How to Secure Your Website & Protect Your Brand Online

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A study by the SMB Group in 2017 showed that more than 85 percent of small- and medium-sized (SMB) businesses and mid-tier enterprises are adopting digital transformation. This is changing the role of the traditional website from a “static set of HTML pages” to a highly dynamic online experience platform. The website is now the custodian of the organization’s digital brand.

But, as once said by Ben Parker (yes, Spiderman’s late uncle), “With great power comes great responsibility.”

IT executives now have to protect users — and their data used by the website — from a larger spectrum of web application threats. The recent Whitehat Security’s 2018 Application Security Report highlighted these concerns:

  • About 50 percent of vulnerabilities discovered on a website are Serious; remediation rates are less than 50 percent
  • The average time to fix a vulnerability ranges from 139 to 216 days
  • More than 30 percent of websites are still showing poor developer cybersecurity skills (e.g., information leakage, cross-site scripting and SQL injection)
  • SSL/TLS is not adopted well enough; 23 percent of those are weak and riddled with vulnerabilities

SonicWall WAF 2.0 was launched in April 2018 as a standalone virtual appliance deployable in public and private cloud environments. SonicWall WAF delivers an award-winning web application firewall technology that works alongside SonicWall next-generational firewalls (NGFW) to protect businesses and their digital brands.

The SonicWall WAF is backed by threat research from SonicWall Capture Labs for virtual patching of exploits, reducing the window of exposure significantly.

In fact, when the attacks associated with British Airways and Drupalgeddon came out, the SonicWall WAF was able to protect customers without any updates. With the SonicWall WAF, administrators can protect their websites from the wide spectrum of web threats including those targeting the vulnerabilities called out in the OWASP Top 10.

Five New Enhancements to SonicWall WAF 2.2

The next evolution of the product, SonicWall WAF 2.2 gains five significant new features and enhancements, including a new licensing model.

Real-Time Website Malware Prevention with Capture ATP Integration

With the increasing threat of malware, many websites are also at risk of advanced malware attacks like cryptojacking and the famous CTB-locker malware that targeted WordPress websites.

Malware is injected into websites through the use of vulnerable plugins or by using file-upload facilities available with many websites. SonicWall WAF now integrates with the Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) sandbox service. It detects malware embedded in traffic streams by leveraging the industry-leading, multi-engine malware analysis platform, including Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMI). Any attempts to inject or upload malicious files to a website would be inspected in-line (as opposed to after the fact) while maintaining an optimal user experience.

Simplifying Transport Layer Security, SSL Certificate Management with ‘Let’s Encrypt’

The biggest challenge for securing website communication is the need for legitimate SSL/TLS certificates for encryption and decryption. Legitimate certificates are expensive to purchase, manager, monitor and renew.

But with SonicWall WAF 2.2, organizations can take advantage of the Let’s Encrypt service through a built-in integration that not only offers free certificates, but will also automatically monitor and renew digital certificates.

This eliminates the administrative effort to enable SSL/TLS required on the website to turn on support for SSL/TLS.

By combining Let’s Encrypt integration, Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) and HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), the SonicWall WAF ensures that websites are only accessible via a secured and encrypted channel, which also improves search engine visibility and ranking.

Seamless Multifactor Authentication Controls Access to Sensitive Content, Workflows

The most common cause of information leakage from websites stems from improper access control on websites, sometimes via unauthenticated pages and others because of the lack of strong authentication controls (remember the Equifax attack?).

With SonicWall WAF 2.2, administrators can redirect users to an authentication page for any part of the web application by leveraging an existing authentication page or with a WAF-delivered login page.

Administrators can also enforce second-factor authentication using client certificates or one-time passwords (OTPs) to validate users trying to log in to the web application are, indeed, genuine users.

API Support for Managed Cloud Service Providers

Cloud service providers often manage and host websites for their customers. In many cases, they leverage DevOps and programmable infrastructure using APIs to launch hosting environments, web application platforms and ready-to-use infrastructure. But if security is not embedded into these DevOps workflows, they leave gaping holes and become liable for website security.

With SonicWall WAF 2.2, administrators can automatically launch WAF virtual appliances and programmatically provision security for websites using scripts in DevOps workflows. This includes creating a web application to be protected, enabling exploit prevention, enabling Let’s Encrypt Integration for free SSL/TLS support and enabling Capture ATP integration for malware prevention.

