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Firewalls are your first line of defence against all potential cyber-attacks.

Acting as a blockade between your network and the internet, firewalls ultimately block, contain, and remove any malicious internet traffic and suspicious content from entering your systems.

However, it is those point-of-sale environments where PCI-compliant firewalls come in.

PCI-DSS (payment card industry, data security standard) firewalls work hard to protect cardholder data from cyber-attacks.

With the protection of business data and customer information a formal requirement, there is more scrutiny than ever before on businesses who manage card payments and how they manage their firewall compliance.

The good news is our team is always on hand with up-to-date SonicWall firewall support, and we work with businesses of all sizes and with firewalls requiring numerous configurations.

Make sure to contact us if you have any specific or further questions.

What is a PCI Firewall?

PCI DSS firewalls go further than your average firewall and, as such, have additional requirements (which we’ll cover below).

A PCI-compliant firewall is configured for business payment card settings, protecting the cardholder data environment.

PCI compliance firewalls sit between your payment system and the internet; these firewalls segment all the secure payment elements of your network from those identified as less secure. Allowing customers to access web servers on other publicly available services while your internal networks remain protected and secure.

Ultimately, firewalls are designed to secure sensitive card data and details at all costs, and they do this by restricting the flow around the card environment.

To protect card payment environments, PCI firewalls come in the form of hardware, software, and various web applications. All working together to provide a layered approach to card environment security, as the more zones you create, the more secure your network will be. (Note: you may require multiple firewalls depending on your requirements, network, and payment environment.)

However, it is the rules that you set for your firewall that allow you to keep tight control and management. It is these rules that give firewalls their security power.

That and setting high-security standards, using virtual private networks (where applicable), and adding/closing switch ports.

Firewall configuration standards

These specific firewalls do have set requirements and guidelines, and as a first and foremost, they must also have periodic security reviews and software patching.

You must also consider the following:

Working with a professional vendor – a team that understands PCI compliance and its application to firewalls, who can support with installation, configuration, and more.

Location – devices should be in a secure location, often in an access-controlled server room restricted to specific personnel only.

Restricting access – restrict access to network equipment to security teams and senior management.

Manage all firewall configurations appropriately. Configured to block unauthorised access to your network, firewalls help to keep your network and customer payment data safe.

Integrate intrusion detection features, if appropriate and applicable.

Test your systems regularly. Testing is a vital part of the process and each test should include documentation of findings and any changes implemented.

Configuration of SonicWall firewalls

• Create a strong password.
• Turn on intrusion detection. Implementing measures to detect and prevent fraudulent IP addresses from entering your networks.
• Only allow necessary inbound and outbound traffic to your payment systems. Do not allow unauthorised traffic from the cardholder data environment to the internet.
• Turn on alerts and notifications.
• Deny/restrict all traffic that you haven’t explicitly authorised. Restricting connections between untrusted networks and the cardholder data environment.
• Hide your internal addresses from the internet through NAT (network address translation)
• Allow only established connections into your network.
• Keep firewalls updated and vulnerabilities to a minimum.

We advise all SonicWall firewalls and PCI firewalls to be properly installed, updated, and maintained by professionals, with checks and reviews carried out bi-annually.

As a business, you will also need to establish formal processes to validate and test connections, with clear documentation outlining all security measures. In fact, robust log management is a big part of PCI DSS requirements. This documentation outlines clearly defined rules and requirements, with these rules being the focal point of your SonicWall firewall configuration.

SonicWall firewall support

Numerous requirements relate to PCI DSS firewalls, making it challenging and time-consuming for many small to medium-sized businesses.

You need to understand how your systems interact with cardholder data, which is discovered through accurate cardholder data flow diagrams. Outlining network flows and more, it’s essential that you have full visibility of your system and the flows throughout.

We know that it’s vital that you respond to threats in a timely manner, and we understand that you need and want a system that supports your configuration requirements, with rules specifically set around your data flow diagrams.

That’s why our team is always on hand to help.

Professional and experienced security professionals, we can help you with various types of firewalls, setup, configuration, maintenance, and so much more.

Call us today on 0330 1340 230 or email us at enquiries@sonicwall-sales.com.

SonicWall CEO Bob Van Kirk and SonicWall Threat Detection and Response Strategist Immanuel Chavoya discuss the exclusive research and unmatched insight you can find in the 2023 SonicWall Threat Report.

2023 SonicWall Threat Report - SonicWall

The 2023 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report uncovers critical findings to help arm your organization with exclusive threat intelligence to safeguard against the ever-changing cyber threat landscape.

Download the report here.

In the ever-growing digital landscape we operate within, cyberattacks are very much present, with ransomware as one of the biggest threats to businesses and individuals to date.

As these attacks grow in sophistication, identifying vulnerabilities in your systems before hackers do, has become essential.

Many businesses made the shift to cloud-based services during COVID-19 when the majority of workforces took to working from home, allowing companies to be more flexible and mobile and encouraging and improving collaborations online.

However, cybercriminals also took notice of this shift, and we soon began to see new strains of ransomware specifically targeting cloud operations. Making devices unusable, encrypting files, and only releasing these once a ransom has been paid.

