Ideco NGFW Novum v23 Adds Shadow AI Discovery, Dynamic Routing and QoS Controls
Ideco has released NGFW Novum v23, bringing together visibility of AI services, advanced dynamic routing, QoS and strict authentication in a single platform. The update targets large distributed networks, data centers, congested WAN links and regulated environments.
Shadow AI begins with everyday actions: employees opening chatbots, developers connecting API models, analysts uploading tables to assistants and engineers running local inference services. The new release adds 83 AI application protocols to the Application Control module, allowing ChatGPT, Claude, DeepSeek, GigaChat, YandexGPT and proxy services such as Chad AI and GPTunneL to be identified by DNS, SNI and connection characteristics without mandatory TLS decryption.
Two new content-filter categories, “AI agents” and “AI services”, complement the existing “AI chatbots” group. Because the firewall sits at the natural observation point for all outbound AI traffic, administrators can immediately apply different policies to approved and unapproved services and build an internal registry of AI tools.
The routing stack has been significantly expanded. Prefix lists and Route maps enable reusable filtering and attribute manipulation for OSPF, EIGRP and BGP. BFD profiles allow sub-second neighbor failure detection, while OSPF areas and key chains support scalable, secure link-state domains. These features eliminate the need to maintain large sets of static routes across multiple sites.
Virtual contexts now communicate internally through Virtual Ethernet (veth) pairs and a Virtual Switch, removing the requirement for external switches when connecting separate VCEs. QoS, per-interface MTU and IPsec-specific MSS settings help maintain voice and video quality on constrained WAN links.
Ideco Client adds certificate-based primary authentication for Windows, Linux and macOS, with CRL checking during active sessions. Support for GOST algorithms in reverse proxy and certificate handling has also been added. The IPS engine now detects SSH tunneling, and a new “Block tunneled traffic” option in TLS/SSL inspection profiles prevents non-HTTP protocols inside decrypted sessions.
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