New Utility-based Licensing Model, An innovation for WAF Virtual Appliances

With SonicWall WAF 2.2, organizations may purchase protection on a per-website basis. This helps reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) by purchasing only what they need. Four types of websites are currently supported based on the amount of data that is transferred to/from the website per month.

Size Data Volume
Pro Website 10 GB per Month
Small Website 50 GB per Month
Medium Website 200 GB per Month
Large Website 500 GB per Month

A sizing calculator will recommend the compute requirements for the WAF virtual appliance and will provide guidance to website administrators on what type of license they need to buy based on a variety of metrics like sustained/peak throughput, average visits per day etc.

SonicWall WAF helps administrators secure their websites and their digital environment, thereby establishing trust in their digital brand.

Get to Know SonicWall WAF

The SonicWall Web Application Firewall (WAF) now integrates with the award-wining SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) sandbox service and Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMI) technology. Explore how this innovative product can defend your websites and applications from both known and unknown cyber threats.

LEARN ABOUT WAF

SonicWall Extends Next-Generation Firewalls to Public Cloud Deployments, Including AWS and Azure

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Attacks on public cloud infrastructures increase every day.

“We are in the third era of computing — the cloud and mobile era — but security considerations on cloud are still not widely understood,” said Mark Russinovich, CTO of Microsoft Azure. “It is important to address the public cloud security concerns to facilitate its adoption.”

In this third era, securing the public cloud is critical. According to IDC, 83 percent of workloads are virtualized today, and 60 percent of large enterprises run virtual machines (VM) in the public cloud. With the rapid pace of cloud transformation, securing workloads in the cloud becomes challenging.

SonicWall takes on this challenge and extends the security of the private cloud to public clouds with SonicWall Network Security virtual (NSv) firewall series. In addition to public and private cloud security, NSv can also provide end-to-end security for multi-cloud deployments.

Cloud technology provides greater agility, scalability and infrastructure consistency, improving business efficiency. Public cloud environments supported by SonicWall NSv includes Amazon Web Services (AWS)* and Microsoft Azure.

True Next-Generation Virtual Firewall Series

SonicWall NSv series brings industry-leading next-generation firewall (NGFW) capabilities, such as application intelligence and control, real-time monitoring, IPS, TLS/SSL decryption and inspection, advanced threat protection, VPN and network segmentation capabilities, to protect your AWS and Azure environments.

NSv supports all security and networking features similar to SonicWall next-gen hardware firewall appliances, including our patented Reassembly-Free Deep Packet Inspection (RFDPI) technology and award-winning Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) sandbox with Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMI) to stop both known and unknown (e.g., zero day) cyberattacks.

You can gain complete visibility and control of your traffic across multiple virtual private cloud (VPC) and virtual networks (VN), plus provide seamless security and management capabilities with a single-pane-of-glass experience. With NSv, you can take advantage of agility, scalability, high-performance, lower operational cost, quick time-to-deployment and drive innovation.

The public platform support is available across multiple NSv models, such as NSv 200/400/800/1600. Based on the fully-featured SonicOS 6.5.0, NSv makes the move to the cloud easier and safer.

Protect Public Cloud Data, Applications with SonicWall NSv

NSv addresses some of the critical needs of public cloud security. Below are some of the key benefits of leveraging NSv to protect your public cloud infrastructure and resources.

  • Gain complete visibility into virtual environment for threat prevention
  • Implement proper security zoning and ensure appropriate placement of policies
  • Defend against zero-day vulnerabilities with SonicWall Capture ATP
  • Prevent service disruptions in the virtual ecosystem
  • Gain centralized control and visibility with single-pane-of-glass management via Capture Security Center
  • Leverage agility and scalability without performance impact
  • Maintain security governance, compliance and risk management

SonicWall NSv can be deployed in a variety of use cases including the ones below:

  • Internet gateway for ingress/egress traffic protection
  • Lateral protection of east-west traffic
  • Site-to-site VPN deployment
  • Secure end-to-end remote access
  • Multi-cloud secure connectivity

Why Choose SonicWall NSv?

In addition to the various key benefits in leveraging NSv, below are some additional reasons why you should choose NSv as the security of choice in the public cloud.

  • Patented technologies like RTDMI, RFDPI and more
  • Robust products with over 26 years of award-winning technological innovation
  • Powerful security, powered by SonicWall next-generation firewall capabilities, now extending to the cloud

* AWS availability date pending.