For security teams everywhere now, protecting against ransomware in the cloud is a team effort that requires a layered approach with multiple solutions.

(Make sure to check out our page on cloud firewalls, features, benefits, and how we can help.)

Cloud Storage Ransomware

Cloud Ransomware is where cyber criminals access your accounts and network, installing ransomware applications that will start to encrypt cloud data. To release this encryption, they will then demand a ransom or threaten to expose the victim if they refuse.

There are three main types of cloud ransomware attacks:

First, ransomware infects file-sharing services – in this instance, the file-sharing service that all employees can access is infected with a malicious program that goes on to encrypt files stored on users' machines.

Secondly, ransom cloud attacks – affecting email services such as Office 365, phishing techniques are used to gain access to a user's email, encrypting these and then demanding a ransom.

Finally, ransomware targeting cloud suppliers – cloud suppliers become the target with the ransomware installed across all programmes. This is the most damaging of cyber-attacks as the entire cloud platform could be compromised in these situations.

With more businesses moving their digital infrastructure from hybrid to cloud operations, your security teams must be aware and stay updated with developments surrounding cloud ransomware attacks.

Fortunately, support and guidelines are available to further help businesses in this area. These guidelines look at ways to protect cloud operations, not too dissimilar to traditional on-site security network infrastructures – with the same aim – to protect against malicious ransomware.

But what is cloud ransomware, and how can you protect against it?

Ransomware attacks can happen if, for example, access cards are stolen, and attackers then use employees' workstations to access cloud services and steal/encrypt valuable and sensitive data and information.

If there is an unknown vulnerability in your system/network, a hacker will be able to find a way in and leave a programme to run in the background that will plant the ransomware.

Or if an email from an unknown sender is accidentally opened or a malicious link is clicked on etc.

All of these and more lead cyber-criminals directly into your network.

To combat this, there are several solutions to incorporate:

You can't protect what you can't see – you need complete control and visibility. You must identify all of your systems, users, data, applications, and more within your cloud network.

Restrict access, providing individuals and teams only with the access they need. Look to set time restrictions and even restrict specific resources.

Ensure all firewalls are correctly configured, controlled, managed, and maintained, with systems in place to provide you with an alert when something isn't right.

Speed up incident response times with provider alerts, monitoring feeds and allowing alerts to be directed to the appropriate team for immediate investigation or response.

Implement just-in-time authorisation and real-time monitoring, allowing you to identify and respond to any suspicious activity in real time.

Educate staff teams – carrying out regular security training gives all employees the knowledge and insight into how to spot a fake email, an unauthorised attachment, and more.

Backup your data – we always advise that you take regular backups and ideally store these in a separate location from your main network servers.

Install updates – you should always have the latest updates and patches installed, avoiding and fixing any vulnerabilities in your system.

Look to incorporate PCI-compliant firewalls if you have payment options for customers – check out our article on this area of firewalls and what it means for your business.

SonicWall firewall support

All businesses want to put preventative measures in place to stop, remove, and recover from a cyber-attack. And as a business, you are responsible for all the data you collect and store.

This means you are responsible for managing the security of this data and information.

However, you need to find a solution that comprehensively views your network security and configuration. Ideally, a solution that will integrate seamlessly into your current systems, adding to your layered approach to security – solutions like SonicWall firewalls.

SonicWall firewall features provide peace of mind that malicious attacks are stopped in their tracks, as well as assurance that patches are put in place to block ransomware attempts and remove them from your networks and systems completely.

Ask for a demo today.

Call 0330 1340 230 or email enquiries@sonicwall-sales.com.

Few of 2021’s trends escaped 2022 unscathed. Here’s a quick look at the accelerations and reversals detailed in the 2023 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report.

With the pandemic finally relenting in many areas, employees returning to the safety of the perimeter and supply chains beginning to show signs of normalizing, many felt that 2022 would offer cybersecurity a return to the sort of stability that’s been largely absent the past few years.

Instead, we’ve seen the opposite: Cybercriminals have attempted to maximize the number of potential victims while minimizing risk — and this shift in tactics and targets has brought about the demise of years-long trends and begun to give rise to new cybercrime epicenters.

SonicWall Capture Labs threat researchers spent 2022 tracking these changes in real time, and have compiled their findings in the 2023 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report. This exclusive threat intelligence is designed to arm organizations against today’s ever-changing threat environment.

“The past year reinforced the need for cybersecurity in every industry and every facet of business, as threat actors targeted anything and everything, from education to retail to finance,” said SonicWall President and CEO Bob VanKirk. “While organizations face an increasing number of real-world obstacles with macroeconomic pressures and continued geopolitical strife, threat actors are shifting attack strategies at an alarming rate.”

Ransomware

In 2022, SonicWall Capture Labs threat researchers recorded 493.3 million ransomware attempts globally, a decrease of 21% year over year. This was fueled by a massive drop in North America, which typically sees the lion’s share of ransomware: attacks there fell by nearly half.

But while ransomware was down year-over-year, it remains at historic highs — total attack volume in 2022 was higher than in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. These attacks impacted governments, enterprises, hospitals, airlines and schools throughout the year, resulting in economic loss, widespread system downtime, reputational damage and more. Some of these industries saw a significant uptick in ransomware volume, particularly education and finance, which saw spikes of 275% and 41%, respectively.

