eXtending Network Security – Ping Podcast – Episode 48

Episode 48: eXtending Network Security

The network perimeter barely exists in 2021, and that means extending network security beyond the traditional edge. Aaron Chen and Shane Davis with Sophos join us to discuss the networking needs of businesses in 2021, including remote access security and visibility, performance in the face of increasing security demands, and more. How can they address those needs? We talk about the latest technologies introduced by Sophos, including XDR (extended detection & response), the XGS firewall series, and Xstream protection (including the special second Xstream processor included in XGS firewalls).

In headlines, we discuss some cybersecurity actions by the U.S. government, both against Russia and on the homefront. Then, we hear about a survey that shows business owners are ready to pony up for ransomware attacks. And finally, we talk about a nuclear cyber attack blamed on a North Korean group.

How to listen

Listen to Ping – A Firewalls.com Podcast using the player above…

Or just about anywhere you prefer to listen to podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Overcast, Amazon Music, TuneIn, iHeart, Pocket Cast, Castro, Castbox, Podchaser, YouTube, and of course via RSS, to name a few). Moreover, please rate and review us wherever you listen. And remember to subscribe or follow where you can to get the latest episodes as soon as they’re released

Missed our previous episodes? You can get them anywhere you listen to podcasts, or go to our full episode list.

Learn even more about network security through our blog, which features new content every week, and our knowledge hub.

New episodes are usually released every other Wednesday. Have a special request for a topic or a question for our network engineers to address? Email us at podcast@firewalls.com and it could be on our next show. Thanks in advance for any listens, follows, subscribes, reviews, comments, shares, and generally spreading the word!


Cyber Job Training & Matchmaking, Plus Another Ransomware Roundup – Ping Podcast – Episode 47

Episode 47: Cyber Job Training & Matchmaking, Plus Another Ransomware Roundup

Employers across the U.S. – and around the world for that matter – are struggling to fill cybersecurity jobs, and our home state of Indiana is no exception. To talk about the shortage, as well as cyber job training opportunities for students and career changers, we welcome Dr. Marc Rogers, Purdue University professor & executive director of the Purdue Cyber Apprenticeship Program. He discusses the newly launched Cyber Seek Indiana website, which serves as a matchmaker for cybersecurity careers, from jobseekers to employers. Dr. Rogers also details the Cyber Apprenticeship Program, which gives participants real-world experience in cybersecurity as part of their training. And finally, he gives us a brief state of the cyber threat landscape as it stands now.

In headlines, we do a sort of ransomware roundup, as there are so many ransomware stories out there today. First, hear about the FBI recovering more than half the ransom from the Colonial Pipeline hack. Then, we touch on the JBS meats ransomware attack, the idea of triple extortion, and a couple additional ransomware impacts. And finally, learn what cybersecurity debt means and why it’s not helping stop all these attacks.

How to listen

Listen to Ping – A Firewalls.com Podcast using the player above…

Or just about anywhere you prefer to listen to podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Overcast, Amazon Music, TuneIn, iHeart, Pocket Cast, Castro, Castbox, Podchaser, YouTube, and of course via RSS, to name a few). Moreover, please rate and review us wherever you listen. And remember to subscribe or follow where you can to get the latest episodes as soon as they’re released

Missed our previous episodes? You can get them anywhere you listen to podcasts, or go to our full episode list.

Learn even more about network security through our blog, which features new content every week, and our knowledge hub.

New episodes are usually released every other Wednesday. Have a special request for a topic or a question for our network engineers to address? Email us at podcast@firewalls.com and it could be on our next show. Thanks in advance for any listens, follows, subscribes, reviews, comments, shares, and generally spreading the word!


Cyber Crime as Terrorism, Plus Ransomware Updates – Ping Podcast – Episode 46

Episode 46: Cyber Crime as Terrorism, Plus Ransomware Updates

In a special double interview edition of the podcast, we start by examining the idea of cyber crime as terrorism. Emma Schroeder & Trey Herr with the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative argue that many still do cybersecurity wrong. Why? In part, because they don’t meet cyber threats on their terms. Hear how they say cyber crime should be viewed and some tips for government entities in particular to better defend – including a Hunger Games idea. For more information, check out Emma & Trey’s op-ed.

For our second interview segment, we welcome cybersecurity writer and former IT pro Lance Whitney to help us tackle headlines, starting with a couple of high-profile ransomware issues. First, he updates us on the status of the DarkSide group following the Colonial Pipeline attack. Then, Lance details an FBI warning to healthcare providers to be on the lookout for Conti ransomware in particular. And finally, we discuss another threat targeted at consumers, called vishing – that’s voice phishing – and how hackers are using Amazon in this scheme. Find more from Lance at TechRepublic.