Try SonicWall NSv for Azure

SonicWall NSv is currently available for Azure public cloud environments. Visit the Azure Marketplace to gain next-generation security for your most sensitive Azure workloads.

TRY NSv FOR AZURE

Workplace Cybersecurity Is Everyone’s Responsibility

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The cyberthreat landscape is changing. An increasing number of cyberattacks are executed using sophisticated tactics. Earlier this year, SonicWall warned that malware volume increased 102 percent in the first half of 2018 compared to that of 2017.

The report also notes a significant increase in cyberattacks that leverage new variants of malware, including ransomware and encrypted threats. Further, attacks are becoming highly targeted, for example baseStriker and PhishPoint target Office 365 users.

Attackers are evolving to take advantage of workplace technology trends, including the cloud and BYOD. These trends empower workforces to be mobile and productive as demanded by today’s 24/7 hyper-connected reality. Unfortunately, these behavior changes are significantly expanding the attack surface area for cybercriminals to exploit.

“Attackers are evolving their tactics to take advantage of workplace technology trends, including the cloud and BYOD.”

Today, network security means more than just safeguarding data, applications and infrastructure. Employees are not only resources that need protection, but also weaknesses or valuable assets for a stronger cybersecurity posture.

It is, of course, essential for organizations to have necessary security in place to monitor and protect attack surface areas. But no security product can be a silver bullet to stop all cyberattacks. It is necessary to educate and empower the last and most crucial line of defense: your employees.

Build a Culture of Cybersecurity Awareness

Employees are a key resource for an organization. As driving revenue is the primary objective, safeguarding the organization must also become one of the main responsibilities for employees. With the right frameworks and security awareness training programs in place, they can also be an effective layer of defense — a human firewall.

By extending these responsibilities to all employees, organizations can prevent sophisticated cyberattacks, saving the organization from financial, legal and reputation damages.

Creating cybersecurity awareness and training programs must include what employees must be aware of, what they need to watch out for, what best practices should be leveraged and how to follow them. It also must be easy to report security incidents. These programs must be delivered efficiently, measured and be easy to use.

Since the cyber threat landscape is evolving, the “human firewall” needs continuous signature/intelligence updates in terms of the new threats and how to identify and stop them. This is modern cybersecurity awareness.

Stop the No. 1 Cyberattack Vector: Email

But cybercriminals also know to target the human element to execute attacks. Email is the No. 1 threat vector used by cybercriminals today; more than 90 percent of attacks start with a phishing campaign.

Modern phishing tactics can trick even the savviest users. Attacks that use fake login pages, impersonation and business email compromise (BEC) are difficult to detect and block as these emails do not contain malware.

Organizations would benefit from taking a human-centric approach to email security and include user training and awareness to spot and avoid clicking on phishing email threats. Organizations should train employees to:

Embrace security as one of their key responsibilities. Beware of sudden changes in business practices. For example, email requests for transfers of funds.
Treat any suspicious email with caution. Review the signature and legitimacy of the request.
Look at domain names from suspicious emails. Confirm requests for transfers of funds or confidential information, such as W-2 records.
Exercise extra caution if an email is from a free, web-based account. Do not use the “Reply” option to respond to any business emails. Instead, use the “Forward” option and either type in the correct email address or select it from the email address book to ensure the intended recipient’s correct email address is used.
Check for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

Spot Sophisticated Phishing Attacks

Want to brush up on your ability to spot a phishing attack? Take SonicWall’s quick Phishing IQ test or download our exclusive brief, “How to Stop Email Spoofing.”

Monitor and Manage Shadow IT

According to Gartner, by 2020 one-third of security breaches will be the result of shadow IT. The ease of SaaS adoption and deployment leads to the following problems:

  • Losing control over sensitive corporate data traversing through public or hybrid clouds and data centers introduces new risks such as unauthorized access, malware propagation, data leakage and non-compliance.
  • Balancing security budgets, shadow IT practices and employee productivity.

To address the above challenges, IT administrators need Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) solutions to provide visibility for what applications are being used and where. This will help them better understand the overall risk posture.

To mitigate the risks of shadow IT and embrace productivity, both organizations and employees must understand the agreement on what constitutes a legitimate application allowed for official use. Employees must be trained to use judgement so that they do not upload sensitive or confidential data into cloud-based applications.

