, S6000 and Z9000 switches.

In November, Aruba Networks attained FIPS 140-22 certification for its 802.11ac wireless LAN solutions, making them the first LAN devices to be validated under the Common Criteria Wireless LAN Access System Protection File.