Oh, and check out our new podcast art above!

How to listen

Listen to Ping – A Firewalls.com Podcast using the player above…

Or just about anywhere you prefer to listen to podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Overcast, Amazon Music, TuneIn, iHeart, Pocket Cast, Castro, Castbox, Podchaser, YouTube, and of course via RSS, to name a few). Moreover, please rate and review us wherever you listen. And remember to subscribe or follow where you can to get the latest episodes as soon as they’re released

Missed our previous episodes? You can get them anywhere you listen to podcasts, or go to our full episode list.

Learn even more about network security through our blog, which features new content every week, and our knowledge hub.

New episodes are usually released every other Wednesday. Have a special request for a topic or a question for our network engineers to address? Email us at podcast@firewalls.com and it could be on our next show. Thanks in advance for any listens, follows, subscribes, reviews, comments, shares, and generally spreading the word!


Managed Firewall Services & The Top 5 Reasons You Should Consider Them

Managed Firewall Services

Since early 2020, the digital threat landscape has vastly changed. What used to work no longer does, and there are countless new ways for bad actors to compromise systems. One of the biggest trends in 2020 was for small and medium size businesses to shift the responsibility of managing the firewall and other network security systems to specialized 3rd parties. Managed firewall services have seen massive growth and consolidation of providers.

If you haven’t received a call or email introducing you to these services you probably will soon, but that might not be a bad thing. While you’re running your business or your jack-of-all-trades IT guy is busy fixing the Wi-Fi, hackers are most likely strategizing ways to penetrate your network. This is where managed firewall services take over and provide an added layer of security on top of your security equipment to ensure your business is safe and won’t suffer a potential catastrophic setback.

The Benefits To 3rd Party Managed Firewall Services

In this article, we’ll discuss the top 5 reasons why it’s important to have managed firewall services and what you need to know. Now, some of the benefits to managed firewall services you may already know – and some you may not. What we’ve found is that even if you know the benefits of 3rd party managed firewall services, for some reason you haven’t strengthened your business with it. Hopefully by the end of this article you understand the sophisticated threat landscape and why hiring a 3rd party network security company makes sense.

1. Your Current Firewall Configuration Settings Are Probably Wrong

When we onboard a new client, 95% of the time they had their firewall misconfigured. Even the companies that have an IT staff most often get this important part of the setup wrong because the firewall is such a specialized piece of IT. In our experience it takes a highly trained network engineer to properly configure a firewall specific to an individual network. Even missing minor parts of the configuration can render the purchase of a firewall useless because that is precisely where hackers will spot a vulnerability. Having a properly configured firewall is just as import as purchasing the correct firewall. This is where having managed firewall services really makes sense. Before the 3rd party can monitor the network they first have to have it set up correctly, which makes this the first realized benefit a client receives when they begin their 3rd party firewall management journey.

2. Maintaining Compliance

Depending on the industry, you may experience stricter compliance but none the less, every business and organization has a responsibility to protect the data of their clients and employees. Having a specialized, highly trained team of network security engineers not only aids in keeping your business compliant but also shows customers your due diligence in providing the best security environment for their sensitive data.

3. Talent & Specialty

Scarcity in the marketplace for individuals who have this skillset is a real thing. Businesses frequently leave their security in the hands of an internal IT guy who is knowledgeable with everything but the firewall. Often we find that IT guy struggles to maintain the security of the organization. What that means is unless you are lucky enough to have a fully-trained network security engineer on staff, you’ll always be one step behind bad actors or completely exposed to all sorts of digital threats. 3rd party managed firewall service companies recruit top talent and hire only the ones that have the necessary skillset required to remotely manage firewalls and the surrounding touchpoints of our clients networks.

4. 24/7 Network Monitoring

Hackers work around the clock and so should your network security team. Network security management isn’t a 9-5 Monday through Friday responsibility. Firewall managed services provides 24/7 monitoring and threat detection protection for your business. This is important because no matter what time it is, you have trusted professionals actively protecting what matters and ensuring the safety of your business.

5. Cost

Since one of the main offerings Firewalls.com provides is managed firewall services, we are afforded the luxury of hiring & paying top talent to protect our clients. We can do this because those expenses aren’t sunk costs, they are revenue generating. Human assets can be deployed across multiple organizations and can be done so for much less than what our clients can do if they hired a full time network security engineer. Outside the salary of a full time engineer there are also costs that involve money and time to be able to find in-house employees, which may never happen. Recruiting can be expensive and can easily take well over a year. Skipping the line and getting expert firewall management for less is one of the main reasons why our clients hire us. The Firewalls.com team has the ability to deploy quickly (time) and can be had for less (money) than a full time employee.