Protect Endpoints, Especially When Outside the Perimeter

Workforces today rely on the same device for business and personal use, resulting in intermingling of business and personal data and applications. This creates an increased risk of security breaches for organizations, including:

  • Unauthorized users gaining access to company data and applications
  • Malware-infected devices acting as conduits to infect company systems
  • Interception of company data in transit on unsecured public Wi-Fi networks
  • Compliance with audit and regulatory requirements
  • Loss of business data stored on devices if rogue personal apps or unauthorized users gain access to data

To ensure proper safety, employees must be educated on the risks an endpoint poses to an organization, especially when those devices are frequently used from home, mobile or public networks. This can start with the basics such as:

  • Lock mobile devices when not in use.
  • Don’t use USB drives you don’t trust.
  • Update all software, operating systems and malware signatures.
  • Use secure VPN connections when accessing corporate resources over unsecured networks.
  • Install next-generation anti-virus (NGAV) to stop the latest threats.

Cybersecurity: Our Shared Responsibility

As cyberattacks evolve, organizations need to take a human-centric approach to security. Cybersecurity is everyone’s job. It’s a shared responsibility. It’s critical that structures, guidelines and processes are in place to make employees care and be responsible to remain safe online while at work.

Organizations will greatly benefit by incorporating user awareness and training programs to educate and empower employees who will form a critical line of defense. Cybersecurity is never finished. Make it core to company culture.

About Cybersecurity Awareness Month

The 15th annual National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) highlights user awareness among consumers, students/academia and business. NCSAM 2018 addresses specific challenges and identifies opportunities for behavioral change. It aims to remind everyone that protecting the internet is “Our Shared Responsibility.”

In addition, NCSAM 2018 will shine a spotlight on the critical need to build a strong, cyber secure workforce to help ensure families, communities, businesses and the country’s infrastructure are better protected through four key themes:

  • Oct. 1-5: Make Your Home a Haven for Online Safety
  • Oct. 8-12: Millions of Rewarding Jobs: Educating for a Career in Cybersecurity
  • Oct. 15-19: It’s Everyone’s Job to Ensure Online Safety at Work
  • Oct. 22-26: Safeguarding the Nation’s Critical Infrastructure

Learn more at StaySafeOnline.org.

Protecting Your MSSP Reputation with Behavior-Based Security

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You’ve been here before. Your customer gets hit by a cyberattack and they ask, “Why did this happen? Shouldn’t your managed security service have protected us?”

Unless you give them a satisfactory answer, they may be shopping for a new partner. Over the past few years, I’ve heard several MSSPs having to explain to their customers that the malware or ransomware attack could not be stopped because they didn’t possess the technology that could mitigate new attacks.

Don’t put yourself in a situation where you can’t properly safeguard your customers — even against new or unknown attacks. To protect both your customers and your reputation against the latest threats, you need to deploy behavior-based security solutions that can better future-proof your customer environment.

The Logistics of Threat Prevention

When talking with people about threat prevention I ask, “How many new forms of malware do you think SonicWall detected last year?”

I usually hear answers in the thousands. The real answer? 56 million new forms or variants of malware in a single year. That’s more than 150,000 a day. Every day, security companies like SonicWall have teams of people creating signatures to help build in protections, but this takes time. Despite the industry’s best effort, static forms of threat elimination are limited.

Layering Security Across Customer Environments

MSSPs understand the importance of selling perimeter security, such as firewalls and email security, to scrub out most threats. These solutions will cover roughly 94-98 percent of threats. But for the smaller percentage of threats that are no less devastating, this is where behavior-based solutions come into play.

On each edge-facing firewall and email security service you need to have a network sandbox, which is an isolated environment where files can be tested to understand their intended purpose or motive. For example, the SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) sandbox is an isolated environment that is designed to run suspicious files in parallel through multiple engines to resist evasive malware. With the ability to block a file until a verdict has been reached, you can ensure that you will deliver highly vetted and clean traffic to end users.

Endpoints require a form of security that continuously monitor the system for malicious behavior because they roam outside the network perimeter and encounter fileless threats that come from vectors like malvertising.

SonicWall’s endpoint security solution (called Capture Client) only uses roughly 1 percent of the CPU’s processing power on a standard laptop. It can stop attacks before they happen as well as halt attacks as they execute. MSSPs love the ability to prevent dynamic attacks but also roll them back (on Windows only) in case they do initiate.

Behavior-based Security in Action

The power of behavior-based security was clear with the initial WannaCry attack in 2017. It was made famous when 16 NHS hospitals in the UK were shut down due to this viral ransomware attack. These sites were protected by a competitor whose CEO had to explain himself and apologize on national television.