Malware

After three straight years of decline, malware reversed course in 2022, rising 2% to 5.5 billion. While this is a fairly modest increase, it’s being fueled by double-digit, accelerating growth in cryptojacking and IoT malware, which showed year-over-year increases of 43% and 87%, respectively.

The areas being targeted by malware are also changing rapidly. In 2022, countries that typically see more malware, such as the U.S., the U.K. and Germany, showed year-over-year decreases in attack volume. But Europe as a whole, Latin America and Asia — which all typically see significantly less malware than North America — all recorded significant increases.

IoT Malware

In 2022, SonicWall threat researchers observed 112.3 million IoT malware attempts, representing an 87% year-over-year increase and a new yearly record. While all regions and industries showed an increase in attack volume over 2021, some were hit particularly hard: Triple-digit increases were observed in North America, as well as in the education, retail and finance industries.

Cryptojacking

Cryptojacking attacks breezed past the 100 million mark for the first time in 2022, reaching a new high of 139.3 million. This 43% increase was fueled by a number of new campaigns that surfaced late in the year, pushing December to 30.36 million hits — a new monthly record and a total exceeding most entire quarters. Despite skyrocketing rates, some were fortunate enough to see welcome decreases, such as government and healthcare customers.

Apache Log4j

Another milestone was observed in intrusion attempts against the Apache Log4j ‘Log4Shell’ vulnerability, which passed the 1 billion mark in 2022. Since its discovery in December 2021, this vulnerability has been actively exploited, and the pace of these attempts seems to be accelerating: Every month in 2022 had significantly more attempts than were seen in December 2021, and 15% more hits were observed in Q2 than were seen in Q1.

Firewalls are an essential network security barrier, carefully positioning themselves between your computer's network system and the internet.

Available as a piece of hardware or software, firewalls filter traffic coming in and out of your network, stopping potential threats in their tracks and preventing unauthorised personnel from getting their hands on your company and customer data.

Firewalls come with a range of features and capabilities, and you have the ability to configure these to meet your requirements exactly.

Sonic firewalls are set up on a subscription basis, and it is vital that you don't allow this subscription to lapse, putting your network and business at risk.

Trust us, using unsupported hardware or software can and will negatively affect your systems and put your complete online security at risk.

At SonicWALL sales, we ensure all of our clients are continually protected against cyber threats, ensuring all firewalls are in warranty and still under licence – contact us if you would like to chat further.

Below we provide further information on the importance of keeping your firewalls up to date and the negative impact if subscriptions fall behind.

It's too risky to use an expired firewall

Firewalls are ultimately a security solution to the constantly growing number of cyber threats posed to business networks and data.

Scanning information coming in and out of your network, data that is safe will pass through the firewall and onto its intended recipient. However, for any piece of information or data that appears to be slightly suspicious, the firewall will block the content/message, and the threat will be stopped in its tracks.

Depending on your servers and requirements, you can have one or several SonicWALL firewalls, i.e., if you have varying sensitivity issues or if you have identified different user groups within the organisation more than one firewall may be required.

However, firewalls can and do expire.

Having an old firewall is extremely risky. It is a security loophole that allows hackers to enter your network and steal sensitive and profitable (to them) information.

Firewalls are considered expired when you're no longer receiving patches or updates to your

systems.

An out-of-date firewall also means your system's security is broken, and now your network is open to hacking, malware, and increased phishing attempts – it can put your company and customer information and data into the wrong hands.

This makes it vital to have the right security measures in place to safeguard your data and information at all costs.

Benefits of avoiding an outdated firewall

Updated Features. Firewalls are continuously updated, which means, by updating your subscription, you will also receive the latest features and capabilities, maximising the firewall's full potential and providing you with the best level of online protection.

In addition, because new threats are continually updated, it's vital that you have an updated

firewall to be on top of these.

You have ongoing technical support with an updated subscription. If you ever experience problems or have a query regarding your firewall service, technical assistance from the vendor is often available. This can give your IT security team additional confidence and peace of mind.

You will receive firmware upgrades. When and as new patches to fix bugs or block malicious viruses are released, with an updated firewall subscription, you will be eligible to receive these updates and stay on top of security….and…one step ahead of the hackers – allowing your security time to fix a bug before a hacker finds a way in.

Avoid an interruption to service. Expired firewalls, in worst-case scenarios, can take your entire network offline, prevent specific applications from working correctly, or make your network more sluggish, leading to a reduction in productivity.

You can avoid any interruption to service with an updated firewall subscription, keeping productivity high.

Sonic Firewalls

An outdated firewall will have many limitations and leave your network extremely vulnerable.

This makes a layered network security option your best line of defence against cyber criminals, where you can customise your firewall configurations to the level and required security your network needs.

Take the time to evaluate your firewall and check it is still meeting your requirements, ensuring your business's network is equipped to protect against wide-ranging cyber threats and targets.

We work hard to continue to go above and beyond for our clients. Ensuring that your network is continually protected and the right patches and fixes are applied when they are needed the most.

