Creating and developing a mix of private, public, and hybrid cloud computing environments is all part of the norm in today’s modern data centres, especially with the increase in virtualisation technology and advancements across all data and network infrastructures.

Read next blog: The latest Sonicwall Secure Mobile Access and why you should upgrade

The Ultimate Guide on How to protect your PC from computer invaders

he internet and being online is one of, if not THE, ultimate resources for everyone in today's modern and dare we say it, digital world.

We use it for everything! To communicate with others, to carry out research, to work, to shop, to play etc. - when it comes to the internet the list could go on and on.

It's convenient; it's there at the tip of our fingers, and now with wi-fi hotspots, we’re never really without a connection!

However, we’re also now much more vulnerable to identity theft as well as invasion of privacy.

We leave digital footprints everywhere and putting your data in the wrong place, or the wrong hands can prove extremely costly, to you.

This guide highlights the cyber crimes you need to be aware of, the common challenges that we find ourselves facing daily, and how we can overcome these challenges by making some simple adjustments to how we view and use the internet and its different platforms.

Table of Contents

1. You are not safe online!

Computer invaders don't go away; they just change focus and adapt their attacks to target and break even the most powerful firewalls and antivirus!

1a) Common threats

Some of the most dominant and well-known cyber threats currently out there include:

Ransomware and Malware both used as a tool to carry our targeted threats, infecting computer systems as they go, and costing customers highly.

Data breaches are still one of the most important threats of today. Stealing personal information or company-wide information can lead to identity theft and fraud.

With business data most commonly found to be used for blackmail purposes or indeed to sell on for money.

Distributed Denial of Service attacks (DDoS) - these attacks are driven not only by financial gain, but also by political, ideological, or just bad opinion.

Payment card fraud - be aware of fake companies that show up at the point of sales online to abuse certain transactions, taking advantage of your personal information.

Crypto jacking – linked with cryptocurrency, crypto jacking attacks aim to exploit a computer user's bandwidth and processing power to mine for cryptocurrency. Such attacks can cripple a victim's system by manipulating their processing power.

Phishing emails – the most common form of threats and attacks due to their realism. Phishing emails set out to obtain personal data, hijack accounts, steal identities, carry out malicious activity from your PC and more!

SPAM – spam is often used to gain access to very targeted networks.

1b) Their effects on a PC

The effects all of these threats have on your PC or computer network can be fatal, fatal for the computer.

Depending on the security you have in place, as well as the type of virus/malware, and the expertise of your IT team, it will all depend on whether the hack and virus can be completely removed before any further damage is done.

Making operating systems run much slower than they should or stop working completely is just one effect these types of attacks can have on a computer.

That and all your files can be encrypted and used to access sensitive or personal information, or worse, your computer can be used to do bad things without you even knowing it's going on.

Your computer might also crash regularly, continuously show pop-up error messages, and create problems when trying to connect to secure networks.

This last point is very important for remote employees, because using their personal computers at home, which may be hacked or infected in some way, to log in to their office's private server, can open up more doors for intruders to gain access to!

1c) Staying safe

There are several ways to increase your security online. These include:

Reviewing your online activities – what sites are you shopping on? What content are you posting, and where are you posting this? How safe are the sites you are visiting?

Install the latest antivirus software and firewalls. With free and paid for protection now available, there is no excuse not to protect your PC. (SonicWall online is a great place to help you get started).

Make sure to use a personal private network. This will not only help your antivirus software to further protect your online privacy, but it will also help to hide IP addresses, protect passwords, and keep you anonymous online.

Be aware of the information you share on social media. Especially Facebook, whose business model is designed on using your personal information for advertising and marketing purposes.

Only use secure shopping sites

Use strong passwords (you will read this point a lot throughout this guide)

Delete or clear your tracking cookies. Deleting your online activity means it's harder to follow you and collect personal information about you.

2. Attack of the invaders

With global cybercrime damages predicted to reach $6 billion in costs (annually) by 2021, the online threat is not only real, but it is also continually evolving.

2a) Cybercrime at its worst - stats, history, and challenges to overcome

The second most investigated crime accounting for 50% of crimes in the UK is Cybercrime.

Hackers are invading PCs on average every 39 seconds!

The number of ransomware families has increased from 30 in 2015 to 98 in 2016, with the demand also increasing from $294 in 2015 to £1,077 in 2016.

Records lost to hacking in 2017 stood at an average of 780,000 per day.

2015/16 saw identity takeover become the fastest growing type of fraud in Australia and New Zealand.

In the past year, nearly 200 million people across 21 different countries experienced some form of cybercrime!

The cost of online crime and activity is real:

• The cost of data breaches annually now stands at a staggering $2.1 trillion.
• In 2017, the total revenue coaxed out of people and businesses from cybercriminals worldwide stood at $1.5 trillion!
• $3.8 million, is the cost of data breaches to businesses (on average).
• $600 billion the global cost of cybercrime in 2017.

Challenges come in many shapes and sizes

Take, for example, the recent hacking of Facebook user accounts. Affecting nearly 50 million users worldwide, over 14 million people had their location and search history exposed for all to see!