The sites protected by SonicWall were up and running and helped pick up the slack when the others went down. Three weeks before the attack, SonicWall put protections in place that prevented Version 1 of WannaCry and its SMB vulnerability exploit from working.

But it was the behavior-based security controls that helped to identify and stop all the subsequent versions that came after. This same pattern emerged again with the NotPetya and SamSam ransomware attacks; static defenses followed by proactive dynamic defenses.

Furthermore, SonicWall’s reporting enables MSSPs to be alerted when something has been stopped. SonicWall Capture Client attack visualization gives administrators a view of where the threat came from and what it wanted to do on the endpoint.

This approach gives our customers — and MSSPs powered by SonicWall — the ability to protect against threats detected by SonicWall. But this strategy also protects against attacks that shift and change to bypass safeguards. By doing our best to build protections in a timely manner, as well as providing technology that detects and stops unknown attacks, we protect your customer as well as your reputation.

This story originally appeared on MSSP Alert and was republished with permission.

Importance of Resiliency in Network Security

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In life we hear stories about people who are able to recover from difficult situations. They’re often referred to as being “resilient.” Resiliency can also be applied to network security, albeit in a slightly different context. In both cases it’s a good thing to be.

As noted in our mid-year 2018 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report, network threats, such as malware and ransomware attacks, are on the rise compared to 2017. Cybercriminals are persistent in their efforts to find new methods to launch their attacks.

But it’s not just the quantity of attacks that are on the rise. New threats are increasing as well. Some of these are variants spawned from earlier malware or ransomware code, such as WannaCry and Locky. Others are malware cocktails that combined pieces of code from several different variants.

Absorb, Reorganize and Refocus

One of the best and often under-valued ways to protect against these threats is to have a network security solution that is extremely resilient. This doesn’t mean that your firewall is good at picking itself back up off the ground after it’s been defeated by an attack.

According to NSS Labs, a third-party source known for its independent, fact-based cybersecurity guidance, “The resiliency of a system can be defined as its ability to absorb an attack and reorganize around a threat. A resilient device will be able to detect and prevent against different variations of the exploit.”

A key component of this definition is the device’s ability to identify attacks that use evasion techniques to avoid being detected and stopped. Another is protection over time. Some attacks are launched and then quickly disappear. Others, however, are reintroduced over the years, whether in their original form or as a variant.

A resilient firewall will continue to block a threat that was launched previously in addition to current and future variants. Failure to be resilient increases the chance your network is open to an attack. The odds may be small, but it’s still possible. Remember, not every hacker is writing the latest code. Some are new to the game and stick to older, established attacks.

Blocking Never-before-seen Variants

NSS Labs released the 2018 Next-Generation Firewall Group Test results with 10 network security vendors participating in the testing. SonicWall submitted the NSa 2650 next-generation firewall (NGFW), which performed very well in both security effectiveness and value (TCO per protected Mbps), earning the “Recommended” rating for a fifth time.

One particular area in the security effectiveness testing where the NSa 2650 shined was its resiliency to a range of never-before-seen exploit variants. The NSa 2650 achieved a block rate of over 90 percent, outperforming every other firewall except one. In many cases, the difference was significant, with over half of the firewalls scoring only in the 65-75 percent range.

Exploit Block Rate by Year – Recommended Policies
2018 NSS Labs Next-Generation Firewall Comparative Report: Security

So, is having a firewall with high resiliency really that important? Research from both SonicWall and NSS Labs indicates that there are quite a few aging attacks still out there in circulation. They may not be as sophisticated as today’s threats, but they remain active. You need to be protected against them.

What’s more, some threat actors launch multi-pronged attacks comprised of the core malware plus a series of variants. The idea is that your firewall may stop one, but not all.

To counter attacks, some security vendors create signatures that are specific to a particular exploit. These signatures typically don’t account for variants, however. And, over time, the signatures may be removed, leaving the firewall open to attack. Ideally, security vendors will create signatures that focus on the vulnerability and block the threat plus its variants — now and in the future.

If you’re not sure whether your firewall is resilient, or how it rates in security effectiveness and value, SonicWall can help. Visit SonicWall.com to download and read NSS Labs test reports, including the Security Value MapTM.