Helping to ensure everything is set up correctly, it is up-to-date, and the SonicWALL firewalls are working as they should; call us at 0330 1340 230 or email enquiries@sonicwall-sales.com.

Let us start with “even as a small business, you need to have a firewall.”

In fact, it’s essential.

Preventing you from becoming the victim of a cyber-attack, today, your average built-in standard firewall just won’t cut it.

You need the functionality, flexibility, and tightest levels of security around.

(It would be too easy to say you need SonicWALL firewall products at this point….but it’s true).

We understand that protecting your business, information, and customer data is vital; however, we know you require a firewall that is effective, but also affordable.

And this is where SonicWALL vs. Fortinet comes in.

Specifically designed for small to medium-sized businesses, both firewalls offer a range of benefits to users, and you must weigh up all the benefits and features on offer to decide which one is best for you.

Next-Generation Firewalls

These next-generation firewalls combine all the benefits of traditional firewalls, i.e., they filter all incoming and outgoing traffic, blocking and reporting anything suspicious….and then they take it a step further.

Next-gen firewalls provide antivirus, anti-malware, scanning, IP filtering, botnet detection, and more.

These firewalls are robust security systems that provide a great first line of defence against ongoing cyber threats.

Fortinet vs. SonicWall

A next-generation firewall is a significant investment, so you need to get it right. Knowing what to look for and some of the basic features is a good place to start.

First, think about what you need your firewall to do. For example, does it need to integrate with your current systems? Do you require real-time monitoring, reporting capabilities, automated functions, etc.?

In terms of manageability, how easy is the system to use? For example, can you set customised rules and filters? Does the firewall provider offer customer support assistance?

Then comes the biggest factor…cost. What features are must-haves for you, and what are luxuries? Are there discounts available?

Can the system scale with your business? The ideal situation for any business is to find a solution that can grow with your business, meeting your needs now and in the future.

Now that you’ve thought about what you really want, what you need, and the budget you’re working to, let’s look at sonic firewalls compared to Fortinet.

SonicWall vs. Fortinet Comparison

SonicWall firewalls, and in particular the next-generation firewalls now available, offer a robust high-security solution. Simultaneously checking inbound and outbound traffic as every byte is closely examined, you can have complete peace of mind that your data and information are monitored 24/7.

SonicWall can also perform full decryption and carry out inspections of encrypted connections using the single pass reassembly free deep packet inspection engine.

What’s more, they also include real time inspections through its cloud-based multi-firewall sandbox.

Sold as either hardware or a virtual appliance, SonicWall firewalls come with advanced gateway security suite subscriptions, so you have a continuously updated sandbox, antivirus, intrusion prevention, contact filtering, and ongoing tech support.

SonicWall is more suited to small to medium-sized businesses looking for higher throughput and has a clear focus on this sector and how to support it.

Overall, SonicWall is good value, reasonably priced, extremely effective, and easy to manage.

Fortinet

As a SonicWall comparison, Fortinet firewalls are optimised to reduce the level of difficulty in managing these systems and enhance security by eliminating single point failure. Providing an increase in visibility, Fortinet systems can collect data across different sites and various firewalls, which you can use to your advantage.

Offering enhanced management and analytics, Fortinet also supports multi-cloud extensions and can integrate with other larger systems.

Businesses looking to expand and diversify quickly and those looking for enterprise firewall appliances would be best suited to the Fortinet system.

Overall, both SonicWall and Fortinet perform well, offer a high level of security, and are good value for money. Prioritising network traffic and intrusion detection, both systems have anti-malware and software control, spam email filtering, SSL decoding, and more.

However, SonicWall has the edge when it comes to ease of use and customer support (Fortinet offers no direct supplier support). SonicWall also meets all compliance regulations and offers good accessibility for users, keeping on top of the ever-evolving threats; SonicWall can be customised to meet your unique business requirements, is reliable, and is easy to maintain.

Next-generation SonicWall firewalls also have the same interface as the traditional firewalls, so nothing comes as a surprise.

SonicWall firewall

Choosing the right firewall for you and your organisation is challenging. There is a lot to consider, and it’s vital that you incorporate business plans, budgets, and your exact requirements into your decision-making.

Our recommendation…look for a firewall that can support and meet your needs now and in the future.

To find out more about our various firewalls and how we can help, call us at 0330 1340 230 or email your questions and requirements to enquiries@sonicwall-sales.com.

Cyber-attacks are advancing every day. They don’t stop, and unfortunately, they don’t go away.

Traditional firewalls can go some way to protect your systems and networks; however, they often struggle to protect multi-tier web applications.

Instead, you will require an application security system that can do more than open and close ports.

This is where the benefits of web application firewalls come in.

This is where SonicWALL firewalls come in.

Integrated externally to your network, web application firewalls (WAFs) detect all suspicious network traffic, filtering out anything that could be malicious to your network. Providing you with advanced web security tools to protect you against numerous cyber threats.

(For some of the most advanced firewalls around, check our firewall page for details and further information.)

In this post, we look at the main benefits of using WAFs and why they should be an integral part of your network security policy.