On this occasion users of the site did nothing wrong and nor was there anything they could do to stop or pre-empt this from happening (besides not having a Facebook account at all), because the hackers took advantage of a Facebook privacy feature, which allowed them to access users' accounts without them knowing.

Now, as one of the largest data breaches in Facebook's history, the company's engineers are working to fix the problem and have advised another 40 million users to log out of their accounts as a precaution. Logging out and logging back in, allowed Facebook to reset users access tokens, protecting their accounts.

Further investigations are still ongoing to the extent of how these bugs can be rectified.

This type of breach is not uncommon as we look further into cybercrime and in particular. WikiLeaks, who released over 8,000 CIA documents (of course classified) in 2017. A team of hackers also released sensitive emails from French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron in the same year.

Mobile platforms are the fastest growing target areas for hackers, with 80% of mobile fraud carried out through mobile apps and 60% of online fraud carried out through mobile platforms.

These attacks are not only real, but they're big!

3. Keep your computer safe

With online threats at an all-time high, we've compiled a list of top tips to protect you and your computer from computer invaders.

Without needing to install a thing:

• Avoid sites which you don't trust or don't look 100% genuine.
• Don't open emails from unknown/not trusted senders
• Don't open attachments from just anyone!
• Take your passwords more seriously! With more than 60% of people using the same password across multiple sites, make sure you use longer passwords. Use a combination of lower and upper case, numbers, and characters. Avoid obvious ones such as children's birthdays!
• Check your security settings in your browser. Reviewing and setting these at the level that you need and want, you can block pop-ups and irrelevant ads, you can tell websites not to track your location and movements.
• Network security – disabling autorun on Windows, for example, can stop up to 50% of malware threats!
• Wi-Fi security at home – make sure to change your router's default settings by enabling a non-default password and network name.
• Wi-Fi security, public disable sharing and make sure to use a virtual private network (VPN) to secure your data and hide your IP address.

The need for software installation:

• Install the right firewalls and antivirus software depending on your needs and configuration settings required. Also, make sure to keep your firewall turned on!
• Keep your Windows operating system up to date, checking for the latest security updates and patches. Make sure you turn on the automatic update feature.
• Install antivirus and anti-spyware software. Providing real-time protection, helping to identify and block any unwanted mail and threats.
• Look to invest in cloud software or external hard drives, backup your folders regularly, and make sure you have a backup plan if the worst were to happen.

4. Firewalls

Most firewalls, over the years, have been developed in response to a security threat received. Action was then taken to develop and produce more advanced firewall technology to stop the threat from happening again.

4a) How they work

When we think of firewalls, we need to think of them as invisible walls, in both directions, that monitor everything that passes through them. If a threat is found, the wall will not allow it to pass through.

A firewall will ultimately stop hackers from accessing your computer via Wi-Fi connections and the internet and can help in two ways:

1. It can allow traffic to pass through, except for data that meets a predetermined set of criteria.
2. It can stop all traffic unless it meets a predetermined set of criteria.

Firewalls are a piece of security software that keeps track of the traffic to and from your computer. They are the first line of defence to protect your data and any important information.

4b) Why do you need them?

It is this misuse of confidential information and stealing of personal data which is why we need firewalls.

For example, hackers use Trojan viruses and key logging software to access computers and data. Things like passwords, bank details can all be taken and used without you realising for days (if not longer), racking up huge bills in your name as they go.

They can also use your computer against you, taking complete control without you knowing, and using it to run illegal activities online, or it's affecting the system in any way.

Firewalls and upgraded firewalls like SonicWall firewalls help to stop this from happening, placing a barrier between you and the hackers.

4c) Best Practice

Firewall best practice when it comes to business is to install complex firewall software to protect the most extensive networks, so that such security measures can be managed by a team.

Helping to:

• Prevent staff from sending certain types of emails or transmitting sensitive information.
• Stop employees accessing certain sites
• Prevent outside computers accessing computers inside the network
• Provide a variety of configurations

When it comes to firewalls for personal use, we recommend keeping it simple. The primary goal is to protect your computer and private network from malicious activity.

5. Antivirus software

Anti-virus software, in its purest form, protects against different types of malware, protecting your PC and your personal information.

5a) How they work

Good antivirus software helps to block everyday threats by finding them before they reach your computer, and before they reach you directly, pulling them away, and locking them in a safe place.

Anti-virus software is similar to anti-spy software in that it provides real-time protection (if you make sure to keep it updated regularly). Scanning all incoming information and blocking any unwanted information or threats which it detects.

5b) Why do you need them?

Malware and malicious software attacking our PCs are one of the biggest online threats.A virus of any kind can be spread over the internet and through email, quickly causing damage to your computer and files.

Malware in this sense also includes Trojan Horse programmes and spyware; all used to acquire your personal information for identity theft and fraud.

The right antivirus software will help to prevent spyware and malware from getting onto your computer and invading your privacy, but it is important to set up and use a secure password. Using long passwords including a combination of numbers, special characters, and upper- and lower-case letters is most recommended.