Botnets Targeting Obsolete Software

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Overview: This is not a disclosure of a new vulnerability in SonicWall software. Customers with the current SonicWall Global Management System (GMS) 8.2 and above have nothing to worry about. The reported vulnerability relates to an old version of GMS (8.1), which was replaced in December 2016. Customers with GMS 8.1 and earlier releases should patch, per SonicWall guidance, as they are running out-of-support software. Best practice is to deploy a SonicWall next-generation firewall (NGFW) or a web application firewall (WAF) in front of GMS and other web servers to protect against such attacks. Look for global third-party validation on protection effectiveness, such as the 2018 NSS Labs NGFW Group Test. After rigorous testing, SonicWall firewalls earned the NSS Labs coveted ‘Recommended’ rating five times.

On Sept. 9, Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 published a blog post highlighting a developing trend of botnets picking up publicly known CVE exploits and weaponizing them against enterprise infrastructure. This marks a change in the botnet authors’ tactics from targeting consumer-grade routers and IP cameras to searching for higher-profile enterprise targets to harness additional endpoints for DDoS attacks.

The first botnet, Mirai, targeted the Apache Struts vulnerability from early 2017, which affects web servers around the world. On March 6, 2017, SonicWall provided protection against the Apache Struts vulnerability with the Intrusion Prevention Service (IPS) on the NGFW line, rolling out protection to all firewalls with licensed IPS service.

The second botnet highlighted in the Palo Alto Networks post, Gafgyt, picked up the Metasploit code for an XML-RPC vulnerability for an obsolete version of SonicWall GMS (8.1) central management software, which was replaced by GMS 8.2 in December 2016.

The bottom line: the reported botnet attack is misguided and presents no threat to SonicWall GMS in production since December 2016.

Implementing Cybersecurity Best Practices

Current SonicWall GMS users are not at risk. However, there are broader lessons here for the industry and business owners:

  • Take End-of-Life and End-of-Support announcements seriously and update proactively. They become a compliance and security risk for critical systems and compromise an enterprise’s compliance and governance posture.
  • Security best practices dictate that you never expose a web server directly to the internet without a NGFW or WAF deployed in front.
  • A security layer between the internet and critical enterprise infrastructure, like web servers or centralized firewall management, provides the ability to virtually patch zero-day vulnerabilities and exploits while working out a sensible patching strategy. For example, a SonicWall NGFW with Intrusion Prevention or a SonicWall WAF can easily handle this task.

Using Third-Party Validation

The blog post does, however, underscore the rapidly-evolving nature of today’s threat landscape, evidenced by the mixing of malware and exploits to create new malware cocktails, and the need to use the latest and most effective security solutions to protect against them.

When selecting a product to protect your critical infrastructure, go beyond listening to vendor claims and look at globally recognized independent testing, such as the NSS Labs NGFW report, to validate security efficacy. Items that you should consider when selecting a security product for the modern threat landscape:

  1. NSS Labs specifically tests for protection on non-standard ports (not just 80/443, for example) because malware often uses non-standard ports to bypass traffic inspection. Products that lack inspection on non-standard ports are blind to many malware attacks, and are easily fooled into missing dangerous traffic and allowing malware and exploits to sail right through.

2018 NSS Labs NGFW Group Test Report — Evasion Resistance

2018 NSS Labs Next Generation Firewall Security Value MapTM (SVM)

  1. Evaluate your NGFW on security efficacy, and how it deals with malware cocktails, such as the recently exposed Intel-based, processor-level vulnerabilities like Spectre, Meltdown and Foreshadow.
  • SonicWall patented and patent-pending Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMITM) technology is proven to catch chip/processor attacks through its unique approach to real-time memory inspection.
  • SonicWall RTDMI protection can also be applied to mitigate malicious PDFs, Microsoft Office documents and executables. The focus on PDF and Office document protection is especially important. Attacks are shifting into this delivery mechanism as browsers clamped down on Flash and Java content, drying up a fertile area of exploit and malware delivery. For example, RTDMI discovered more than 12,300 never-before-seen attack variants in the first half of 2018 alone.
  • The SonicWall Capture Client endpoint suite plugs into the RTDMI engine to offer the same protection for users that are outside a protected network.

 

The Bottom Line

The reported botnet attack is misguided and presents no threat to SonicWall GMS in production since December 2016.

Upgrade Your SonicWall Next-Generation Firewall with ‘3 & Free’ Program

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Some good things should never end.

One of the most successful promotions in company history, SonicWall’s ‘3 & Free’ incentive is now a permanent component of our Customer Loyalty program.