Trust The Security Of Your Network With Firewalls.com

Our clients have trusted us with their network’s security because we offer US based support, a real person picks up the phone, we have a lighting fast ticket resolution rating, and affordable prices. Contact us to day to get started or to receive a quick quote.

 

Firewall managed services pricing

 


SonicWall NSa 3700 – Advanced Networking for the Advanced Threat Era

SonicWall NSa 3700 – Advanced Networking for the Advanced Threat Era

SonicWall NSa 3700 firewalls are designed to secure mid-sized businesses, distributed enterprises, and large branch office locations while delivering performance superior to even recent generation firewalls. Featuring SonicWall’s SonicOS 7.0 operating system and its slew of new management and control features, the NSa 3700 sets itself apart from its NSa firewall predecessors.

The SonicWall NSa 3700 is ready to tackle SD-WAN deployments, security layer clustering, high-speed remote access through site-to-site and DPI SSL VPN, and more. In addition, the SonicWall NSa 3700 enables admins to monitor and manage all network traffic through a simple dashboard interface that prioritizes displaying fast, intuitive information right up front.

With multi-gigabit threat prevention throughput and super fast encrypted traffic scanning, you won’t lose all the bandwidth and speed you pay out to your ISP each month. On top of that, the SonicWall NSa 3700 features physical upgrades as well: 24 Gigabit ports, 6 10-gig ports, and 4 SFP+ ports capable of working on a 5G network.

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SonicWall NSa 3700 Spec Snapshot

SonicWall NSa 3700 At A Glance

SonicWall NSa 3700 Next Generation Firewall

Max Firewall Throughput: 5.5 Gbps

Threat Prevention Throughput: 3.5 Gbps

Application Inspection Throughput: 4.2 Gbps

Network Interface Ports: 24x1GbE, 6x10GbE, 4x5G SFP+, 2 USB SuperSpeed 3.0, 1 Console, 1 Management

DPI Maximum Connections: 750,000

Connections per Second: 22,500

VLAN Interfaces: 256

Site-to-Site VPN Tunnels: 3000

Hardware-Only MSRP: $4095

View the SonicWall NSa 3700 Datasheet

Shop the SonicWall NSa 3700

Check out our latest video on the SonicWall NSa 3700:

What’s New in SonicOS 7.0?

SonicWall’s Gen 7 firewalls feature a brand new operating system that simplifies network security management while focusing on the most pressing threats facing small businesses. TLS 1.3 decryption aims at hunting down and snuffing out elusive encrypted threats. This increased visibility is right at your fingertips. The SonicOS Capture Threat Assessment Report provides summarized insights into traffic, applications, and a variety of advanced threats, ensuring you know exactly what’s lurking on your network.

The learning curve for SonicOS 7.0 is extremely user-friendly, with auto-provision VPNs and the SonicExpress app that make zero-touch deployment a reality. In the era of remote work, the ability to quickly and easily deploy a high-performance, high-security appliance without needing a technician at each site is crucial.

Check out our article SonicOS 7.0: 7.0 Reasons Why This SonicWall OS Rocks to learn more.

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TotalSecure Advanced Edition & Essential Edition

So many new advanced features and services arrived with the SonicOS 7.0 appliances that SonicWall had to make brand new licensing bundles to house them all. With the NSa 3700, you have two bundle options. The more basic bundle, called the TotalSecure Essential Edition Bundle, includes these SonicWall security services:

  • Gateway Anti-Virus, Intrusion Prevention, Application Control
  • Content Filtering Service
  • 24×7 Support
  • Network Visibility
  • Basic DNS Security
  • Anti-Spam
  • Capture ATP (Multi-Engine) Sandboxing
  • RTDMI Technology

The TotalSecure Advanced Edition includes everything in the Essentials Edition, with the added bonus of SonicWall Network Security Manager (NSM) Essentials. NSM features:

  • Cloud Management
  • 7 Days Cloud-based Reporting

Optionally, services can be purchased a la carte as well.

Looking for More Firewall Solutions from SonicWall?

Shop SonicWall NSa firewalls if you’re looking for enterprise-grade protection at SMB prices.

Future-proof your setup with secure, scalable SonicWall Network Switches.

Or browse all of our SonicWall products to find the perfect solution for your unique network needs.

 


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