We’re Beefing-Up Networking and Security

Protecting and securing networks and data – according to a recent survey from CBS Interactive, it’s the biggest IT challenge for 2017. A data breach is every company’s worst nightmare. And it’s an expensive nightmare to have; for example: the forecasted average loss for a breach of 1,000 records is between $52,000 and $87,000. What would a security breach do to your organization?

Navigating the Jungle of Security

The landscape of security and networking is complex and growing; there are thousands of companies offering thousands of choices but which one should you consider? Vetting all the options and arriving at the best solution requires a large investment of time and careful consideration. It is for this reason we’re committing to a major expansion within our security and networking division; guiding you through the jungle of variables, listening to your individual needs, and only offering the solutions we know to be the best-of-breed and fit for your organization.

Each month, we will be highlighting these solutions; parsing out what they offer and how they may be the answer to today’s needs, as well as those in the foreseeable future. Our goal is to save you time and resources so you can focus on other priorities.

This Month’s Spotlight: Palo Alto Networks

Using centralized management, Palo Alto Networks provides a comprehensive solution of products that protects from the perimeter to the endpoint. The company started in 2005 and has experienced rapid growth due to their cutting-edge technology, allowing for granular control based on identification of applications and traffic through a process called deep packet inspection. This inspection allows for the blocking of specific applications, such as: Facebook or file sharing services, while allowing other services access on the same network ports. The sophistication of their technology allows an organization to prevent applications that could exfiltrate data using standard web traffic ports that most other firewall vendors would simply allow through.

In addition to the firewall capability, Palo Alto Networks also offers URL filtering, threat analysis, VPN services, perimeter and client end antivirus capabilities that use heuristics and user mapping to: identify, protect, and control access on a per user basis, or by groups of users.  Their offerings come in the form of physical and virtual firewall appliances and includes cloud based instances that can be deployed in Azure and AWS to provide the same level of protection for your cloud assets.

Implementing Palo Alto Networks’ Wildfire technology provides your business with the ability to detect, analyze and prevent malware and exploits utilizing their cloud service. This process sends unknown suspicious files that can be downloaded and sent or received in email to their sandbox service for analysis. Wildfire has a great track record of detecting even the most evasive malware before it enters your network.

Palo Alto Networks has a bright future as they keep innovating and acquiring technology companies to fill any gaps in their product offers. Most recently they acquired an Israeli company called Light Cyber. Light Cyber is a threat analytics platform that performs behavioral analytics, bettering their overall ability for breach detection.

Considering Palo Alto Networks has grown rapidly, adding security products to their portfolio covering from the cloud to on premise, they have been adept at providing scalable and comprehensive threat protection and management of network assets, and extending it to the desktop utilizing the industry leading Traps endpoint protection.

If you’re ready go to the next level of protecting your organization and would like to consider looking at Palo Alto, let us know.

Palo Alto Networks – Quick Takeaway

What Do They Offer?

• Firewall
• URL Filtering
• Traps (Endpoint Protection)
• AV Capability in the Firewall
• Defense in Depth
• Wildfire
• SSL Interception
• DLP
• VPN
• Centralized Management – Panorama
• Autofocus – future of product unknown with light cyber
• Cloud Offerings
• SIEM Integration (Small to medium size businesses will not have Arcsight or other SIEM, this is for large enterprises)

What Features Are Most Relevant?
Overall, it utilizes a single pane interface, except for Traps – it uses a separate console.

What Future Products Are They Offering?
They have recently added LightCyber, an award-winning automated behavioral analytics program that uses machine learning to quickly identify anomalies inside a network at critical stages of an attack.