5c) Differences between firewalls and antivirus software

Both developed to offer you and your PC increased security, the key differences between antivirus software and firewalls are:

• Anti-virus can only be implemented in software, whereas a firewall can be both hardware and software.
• Anti-virus performs continuous scans on the PC in question, detecting, identifying and removing any threats found, whereas firewalls monitor and filter incoming and outgoing information.
• Anti-virus software can deal with external and internal attacks, while firewalls can only deal with external.
• You can apply set rules to firewalls for monitoring and securing PCs and networks; this is not possible with an antiantivirus that will run regular checks to see if programs or files are dangerous.
• A firewall can prevent untrusted and unauthorised applications from gaining access to your computer, but it does not do anything about it. Antivirus programs do this for you.

6. Email Security Software

When it comes to protecting your PC and computer systems, you need to make sure to invest in the right security software for you and your PC. However, you also need to bear in mind the need to defend yourself against all known and emerging viruses and hacks.

6a) Integrated email security software

Attacks are getting more and more advanced and varied, and for this reason, integrated email security software should be chosen instead of managing a number of different software systems.

Making life easier An integrated platform means you can manage, control and contain everything through one application. You can monitor all incoming and outgoing activity quickly and efficiently, and you can have a bird's eye view of the security of your PC.

Managing multiple applications is not only a minefield, but because they are all designed to do different things and not talk to each other, security processes can become slow and complicated.

When considering an integrated email security package, look for one that can protect against malware as well as spam, phishing, potential data leaks and more!

The SonicWall email security and sensitive data detection solution can help. Deployed as a software or virtual appliance, this security system gives you complete peace of mind that your computer and operating system are protected.

7. Advanced internet protection technique

In this final chapter, we want to let you in on some of our tips and unique techniques over the years to increase the security of your computer.

Tips that we've never shared before.

7a) Keep things up to date!

Now before you think, you've heard all of this before, and there is nothing left to say on the matter, give us a second!

Yes, when we say keep things updated, we're talking about things such as updating and keeping the latest version of Microsoft - and yes, we know not everyone likes it, but it will help to add another layer of security to your PC.

But, what we also mean is that it's also important to keep the more uncommon elements like your routers and Java up to date too.

Java is something that most of us don't really know to update in the first instance, let alone do this regularly, so it's important to know more about it.

In your start menu, search for Java, clicking and bringing up the Java Control Panel. Any updates and new updates will then be available by the click of a button in the bottom right-hand corner of the panel.

Within this section, we'd also recommend clicking on the security tab at the top and disabling, the Enable Java box.

Why?

Because this is notorious for vulnerabilities and opens up more opportunities and threats than adding additional security.

When it comes to routers, keep these up to date by changing passwords asap, and follow this up with disabling WPS, or Wi-Fi Protected Setup.

Why?

Because if we're 100%, honest WPS is really shaky on the security front!

7b) Change your controls

Most computers and PCs will automatically be set up with you as the administrator with admin privileges and the ability to access everything without question.

Herein lies the problem.

In your control panel, make sure to switch your privileges from admin to standard.

Why?

Because if a virus or piece of malware does accidentally find its way onto your PC, being set up as admin will give the invader the same privileges that you have, and you don't want that to happen.

7c) Keep some things to yourself!

In an era where 2.77 billion people around the world use social media, (an estimated 2.77 billion people around the world use social media), we tend to give too much away about ourselves, our family, and our lives in general.

Stop.

Let's keep some things under wraps, as not placing yourself in a vulnerable position will only strengthen your security position when online fraud and identity theft occur.

7d) Quick-fire tips

Make sure your antivirus software offers real-time protection.

Be aware that even the most trusted websites can be compromised.

Back up everything. Using both local and online backup systems. and

Sign out of things before closing everything down!

Conclusion

Computer invaders are not going away, but being armed with the right tools and information can keep you and your PC protected.

If you enjoyed reading this guide, please feel free to share and comment below with any questions or insight you might have when it comes to computer invaders; we'd love to hear from you.

Over the course of the last 15 years, cyber threats have gone from urban myths and corporate ghost stories to as mainstream as carjackings and burglaries. There isn’t a business owner of a small restaurant chain or a CEO of a Fortune 500 company who doesn’t think about the fallout of being breached.

I’m not here to tell you how the threats are getting more sophisticated, or how state-sponsored hacker groups are getting more and more funding; you already know that. But what I do want to share with you is something that I’m seeing daily. Targeted threats that you may have already witnessed and, unfortunately, been personally a victim of or know someone who has: Spear-phishing.

Are you an Office 365 user? Do you have customers who are Office 365 users? Are you a managed security service provider (MSSP) that administrators Office 365 for your clients? You probably need a solution that applies effective Office 365 security capabilities and controls.

With close to 200 million global users, Office 365 is a target — a big target. And spear-phishing attempts are good. Really good. Recently, Forbes ran a summary of the threat. Alarmingly, today’s most advanced spear-phishing attempts look like they come from your CFO, boss or trusted vendor. They provide credibility to the target and, many times, users take the bait. Money gets wired. Access to accounts are provided. Confidential information is exposed.

