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SOPHOS 7 DEADLY IT SINS: NO 5 – FAULTY FIREWALL

Written by Jared Quan | May 11, 2015 2:00:00 PM

 

A FAULTY FIREWALL INVITES EVIL "VILLAINS" INTO YOUR NETWORK. BANDWIDTH DEMANDS, ADVANCED THREATS, MANAGEMENT COMPLEXITY, AND LIMITED VISIBILITY ALL HAVE THE POWER TO TAKE DOWN YOUR FIREWALL. 

When firewalls were first being deployed, they were specifically designed for wired networks and were a literal physical barrier for packets. This is no longer the case.

Firewalls are not dumb barriers with a few holes drilled through them any longer. They are intelligent gatekeepers, more like the border patrol of a nation. “I suppose what I am really proposing here is that we stop calling firewalls, firewalls," said Chester Wisniewski, the Senior Security Adviser at Sophos, "I'm partial to 'intelligent security gateways.'"

Too often we read the headlines and hear about another network intrusion that begins about 'Criminals obtaining valid network credentials were able to explore the network and smuggle gigabytes of personal information,' or 'Big retail credit card systems hacked again!' With a portion of the workforce currently sitting in a cybercafe, airport, hotel or home office; are we safe to think that our employees are protected inside a faulty firewall?

MODERN FIREWALLS ARE IMPRESSIVELY EQUIPPED TO HELP OUT WITH THESE PROBLEMS.

Faulty Firewall from Sophos on Vimeo.

 

When battling a faulty fire wall, it's safe to have the following resources tucked inside your utility belt: 

 

MULTI-LAYERED PROTECTION

INTEGRATED WEB, EMAIL, AND ENDPOINT PROTECTION

WEB MALWARE DETECTION

ADVANCED WEB MALWARE DETECTION THAT CAN EMULATE JAVASCRIPT

BLOCK NETWORK ATTACKS

NEXT-GEN FIREWALL AND IPS BLOCK NETWORK ATTACKS

BLOCK CALLS-HOME

LOOK ACROSS A VARIETY OF NETWORK TRAFFIC VECTORS TO IDENTIFY C&C TRAFFIC

IDENTIFY INFECTED SYSTEMS

REPORT AND ALERT ON INFECTED HOSTS

SELECTIVE SANDBOXING

SUSPICIOUS SAMPLES REPRESENTING POTENTIAL UNKNOWN THREATS

 

Just as each team member of the Avengers strengthen the team in an area of weakness, SOPHOS and VLCM can help you shore up any weak spot you may have so you won’t be tempted to turn green with anger and start smashing things.