In an escalated cyber threat landscape, it’s more important than ever to ensure your organization’s networks, data and applications are protected against today’s most malicious cyberattacks, including the most recent Foreshadow processor exploits. In fact, in July 2018 alone, the average SonicWall customer faced:

  • 2,164 malware attacks (28 percent increase from July 2017)
  • 81 ransomware attacks (43 percent increase)
  • 143 encrypted threats
  • 13 phishing attacks each day
  • 1,413 new malware variants discovered each day by SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) sandbox with Real-Time Deep Memory InspectionTM

When you upgrade your SonicWall hardware you gain the latest in next-generation firewall (NGFW) technology and access to the SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) service. It’s a cloud-based, multi-engine sandbox that stops both known and unknown cyberattacks from critically impacting your business.

What is the SonicWall ‘3 & Free’ Program?


Once a limited-time promotion, the SonicWall ‘3 & Free’ is now a mainstay offering to loyal SonicWall customers. It’s an easy, cost-effective way for customers to upgrade to the very latest SonicWall next-generation firewall appliance for free.

Eligible customers may receive a complimentary NGFW appliance by purchasing a bundle that includes a three-year subscription of the SonicWall Advanced Gateway Security Suite from their authorized SonicWall SecureFirst partner.

This security suite includes everything you need to stay protected against today’s modern attacks, including ransomware, encrypted threats, zero-day attacks and processor-based exploits. It offers:

  • Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) sandbox
  • Gateway Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware
  • Intrusion Prevention Service
  • Application Control
  • Content Filtering Service
  • 24×7 Support

SonicWall’s exclusive security subscription service also includes SonicWall Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMI). A patent-pending technology, RTDMI™ enables Capture ATP to detect and block malware that does not exhibit any malicious behavior or hides weaponry via encryption. This protects your organization from zero-day attacks, malicious PDFs and Microsoft Office files, and even chip-based Spectre, Foreshadow and Meltdown exploits.

Upgrade Your SonicWall Firewall

Ready to upgrade? Take advantage of our ‘3 & Free’ program to get the latest in SonicWall next-generation firewall technology — for free. To upgrade, contact your dedicated SecureFirst Partner or begin your upgrade process via the button below.

BEGIN UPGRADE

Next-Generation Firewalls Designed for Mid-Tier Enterprises & Service Providers

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Mid-tier enterprises, data centers and large service provides have security, performance and high-availability demands much greater than the average organization.

These organizations must support an exploding number of smartphones, computers and IoT devices. Each generates a huge number of web connections. Just take a look at your browser and count the number of tabs you have open. Each is a connection that likely goes through the firewall.

More devices means more web sessions a firewall has to support. Now, imagine how many connections mid-tier enterprises and services providers must support, manage and secure.

What’s more, it’s likely that the website is using encryption to protect the transmission of data. Reported in the 2018 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report, almost 70 percent of web traffic now uses the HTTPS protocol to secure the session.

Core to an expanding focus to serve mid-tier enterprises and larger service providers — and to better empower organizations to decrypt, inspect and mitigate cyberattacks in encrypted traffic — SonicWall is introducing six new next-generation firewalls.

New NSa Next-Generation Firewalls

The Network Security appliance (NSa) series 6650, 9250, 9450 and 9650 scale high security efficacy and extensive feature sets to larger mid-tier enterprises, including distributed enterprises, school districts and data centers.

These new NSa models offer a high availability (HA) solution that pairs a second, similar firewall with the primary. In the event the primary fails, the secondary HA unit takes over until the primary is up and running again. The two can also share the deep packet inspection (DPI) load.

Many competitors require a full-price purchase of the failover unit, as well as full subscription services after the first year. In comparison, SonicWall is ensuring network security is available via bundles designed with the requirements of mid-tier enterprises in mind.

Features & Performance

  • Enterprise-grade 10-GbE and 2.5-GbE firewalls
  • Available in HA bundle
  • Up to 1.5 times higher performance than predecessors
  • Up to 10 times more encrypted connections than predecessors
  • Real-time TLS/SSL decryption and inspection
  • Redundant power supplies and fans
  • Built-in modular storage
  • Powered by new SonicOS 6.5.2

“This new range of NSa firewalls delivers the performance, value and security our mid-tier enterprise customers can’t get from traditional security vendors,” said Boris Wetzel, CEO choin! GmbH, a SecureFirst partner and NSa beta customer. “Coupled with SonicWall’s cost-effective HA offering, the new NSa series will help disrupt a segment of the market that has been forced into antiquated pricing structures for far too long.”