Traditional email security isn’t enough protection. Out-of-the-box, cloud-native security services aren’t enough protection. A lean, effective and modern Office 365 security or SaaS security solution is required.

How to stop spear-phishing attacks, advanced cyber threats

SonicWall Cloud App Security (CAS) combines advanced security for Office 365, G Suite and other top SaaS applications to protect users and data within cloud applications, including email, messaging, file sharing and file storage. This approach delivers advanced threat protection against targeted email threats like phishing attacks, business email compromise, zero-day threats, data loss and account takeovers.

CAS also seamlessly integrates with sanctioned SaaS applications using native APIs. This helps organizations deploy email security and CASB functionalities that are critical to protecting the SaaS landscape and ensure consistent policies across cloud applications being used.

Explore the five key reasons CAS may be able to protect your organization from spear-phishing and other advanced attacks.

• CAS delivers next-gen security for Office 365, protecting email, data and user credentials from advanced threats (including advanced phishing) while ensuring compliance in the cloud
• Monitor SaaS accounts for IOCs, such data leakage, account takeover, business email compromise (BEC) and fraud attempts
• Block malware propagation in malicious email attachments and files, whether they are at-rest or traversing a SaaS environment, internally or cloud-to-cloud
• Prevent data breaches using machine learning and/or AI-based user profiling and behavior analytics for incident detections and automated responses
• Leverage Shadow IT to monitor cloud usage in real time, and set policies to block unsanctioned applications

In my over 10 years of observing various attacks and sitting in rooms with customers (not mine, fortunately) who have been breached, I can tell you that you don’t want it ever to be you or your customers. This threat is having more success than any I’ve seen — and they are very recent.

For more information explore the CAS solution in detail.

With the latest Sonicwall TZ Firewall now available, is now the time to upgrade your systems and networks?

Stay protected at all times, contact Sonicwall firewall support on 0333 2405667 to find out more.

How to create a professional cold email without going to recipients spam folder - The Ultimate Guide

At some point in our career lifetime, we have sent out or indeed been sent a cold email.

Many things now need to be considered when sending out cold emails and this guide will show you not only how to create an expert cold email, but how to make sure it doesn't end up in the spam folder of the recipient.

Contents Covered

1. A guide to cold emailing

a. How to successfully land in someone's inbox

b. The most important dos and don'ts for cold emailing

c. Tips for producing compelling content

2. Cold emailing deliverability

d. The cold email checklist everyone needs to know

3. Red flag

e. Need to show them you're human

f. Avoid similar content

g. Spam filters pay attention to things out of the ordinary.

h. No groups, only individuals

4. Spam emails

5. Your ultimate email security guide

6. Technical attacks

i. Viruses

j. Phishing attacks

k. Denial of service

7. Email encryption

l. The benefits

m. Encryption should be...

Firewalls are the workhorse of network security and are especially adept at mitigating advanced threats like malware, ransomware and encrypted threats. Firewall appliances must, however, be regularly upgraded to stay ahead of cybercriminals.

Still running an older SonicWall NSA or E series model? Consider these 10 reasons to upgrade to the latest mid-range SonicWall NSa next-generation firewall.

Stop the Most Advanced Threats

Advanced persistent threats move with great speed and veracity, and are designed to target and infiltrate all businesses and organizations.

However, a cloud-based, multi-engine sandbox, such as the SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) service, provides real-time security against advanced cyberattacks, including ‘never-before-seen’ ransomware, malware and side-channel attacks. Each day, Capture ATP subscribers discover and stop more than 1,000 new attacks each business day.

Why upgrade: SonicWall Capture ATP is only available for the NSA/NSa 2600 and newer next-generation firewalls, as well as the current TZ and NSsp product lines (sixth generation or newer). This service is not available for legacy SonicWall firewalls, including some NSA and E Series models (usually silver in color with the old blue SonicWall logo).

Inspect Traffic without Slowing Performance

You should never be put into a position to choose between security and performance. With bandwidth-hungry apps woven into our everyday lives — SaaS apps, video streaming and social media — firewalls with faster deep packet inspection (DPI) are better at securing networks without greatly affecting performance.

In fact, through the first three quarters of 2019, SonicWall registered 3.1 million encrypted attacks. This marked a 58% year-over-year increase from 2018.

Faster DPI performance gives businesses greater capacity to utilize higher internet speeds and support more concurrent users without ever sacrificing security.

Why upgrade: For example, NSa 2650 delivers a 25% DPI-SSL performance improvement over the NSA 2600. SonicWall NSa 2650 and newer firewalls (e.g., 2650-9650) offer significantly faster DPI performance than their predecessors, the NSA 2600-9600 range, E Series models and other older appliances.

Inspect TLS/SSL Traffic without Increasing Costs

The majority of web traffic is encrypted today. Without proper security controls in place, TLS/SSL encryption standards provide cybercriminals easy access to your network.