Web Application Firewall Benefits

It can be overwhelming when you start to delve into what you can and must do to protect your site and networks from cyber-attacks.

For many businesses dealing with large amounts of data and sensitive information, WAFs can be essential in providing the highest level of security protection.

WAFs, take a traditional firewall one step further, providing an additional layer of protection against cyber threats as the software/hardware continuously works to shore up weaknesses in your web applications.

Denying access when a threat is detected, identifying anomalies, and providing in-depth reporting to your security teams, allowing you to remain in control.

And this is one of the major benefits of using web application firewalls - its ability to analyse and intercept all HTTP requests before they reach web applications.

Providing you with an in-depth strategy to ensure full protection of your web applications, WAFs can run in private, public, or cloud environments, meaning numerous benefits can be achieved from the outset.

Firewall WAF benefits

Can provide temporary patching

If you have a bug or a flaw in an application, WAFs will continue to block bad requests and provide you with the element of time, as a temporary patch is applied until you integrate a long-term fix into your network.

Sees through the camouflage

For all web data is encrypted (or it should be), hackers are using HTTPS as a camouflage to get through detection barriers. However, because SonicWall firewalls and, in particular, web application firewalls place themselves between the public and the web applications, they can quickly and effectively terminate the encrypted connection while continuing to analyse the traffic coming through.

Prevents identity theft

WAFs prevent identity theft by analysing user information and behaviour (they look at online interactions, communication, etc.). From here, the WAF will then identify the tools that are in play, those that are causing parameter tampering commands and blocking these as appropriate.

Prevents cross-site scripting

Attacks on your network can sometimes attach malicious codes to a legitimate website causing an XSS attack. Here, hackers place fake links that, when clicked on, take users to another disguised, fake site. A site that allows hackers to gather user information and login details.

The web application firewall benefits in these situations come in the form of real-time monitoring.

Scanning URLs, HTML body, and other elements for all vulnerabilities, web application firewalls detect, block, and report/delete any suspicious scripts that it comes across.

Keeps you compliant

All businesses have a duty to remain compliant and abide by regulations and guidelines relating to the collection of customer information and holding data.

Firewalls help keep you compliant while also allowing security teams to focus on other security areas.

Quick Fire Benefits

• Supports online threat management
• Analyses online behaviour
• Detects anomalies in web applications
• Protects against vulnerabilities with temporary patching
• Defends against the latest cyber attacks
• Boosts performance
• Enables caching to speed up application delivery
• And so much more.

SonicWALL Firewalls

At SonicWALL, we provide traditional and web application firewalls to protect your business 24/7 from malicious cyber-attacks.

Preventing attacks such as SQL injections, XSS attacks, and DDOS attacks, web application firewalls are a great long-term investment.

Safeguarding information and data, you can have confidence in our trusted systems and experienced teams.

With the right firewall, you can analyse traffic to your site, highlight any suspicious activity, and block and report this as required.

Call 0330 1340 230 or email us today at enquiries@sonicwall-sales.com to find out more and for an initial discussion.

Read related article: Sonicwall vs. Fortinet

SonicWall is known for offering high-quality security solutions and firewalls to business owners. A security notice was released to employees of the company in regards to the SMA 100 series devices, discussing a critical vulnerability. Today we’re going to discover what the issue was and whether it is something that could impact your business operation and protection in the future. SonicWall vulnerabilities are very unusual with the SonicWall firewall products, but our team will be here to support you if you do have any concerns in the future.

What Was the Issue with the SMA 100 Series?

The issue that was reported was in relation to the SMA 100 series and was classified under CVE-2021-20034 under the CVE range. If the exploitation did occur, it would allow a hacker to delete files randomly from your system. They would also be granted admin rights and could disrupt your devices, which is why a patch is needed quickly for users in order to avoid any further issues. A SonicWall critical vulnerability is very usually, but our team is here to help clients act quickly and avoid issues in the future.

What Caused the SonicWall Vulnerability?

The Sonic Wall vulnerability was caused by an inaccurate file path which resulted in a restricted directory limitation. As a result of this, hackers can undertake malicious actions, such as deleting random files from your appliances without needing any type of authentication. They can bypass path traversal checks and even factory reset your SonicWall. This would allow them to have full admin access to your host, which could cause a huge range of issues for you. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures database rated this vulnerability a 9.1 out of 10. While there have been no reports of exploitation just yet, the sooner you take action, the more protected you will be.

Which SonicWall Firewall Devices are Impacted?

The good news is that only a limited number of Sonic firewalls were impacted by this critical vulnerability. They all fall in the SMA 100 Series, and include the SMA 200, SMA 210, SMA 400, SMA 410, and SMA 500v. Only certain impacted versions should be under risk, and there are now fixed versions on offer. The company acted quickly to resolve the issue, and you can be sure if you purchase any of these devices from us, you shouldn’t have to be concerned about this vulnerability again in the future when using SonicWall firewalls.

What Shoal You Do If You Are Using SMA 100 Series Devices?

If you are only just finding out about the SonicWall critical vulnerability and you use one of the SMA 100 series devices we listed above, then the first thing you can do is go to the SonicWall website. From there, you can upgrade your device and install the patch version. Our team can help to provide you with support if you need to upgrade and there is a support team on hand from SonicWall if you are experiencing any issues with the patch. The sooner you can implement these patches, the more protected you will be in the future.