That’s why deep packet inspection of encrypted traffic (DPI for TLS/SSL) is mandatory. Some firewall vendors, unfortunately, upcharge for proper TLS/SSL inspection capabilities or simply don’t offer the capability at all. Unfortunately, inspecting TLS/SSL traffic also takes compute power and organizations need a firewall that can process TLS-encrypted traffic without hurting performance.

Why upgrade: The latest SonicWall NSa firewalls include the DPI-SSL license (by default) to inspect encrypted traffic at no additional cost, thereby reducing capital expense. Unfortunately, older-generation NSA firewalls (usually silver in color with our old logo) do not support inspection of encrypted traffic.

Expand Remote Branch/Site Security

For organizations with remote and branch locations, such as retail POS businesses, the ability to create a larger number of site-to-site VPN tunnels to connect distributed networks together and securely share data is essential. But not all firewalls have the capability or capability to make this happen.

Why upgrade: By moving to the latest NSa firewall series, your organization can secure more remote branches, services and devices. This is particularly powerful for distributed enterprises, retail organizations, etc. The NSa 2650, for example, enables the creation of 4x more site-to-site VPN tunnels than the NSA 2600 (1,000 vs. 250).

Support More High-Speed Wi-Fi Connections

Fast and secure Wi-Fi is a requirement in today’s hyper-connect world. Today’s wireless standard, 802.11ac, delivers the performance, range and reliability of high-speed wireless technology for a safe and fast user experience.

In a properly secured environment, wireless access points must be paired with a firewall that can support 802.11ac wireless standards.

But newer firewalls can support more connections, too. The option to connect a larger number of wireless access points to a single firewall enables organizations to extend their wireless network farther without purchasing additional hardware.

Why upgrade: Combine the latest NSa series next-generation firewall with a SonicWall SonicWave 802.11ac Wave 2 wireless access point to create a high-speed wireless network security solution.

NSa series firewalls and SonicWave 400 series wireless access points both feature 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports that can support multi-gigabit wireless throughput, which is available in the 802.11ac Wave 2 wireless standard. In addition, you can connect more wireless access points to the latest NSa firewall. The NSa 2650, for example, supports 1.5x the number of connected SonicWave wireless access points as the NSA 2600 (48 vs. 32).

Unfortunately, legacy NSA and older firewalls (as well as those on SonicOS 5.x or older firmware) do not offer multi-gigabit ports to accommodate the faster throughput supported by Wave 2 wireless standard.

Decrease Support Costs

Single sign-on (SSO) technology helps secure your environment, as well as employees, to be more productive and helps shrink IT support costs (e.g., tickets, calls, etc.) by enabling users to safely gain access to connected systems with a single ID and password.

Simply, the more users who can access a system with a single ID, the fewer support calls, IT tickets and complaints that will be generated. This self-service approach means real savings to your business or enterprise.

Why upgrade: The NSa 2650, for example, allows a larger population of users

(40,000 vs. 30,000) to benefit from the use of SSO compared to the legacy NSA 2600. This disparity widens the further you go up the product line.

Increase Network Capacity

With increased network bandwidth requirements from apps, video streaming and social media, faster DPI and DPI-SSL performance provides a secure network without performance degradation.

Faster DPI performance also provides organizations with a greater capacity to utilize higher internet speeds and support more concurrent users. A higher number of concurrent connections provides greater scalability by enabling more simultaneous user sessions to be active and protected by the firewall.

Why upgrade: The NSa 2650 enables 500,000 deep packet inspection (DPI) connections and up to 100,000 deep packet inspection of TLS/SSL-encrypted (DPI-SSL) connections compared to the 250,000 for

DPI and 1,000 for DPI-SSL on the NSA 2600 and older models, such as the NSA 220 (32,000 for DPI).

Boost Memory for Added Users, Logs & Policies

The number of users who require security on your network grows by the day. Unfortunately, the on-board memory of legacy firewalls can only support a finite footprint of users on the network.

Advanced NSa firewalls offer more onboard memory to allow for more rules and policies, users and log messages to be stored on the firewall, making reporting easily accessible.

Why upgrade: The NSa 2650 has twice the onboard memory of the NSA 2600 (4 GB vs. 2 GB) and eight times the memory of the NSA 220 (4 GB vs. 512MB). This increased capacity empowers organizations to use a single NSa firewall to protect a larger userbase with deeper and more robust rules and policies.

Ditch the Switch with More Ports

It’s time to clean up your server room or IT area. Having a greater number of ports allows organizations to connect more SonicWall devices directly to the firewall without needing to purchase a switch. In addition, organizations that require increased throughput to support bandwidth-intensive applications and data transfer need multi-gigabit ports.

Why upgrade: Newer NSa firewalls offer many more ports than their predecessors. For example, the NSa 2650 has 2.5x the number of ports as the NSA 2600 (20 vs. 8). The NSa 2650 also features eight 2.5 GbE ports while the NSA 2600 has none.

Improve Business Continuity

Many enterprises and larger organizations build in businesses continuity and disaster recovery plans in their process. Part of this is planning is ensuring there’s a contingency for as many scenarios as possible, not the least of which is power. Many legacy firewalls only offer a single power supply. Newer models offer a second power supply to ensure business continuity if one power supply fails.

Why upgrade: While the current NSa line and last-generation NSA series both include a single power supply, the NSa 2650-9650 have an additional slot to add an optional second power supply for critical redundancy.

About SonicWall NSa Next-Generation Firewalls

The SonicWall Network Security appliance (NSa) Mid-Range Firewall series consolidates automated advanced threat prevention technologies in a mid-range next-generation firewall platform. To go in-depth on the NSa range of firewalls, explore the specifications table below or download the complete SonicWall NSa data sheet.

There are a lot, and we mean a lot of acronyms in the world of IT.

Two of which include SSL VPN.

Starting at the very beginning, we look at breaking these down and demonstrating how they affect businesses and individuals and why choosing the right route is essential.

Definition of SSL VPN

SSL VPN - Secure Sockets Layer. Virtual Private Network. A protocol used in everyday web browsers that provide remote access securely through a VPN connection.

Using secure encryption end to end, the job of an SSL-VPN is to ultimately protect data that is sent, received and obtained between the device client’s software and the VPN client-server.

Benefits of SonicWall VPN for modern-day working

More businesses are now taking advantage of using SSL VPN clients as they look to increase the number of workers remotely requiring access to their network and resources. Creating a secure internet passage for all who are working online from outside of the company’s four walls.

The biggest benefit of SonicWall VPN is that it is easily installed and doesn’t require any specialised client software.

It also provides a more reliable connection for your remote workers providing higher compatibility with configurations and platforms of firewalls and networks.

Using an SSL VPN client means you can encrypt all network traffic, allowing remote workers access to restricted networks and resources securely, all through an authenticated pathway.

This level of security also prevents unwanted cyber visitors from obtaining sensitive information or eavesdropping on any private and confidential communications.

SSL VPN offers flexible and secure options for anyone working remotely who requires access to private business networks.

But how do they achieve all of this?

By allowing approved users a secure connection through standard web browsers to internal HTTP and HTTPS services, all enabling direct access to the client’s applications, resources and networks.

SSL VPN Types

VPN Portal – enables access to remote websites through one connection at a time. Authenticated remote users gain access to SSL VPN through their browser through an approved method/gateway, where access is achieved via a dedicated web page that acts as a portal for other services.

VPN Tunnel – is where access to multiple services can all be achieved securely via all standard browsers, non-web-based applications and other protocols. The tunnel should be thought of as a circuit established between a remote user and VPN server, where the server can connect to one or more remote websites, services, resources at any time. The SSL tunnel handles live content and offers a function that is not obtainable via other means.

A further advantage of SSL-VPN is that using TLS technology implemented in modern web browsers, which means you don’t need to install any specific software. Hence, it is easy to deploy.

There’s also less of a requirement for IT personnel to provide technical support, due to the ease of use of the client.

And unlike other security protocols you don’t need to download any additional software or configuration files, with no complex steps to follow, SonicWall's VPN simply needs an updated browser to establish a secure network.

As a business, you can also restrict remote users to particular applications instead of allowing your whole network to be accessed, keeping you in complete control at all times.

Important points to note

Remote workers' devices should be updated with anti-virus software to avoid malware spreading.

Training sessions for remote workers also help with keeping standards high and act as a good reminder that sessions should be closed down properly and not left open for all who have access to that device, view, for example.

We’d also advise not to use a public computer to set up an SSL VPN connection. In these instances, you can open yourself and your systems up to more cyber-attacks, offering up your confidential information and more to those that you don’t want to give it to.

SonicWall's VPN provides secure remote access to the network using the NetExtender client. Downloaded transparently, you can run any application securely on your computer network.

Ultimately, this is a seamless solution that allows secure access to your resources on your local network.

To find out more about SonicWall VPN and firewall solutions, give us a call on 0333 2405667.

Read the next blog: A Virtual Firewall that Protects Multi-Cloud Environments

https://www.sonicwall.com/tz-entry-level-firewall-...

Today it is not uncommon to find that most businesses will have a remote workforce is some shape or form. It fits with today's modern lifestyles as well as the digital era we have to succumb.

For all an excellent work solution, businesses must still ensure that end users have secure and fast access to applications at any time, from anywhere. Making the systems and networks within your business a vital function.

To provide the ideal solution to secure remote working, the SonicWall SRA (Secure Remote Access) would previously have been the product of choice.

However, as we know, everything within the digital sphere moves fast, and in today’s business environments, you need a solution that supports more remote users (globally), advanced applications, and overall provide some of the best services around.

You need SonicWall’s Secure Mobile Access (SMA).

A high-performing remote access solution, with more memory, supporting many more users, and offering more throughput, the SMA acts as a unified and secure access gateway. Allowing businesses, the opportunity to provide anywhere, anytime, and any device access to any application!

Helping businesses to easily make the switch to the cloud, as well as embrace mobility and BYOD in a busy IT environment, SMA offers access control policy engines, application-level SonicWall VPN, advanced authentication and context-aware device authorisation.

Why upgrade to SonicWall SMA?