Can You Trust SonicWall Devices?

This was certainly an unexpected piece of news for our team from SonicWall, but keep in mind that this situation is very unusual for the company. SonicWall offers some of the top firewall products on the market today, supporting small and medium-sized businesses who are looking to enjoy greater protection for their systems. We encourage you to not let this one situation put you off from working with the company in the future, as the majority of their products were unaffected by this issue.

SonicWall offers a wide range of firewalls to suit everyone’s needs. Our team will be here to support you in finding the right option for your business based on your company’s unique setup. Companies are always impressed by how quick and easy the firewalls are to set up. Even if you’ve never used one before, you’ll find it easy to install and maintain. We can help to guide you through this process and ensure you select an option that your on-site team will be able to control with ease. It’s never too late to add extra protection to your business, as you never know what cybersecurity threats you could be exposed to in the future.

As you can see, the SonicWall critical vulnerability was certainly a shock for the company. They reacted quickly to ensure their customers received the necessary protection, and there are now patches available for your devices. We recommend installing these as soon as possible if you haven’t already, so that you have the full protection you’ll need in the future. Contact us today with any questions you have about this situation or to discuss the best SonicWall firewall for your business.

Read next topic: Benefits of using web application firewalls

Satisfy your security and financial resolutions with limited-time “3 & Free” promos on TZ Series NGFWs, NSa Series NGFWs and SonicWave Access Points.

In December, we announced our limited-time “3 & Free” promotion on SonicWall TZ370 and TZ470 firewalls. While promotions that include a free firewall have always been popular, the response to our TZ promotion has been tremendous.

As a result, we’ve decided to celebrate the arrival of the new year by dramatically expanding the scope of our offer: Our 3 & Free pricing now applies to almost every TZ Series firewall that SonicWall carries.

3 & Free: What’s New for 2023

While we’ve added new models to the promotion, qualifying for an upgrade to the latest TZ Series firewall is as simple as ever. Through March 31, current SonicWall customers or those looking to swap out a competitor’s appliance can purchase three years of SonicWall’s Advanced Protection Service Suite (APSS), and they’ll receive a TZ appliance absolutely free.

The APSS suite offers all the tools you need to protect against today’s sophisticated malware, ransomware, encrypted threats, viruses, spyware, zero-day exploits and more. The comprehensive package includes:

• Capture Advanced Threat Protection with RTDMI™
• Gateway Anti-Virus
• Anti-Spyware
• Intrusion Prevention
• Application Firewall Service
• Content Filtering Services
• Comprehensive Anti-Spam
• NSM Essential with Management and 7-Day Reporting and 24×7 Firmware Support

In addition, you’ll get all the benefits of our latest operating system, SonicOS 7. Built from the ground up to be simpler, more capable and more flexible than any OS before it, SonicOS 7 features advanced security, simplified policy management, and critical networking and management capabilities — all designed to meet the needs of distributed enterprises with next-gen SD-Branches and small- to medium-sized businesses.

“3 & Free”: More than just TZ

Our TZ Series promo is just one of three 3 & Free promotions we’re running to ring in the new year: We also have great deals on NSa Series NGFWs and SonicWave Access Points.

NSa Series “3 & Free”

Despite its remarkable versatility, the entry-level TZ Series isn’t a fit for every use case: Some larger and more complex deployments call for a more robust appliance. That’s why we’re also offering a 3 & Free promotion on two of our most popular NSa Series firewalls.

Through Jan. 31, 2023, when you purchase an NSa 2700 or NSa 3700 High Availability appliance and three years of Advanced Protection Service Suite, you’ll also get the primary NSa 2700 or NSa 3700 NGFW and a stateful HA Upgrade Service License free.

This promotion is for every SonicWall upgrade that qualifies, regardless of whether you’re a current SonicWall customer or you’re making the switch from a competing product.

SonicWave Access Points “3 & Free”

If you’re all set for firewalls, but your wireless connectivity could use an upgrade, we also have a promo for you.

SonicWall’s 600 Series SonicWave Wireless Access Points leverage 802.11ax — the most advanced technology available — to deliver superior performance in complex, multi-device environments. These access points offer enterprises ‘always on, always secure’ access point operations, all while simplifying the user experience.

Best of all, while supplies last, when you buy three SonicWave 621, SonicWave 641 or SonicWave 681 access points, you’ll get the fourth absolutely free. This offer applies to access points purchased individually as well as four-packs and eight-packs, allowing you to multiply your savings.

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When looking at your firewall options, you’ll find there are many different products on the market today. A SonicWall review can help you to decide if this is the right solution for you. After learning about the benefits of these products, you’ll be blown away by the SonicWall features and how they can help businesses of all shapes and sizes. Here at SonicWall-Sales, we are passionate about helping you find the right solution for your needs, so keep reading to discover our SonicWall firewall review.

What is SonicWall?