Helps to lower costs. With the powerful virtual appliance in place, your infrastructure can benefit from improved performance when it comes to secure remote access, scalability, and complete flexibility. All are resulting in reducing downtime, lowering the costs of maintenance, and minimising upfront investment! Much more cost-effective than that of a physical appliance.

Provides a faster experience for the end-users. With processing cores that run 1.8 times faster than that of the SRA series, the SMA can encrypt data-in-motion and with lower latency, ultimately offering a quicker, higher-performance experience for all end users.

Delivers a seamless user experience. Increasing throughput allows for better productivity as the SMA has 15 times the SSL-VPN throughput compared to previous SonicWall series, where the SSL VPN client can offer faster and more secure access to mission-critical cloud and on-premises applications.

Work with more users remotely than ever before. With an increase in the number of user sessions running concurrently, offer greater scalability as more simultaneous user sessions cannot only be active but can also be tracked by SonicWall firewalls.

Beat the bandwidth hogs. Combining cloud services and the applications used today means that bandwidths can sometimes feel a little overcrowded. With more high-speed ports, the SMA provides the throughput needed to support intensive bandwidth applications, as well as the high-speed transfer of data.

Keeps patches current. This is the most recommended and best way of protecting against cyberattacks and unknown threats and also ensures that you’re getting the latest updates and capabilities. Helping to keep costs low while also embracing new Firmware trends.

Offers secure access for remote devices, always. Now an essential part of the IT function, delivering secure remote access that reduces the risk of attack by a cybercriminal, is vital.

You can centralise your reporting processes and automate routine everyday tasks. Helping to reduce your administrative overheads, allowing you more time to spend on your core business and security objectives.

Reduce downtime. By configuring appliances and using the Global Traffic Optimiser solution, you can ensure your business's continuity and scalability while continuing to meet service-level agreements.

Make use of the onboard memory to store critical business information/data. With 12.5 times more capacity compared to the SRA series, the SMA allows you to store reports, logs, file transfer inspections, backups and restores, and more.

Focus on usage and reduce costs. If you have appliances globally, the good news is that you no longer have to apply user licenses to each device. Instead, a central user license is set up with the CMS reallocating these to all managed and used SMA appliances. Perfect if some licenses are required at different times due to different time zones/working hours.

Ultimately, and in its simplest form, SMA offers any licensed device secure access to networks and cloud resources. It is an advanced access security gateway that fits perfectly into any existing and new IT infrastructures.

To find out more and upgrade to the SMA solution, call us on 0333 2405667, we’d be happy to help.

Keeping systems and networks continuously protected is what SonicWall does best.

That and developing these systems so that they provide even further enhanced capabilities to customers, all while keeping products cost-effective and efficient to run.

With the speed and number of cyber threats that target businesses daily, SonicWall is using the Cloud Platform to protect businesses further by:

• Helping and supporting companies who operate cloud applications
• Providing more cost-effective solutions for businesses of all sizes across all sectors
• Offering more endpoint protection, supporting the empowerment of teams and administrators
• Ensuring smooth wireless security with better planning and visibility
• Incorporating mesh networking and zero touchpoint deployments.

How the capture cloud platform protects businesses

Through some of the best firewalls and app security measures, you can imagine.

For example:

SonicWall TZ300 – offers the best protection for small businesses who are looking and who need enterprise-level protection, all for a reasonably low price. The SonicWall TZ firewall series is best for network connections that are always up. For those high speed small or home networks, networks which are running cable, DSL or FiOS, or for teleworkers who require VPN connections, the SonicWall TZ is the ideal solution.

Soho Firewall – looking particularly at the 250 and the TZ350 range, these firewalls help to consolidate performance, security, and networking, saving your business time and money all through reducing costs and operating systems. With this firewall, you’ll find SD-WAN, zero-touch deployments, and auto-provision VPN.

Cloud Security 2.0 App – one of the best home firewalls around. This security app works with Office 365 and G-Suite to provide increased protection from phishing attacks, email fraud, and zero-day threats. It can also identify malicious PDFs and Microsoft Office Files, mitigating the damage these can cause in cloud solutions (solutions like your Office 365 software, or G Suite and Dropbox, for example).

Secure email solutions – with SonicWall email security 10.0, businesses can have the multi-layered protection they need to keep inboxes safe. This solution provides attachment sandboxing and time to click URL protection. Focusing on protecting you from ransomware, having your business emails compromised, an array of phishing attacks, and email fraud – to name a few!

SonicWall Cloud Manager – this is a Wi-Fi network management system that is not only centralised, but it can be scaled to your business needs — helping you to simplify wireless access and control across a network of any size. You are in complete control all through a single pane, as well as through the SonicWall WIFI mobile app. Setting up wireless mesh networks and onboarding wireless access points have never been easier or more secure with the Cloud Manager app.

Speaking of access points – the SonicWave 200 series is a new advancement enabling businesses to better protect their online selves by enhancing wireless user experiences. This solution is extremely secure and, most importantly, affordable. Activating a host of security solutions through the SonicWave access points, such as Capture Advanced Threat Protection sandbox service, and Content Filtering Service, even when firewalls are not deployed.

SonicWall Planner – this Wi-Fi surveying tool helps businesses to secure their wireless networks while maintaining and enhancing user experience resulting in better and increased workforce productivity. Taking into account your business location, i.e., floor space, building materials, office space, power requirements, signal strength, etc., businesses can now make informed Wi-Fi coverage decisions that are best suited to them.

SonicOS 6.5.4 – supporting all SonicWall firewalls and hardware platforms, the SonicOS is the most up to date version of the SonicWall firewall operating system. Including improvements in network security, authentication, and wireless capabilities, this solution now provides businesses with much more comprehensive logging and reporting data and analysis.

SonicWall Capture Client – this solution can be one of the biggest benefits to a business. Allowing administrators to track threats more comprehensively, as well as kill them off before they reach their destination, the Capture client offers endpoint detection and response capabilities to support all business activities.

Businesses must protect their data and their information at all costs. With cyber threats showing no sign of slowing down, companies must deploy the best solutions for their networks.

The SonicWall Capture Cloud Platform is designed to do just that.

Protect your business, offering you the best solutions at the most competitive prices.

For further information and advice, give us a call on 0333 2405667, our team will be happy to help.

hen it comes to setting up and protecting network devices for business, it can not only be time-consuming, but you can also end up with a lot, and we mean a lot of cables and power outlets running across your floors, hiding under desks, etc.

For example, printers, security cameras, access points, point of sale terminals, IP phones, and any other devices that you can think of that requires power and a connection to a switch or firewall/router.

With wires, wires, and more wires running through your business, is there a better way? An easier way?

Yes.

PoE Integration

For us, the fewer cables and wires in and around businesses, the better, and this is not just a dream but a reality when you use a firewall with Power over Ethernet (PoE).

PoE integration ultimately helps to reduce the need for additional equipment as well as lowering installation costs by passing electric power and data through Ethernet cabling and ultimately providing power and data connection to a range of networked devices all through one cable, helping to expand IP-based security all through highly efficient means.

For those mid to large range organisations with larger networks, you may have a PoE switch, which provides power and data to your PoE devices. And for all this is a good solution, there is still a cost associated with purchasing the switch.

For smaller networks, where you have only a few devices, purchasing a PoE switch can be seen as a waste of money. In such instances, we would recommend a Sonic firewall with built-in Power over Ethernet.

Why use a firewall with PoE integration?

Firstly, because these firewalls are designed for small businesses and those with remote workers or branches in different locations.

Using systems such as the SonicWall TZ600P and the SonicWall TZ300P helps to reduce costs and ease overall use all through offering integrated support for all PoE and PoE+ devices.

The SonicWall TZ firewall series provides power directly to a connected PoE enabled device, which can include:

• Printers
• Wireless access points
• Point of sale terminals
• Cameras
• And any other IP devices you might have and use.

Secondly, because instead of two cables, there is now just one. Your device also doesn’t have to be near an outlet, and you don’t have to purchase a PoE switch – saving you the headache of designing office and floor layouts to suit cabling requirements and the cost of the switch.

Note: Both of the TZ firewalls mentioned above support PoE and PoE+ standards.

PoE and PoE+

PoE+ helps to satisfy higher wattage loads, supporting up to 25.5w of DC power, making it significantly more efficient to power devices that require 25wdc.

Helping to boost PoE output, the range of new features and capabilities of PoE+ solutions, have far-reaching, positive effects. One of which is helping to accelerate the deployment of all IP devices across several applications, taking things above and beyond professional security.

Using firewalls with integrated PoE helps to future proof your network systems, by providing a power and data transmission foundation. A foundation that you can continually assess and develop security solutions from.

However, when looking at using a firewall with PoE integration, you will need to consider:

The number of devices within your network

The distance limitations and potential voltage drops as a consequence

The appropriate and best firewall application for your business.

Benefits of using the TZ series SonicWall Firewalls

1. They consolidate a host of necessary security and networking features, allowing businesses to take advantage of high-speed wireless connectivity while using LANs to segment traffic.

2. Businesses with branches located in different areas can take advantage of the connection capabilities using the site to site VPN. There’s also a reduction in cost and complexity when building a secure private network when using the Secure SD-WAN.

3. You can bring on new sites using zero-touch deployment, thus removing the need for permanent onsite personnel to provision the firewall. Using the SonicWall Capture Security Center, you can manage, through a single pane of glass, all SonicWall devices via the cloud.

And the biggest benefit?

4. Security. With more high-profile network breaches than ever before, across a range of sectors, businesses need to put the right solutions in place to protect their business. The TZ600P and TZ300P are designed to stop ransomware, phishing attacks, crypto-jacking, and much more.

SonicWall firewalls provide the highest security levels in the industry. Continually updating networks and systems and never resting on our laurels.

We aim to ensure that your business data and confidential information is safe from cybercriminals 24/7.

Find out how you could be using a TZ firewall with PoE integration to support your network today.

Call 0333 2405667

As you grow and scale your business or home network, you, unfortunately, can open yourself up to further cyber crime and attacks.

Read next blog: Firewall with PoE integration.integration.