Before going further with SonicWall firewalls review, it’s important for you to understand what SonicWall is. The company is a security vendor which offers products with next-generation threat detection and extensive protection for your network. They offer products that are suitable for businesses of all sizes, but particularly cater to small and medium-sized businesses which may have previously overlooked the need for a firewall. Their products offer you excellent protection and remote access, ensuring all of your data remains secure from various threats.

Main SonicWall Features

The SonicWall features and benefits are extensive and will vary depending on the exact product you purchase from us. That being said, they all offer firewall protection and wireless network security, which are critical for any business to protect themselves from cybersecurity risks. Many of the products also offer WAN acceleration, VPN clients, remote access security and remote access management. You can also enjoy reviewing your analytics and reports, helping you to keep on top of the threat detection and diagnosis offered by these products. They offer a great range of products that are suitable for all types of businesses, and we’ll be happy to support you in finding the right Sonic firewall for your unique needs.

The Benefits of SonicWall

Now that you know the basic details about what SonicWall can offer, it’s time to look further into our SonicWall firewall review features and pricing and the benefits they offer. Firstly, the company offers multi-layer ransomware prevention. We all know by now how much cybersecurity threats have advanced over the past years, and we need to do all we can to stop malware and ransomware from slowing down your business operations. The great thing about SonicWall is that their products are designed to quickly detect an alleviate any issues so that you can continue working as you need to without disruption.

Many of the threats to businesses today are well hidden among encrypted inbound and outbound traffic bytes. This means they are almost impossible to detect, but SonicWall is here to help with that. You’ll be able to take preventative measures before it’s too late to ensure that there are no risks to your business. SonicWall offers both mobile and wireless breach detection, which is ideal for modern companies. You’ll benefit from email security, which will protect your online inboxes. It’s so easy for employees to accidentally click on a link they were sent, but you’ll find that the firewall works to alleviate this risk before it’s too late.

SonicWall Technical Specifications

When it comes to the Sonic firewall price, we encourage you to get in touch with our team to learn about the various options on offer. You’ll find pricing plans and products suitable for everyone’s needs, and we regularly work with small and medium-sized businesses to offer them great value for money protection. SonicWall offers web-based firewall protection, providing versatile options that are suitable for businesses of all sizes.

They primarily recommend using their products within small and medium-sized businesses, which may have previously overlooked the need for this type of protection. It’s never too late to improve your security and start thinking about the best ways to protect all of your hard work in the future. The SonicWall firewall price point is very competitive, and we’ll be here to answer any questions you have about which option is best for you.

Protect Your Business with SonicWall

You’ll find dozens of reviews for SonicWall firewalls online, all of which are generally very favourable towards the company. Thanks to their many years of experience in the industry, they work with businesses of all shapes and sizes to offer them the network protection that’s needed in this day and age. With hackers continuing to become more advanced, you need to do all you can to ensure that you are protecting your network from risks that could jeopardise your whole business operation.

Are you looking to purchase a new SonicWall firewall? If so, get in touch with our team today. You’ll find a full range of products on offer on our site, and we’ll be happy to answer your questions about which would be the best option for your needs. Our friendly team is here to support you in protecting your business and helping to make this year the most successful one yet for your company.

Read next article: Sonicwall vs Fortinet

The firewall market has only continued to expand over the past decade or so, with hardware and software firewall options now readily available for businesses of all sizes. A common question we receive is whether you need both types of firewall and what the benefits of either of them are. Check our firewall products here to learn more about some of the best firewalls on the market today and keep reading to discover whether you need a software and hardware firewall or both options for optimum protection.

Do You Need Firewall Hardware or Software?

Security is one of the top considerations for any business operating online today. While you may think your business isn’t big enough to warrant both a hardware and software firewall, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Due to the recent pandemic, we’ve seen a huge increase in the number of incidents such as cyberattacks. For that reason, we encourage businesses of all shapes and sizes to invest in as much protection as possible to avoid the fallout that comes from being the victim of a cyberattack.

While you likely know what a hardware firewall is, there is often a little more confusion surrounding firewall software. It’s often sold alongside antivirus software, so you may think that’s all it offers. However, it provides many benefits over the other products you may already be using, including regulating data that comes through port numbers and your applications. You’ll be able to block any incoming traffic from different locations and your firewall will stop computer programs from allowing data to travel to another one when needed. Finally, it will protect devices on your network and ensure that malicious traffic is blocked.

Software firewalls will only work on the computer that it’s installed on, which is why we recommend using them alongside a hardware firewall. If you are running a larger business, you will need to buy multiple licences, which can certainly add up in cost. Therefore, you may want to invest in a hardware firewall first before adding software firewalls to the computers and devices that need the most protection. You can then continue to upgrade your security setup year after year when your budget allows.

When you install any type of firewall, you need to make sure you know how to operate it and change the settings when needed. There’s absolutely no point in spending your time and money looking up the best firewall products if you don’t know how to effectively use them. The good news is that a Sonic firewall is easy to use and install and our team of SonicWall firewall experts will be here to guide you through this process.

Add Security for Your Business with a Hardware Firewall

A lot of businesses focus on adding a hardware firewall to their setup to improve security. It can work on your office network in the form of a perimeter boundary and keep out any dangerous traffic from your network. It will inspect all the traffic that’s coming into your site and stop you from falling victim to malware or cyberattacks. Hardware firewalls are just as necessary for small and medium-sized businesses’ today, who are often the ones that attackers are more likely to target. They can work alongside software firewalls to offer you optimum protection during these challenging times.

Combining these two types of firewalls is the way forward for any business. You’ll have the hardware firewall to check the traffic that’s coming in from the internet and the software firewall to protect the computer. We know that cybercriminals are only becoming more advanced each year, so the more layers of protection you put in place, the more you’ll be able to look out for your business and systems for years to come. You will enjoy more control over the internet and information that’s retrieved from it, which we should all be looking to have in this day and age when cybercriminals are attacking businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Are you looking to upgrade your security setup in your business this year? If so, our team is here to support you with adding a software or hardware firewall to your network. We’ll be happy to share with you our full range of products, including the SonicWall firewalls which are so effective for small and medium-sized businesses. It’s never too late to improve your security protection, but you don’t want to put this upgrade off any longer. Cybercriminals are becoming incredibly advanced, and you never know when you might fall victim to an attack. Contact our team today to learn more about the products we have on offer and to discuss any questions you have about the full range of SonicWall firewalls we stock.

We hear this term a lot. First, make sure the firewall is on the computer at all times. Then, ensure to update the firewall and ensure that it's safely protecting your internet browsing history.

That's a software-related firewall specific to your computer, but different types of firewall options handle other functions. How many types of firewalls are out there? Well, there are four core types of firewalls out there, and they come in variations of each other, but it's essential to know exactly what a firewall does.

A lot of the functionality of firewalls comes from a hardware perspective that we don’t even always pay attention to. It comes built through the router or comes as a separate piece of equipment such as the Sonicwall-Sales firewalls, which are packed full of necessary features to protect you and your company from outside threats.

What is a firewall?

Think of a firewall as an inspection point at a border. It monitors all the web and data traffic that comes into your system and monitors what goes out of your system. It helps protect traffic, even when the source is not coming directly through the internet, but is still networked into the existing computer infrastructure.

The types of firewalls each do something different, but they're still all looking for the same thing, something that looks suspicious and doesn't look like regular traffic coming into the network. They can also act as a go-between a system trying to connect while another one tries to receive, thus building a secure bridge between the two systems.

What are the different types of firewalls?

Packet Filtering firewalls

This firewall is the most common and also the oldest type of firewall out there. The name represents what we all think firewalls are doing, inspecting every piece of data or packet that comes into the system. Each packet needs to have the correct security levels and possible codeword to be allowed to enter into the network.

What makes this so secure is that if it deems something threatening, the only action it takes is to remove it and drop it from the data stream automatically. It doesn't go into a virtual quarantine where it gets opened up and inspected to see if there's a false flag; it simply shuts it down.

Packet filters come in two types of firewalls. A stateless This is where each individual packet is inspected without any regard to previous similar packets. A stateful packet is a much more secure option that examines a group of packets together and each individual piece, providing a dual review process.

Next-Generation Firewalls

These are the latest in Firewall technology. They go beyond simply monitoring the traffic coming in and out or preventing unauthorised access to your system. Instead, they look inside every digital nook and cranny for malicious software that you might have accidentally installed on your network.

They will stop your system (depending on configuration) if they deem some types of software as safe or not. Next-Generation firewalls will also handle multiple functionalities like a SonicWall VPN firewall that will redirect your location through a virtual private network.

Other SonicWall firewall models will provide deep layer technology that will not only inspect if packets are dangerous but look inside to see why they’re dangerous and make a rule to block similar packets instantly, improving cybersecurity.

Proxy Firewalls

A Proxy Firewall is on the application level and will create a space for the packets to be inspected outside the regular operating domain. In this secure state, a similar inspection to a packet filtering stateless inspection is done with an in-depth review of each packet as well as the whole piece of information.

A proxy firewall protects the application that someone is attempting to access until it deems the data trying to get through safe. A more modern version known as a web application firewall works just like a proxy firewall, but especially for cloud-based applications and monitoring website traffic, such as someone visiting your eCommerce business, versus trying to access your internal network.

NAT Firewalls

These types of firewalls act as a masking agent for those trying to access a network. NAT stands for Network Application Translation, and what it does is give external users trying to access or find the system a public unified IP address.

They also protect the privacy of individual IP addresses that someone could use to access the entire network. Keep in mind these types of firewalls and Proxy firewalls could potentially slow down the system with regular traffic as well because it's essentially building a secure way station to inspect incoming and outgoing information.

What type of firewall is right for me?

It really comes down to what is vital in your business. Again, simple antivirus software will not stop network intrusion and won't block out incoming traffic to the office network you're using every day.

You're better off, especially with minimal IT support, to go with cloud-based and easy-to-set up next-generation firewalls such as what SonicWall firewalls provide. This way, you can have enterprise-level security without being concerned if you did all the configurations correctly.

It isn't as simple as plug-and-play, and your business is safe. There is still the human factor to consider. You will need to get a good understanding of access controls to maximise your cybersecurity efforts.

Read next article: Benefits of a Cloud Computing Security Solution