The NSa 6650, 9250, 9450 and 9650 include 10-GbE and 2.5-GbE interfaces to enable more devices to connect directly to the firewall without requiring a switch.

The new NSa firewalls also enable more connections than its predecessors, including nearly five times the number of stateful packet inspection (SPI) connections and 25 times the number of SSL/TLS deep packet inspection (DPI) connections.

“This new range of NSa firewalls delivers the performance, value and security our mid-tier enterprise customers can’t get from traditional security vendors.”

New NSsp Next-Generation Firewalls

Complementing the new NSa series, we are also launching our new Network Security services platform (NSsp) 12000 series, which includes new NSsp 12400 and NSsp 12800 firewalls.

Built specifically for large, distributed enterprises, data centers, universities and service providers, these scalable, 4U next-generation firewalls build upon our extensive NSa feature set and are capable of scanning millions of connections for the latest cyberattacks.

Features & Performance

  • High port density featuring 40-GbE and 10-GbE interfaces
  • Cloud-based and on-box threat prevention
  • Real-time TLS/SSL decryption and inspection
  • Built-in modular storage
  • Redundant power supplies and fans
  • 4U rackmount chassis
  • Built-in redundancy features
  • Powered by new SonicOS 6.5.2

“The volume and sophistication of today’s cyberattacks continues to grow and we require reliable, high-performance security solutions that can keep pace,” said Antonio Cisternino CIO University of Pisa, a SonicWall NSsp beta customer. “Because of the number of end users we service in a highly complex and dynamic environment, we depend on networking capabilities that can simultaneously support millions of connections and mitigate cyberattacks hiding within encrypted traffic without compromising the research needs.

“The new SonicWall NSsp 12000 series firewalls combine the best of both worlds: high security efficacy and high performance.”
With multiple 40-GbE interfaces, the NSsp series enables the high-speed throughput large organizations need into today’s fast-paced networked environment.

To learn more about SonicWall’s new NSa and NSsp next-generation firewalls, please visit sonicwall.com.

New Cyber Threat Intelligence Shows Growing Malware Volume, Encrypted Attacks

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The latest cyberattack data from SonicWall shows increases across the board for global malware, ransomware, TLS/SSL encrypted attacks and intrusion attempts.

Highlighting these new findings, the SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection sandbox, with Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMITM), discovered 1,099 new malware variants each day in April.

This cyber threat intelligence, which is available in the SonicWall Security Center, maps the behavior of cybercriminals and the tactics they employ to breach the networks of businesses and organizations across the world.

Globally, the SonicWall Capture Threat Network, which includes more than 1 million sensors across the world, recorded the following 2018 year-to-date attack data:

  • 4,050,797,027 malware attacks (152 percent increase from 2017)
  • 1,233,667,979,688 intrusion attempts (67 percent increase)
  • 132,266,265 ransomware attacks (426 percent increase)
  • 914,975 instances of malware using SSL/TLS encryption (351 percent increase)

Breaking this down to the customer level, in April 2018 alone, the average SonicWall customer faced:

  • 2,254 malware attacks (95 percent increase from April 2017)
  • 78 ransomware attacks (343 percent increase)
  • 73 encrypted threats
  • 10 phishing attacks each day

1,099 new malware variants discovered by Capture ATP each day

Stop cyberattacks in memory

Included with Capture ATP, SonicWall’s patent-pending RTDMI technology catches more malware than behavior-based sandboxing methods, with a lower false positive rate. In 2018, RTDMI has discovered more than 5,000 never-before-seen malware variants — attacks likely missed by competing signature-based offerings.

First announced in February 2018, RTDMI technology is used by the SonicWall Capture Cloud Platform to identify and mitigate even the most insidious cyber threats, including memory-based attacks. RTDMI proactively detects and blocks unknown mass-market malware — including malicious PDFs and attacks leveraging Microsoft Office documents — via deep memory inspection in real time.

The 2018 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report advises that cybercriminals will continue to leverage users’ trust in PDFs and Microsoft Office applications (which represented five of the top 10 attacked applications of 2017). Because of obfuscation techniques, many legacy firewalls and anti-virus solutions are unable to effectively identify and mitigate PDFs or Microsoft Office file types that contain malicious content.

 

What is the Difference Between Traditional and Next-Generation Anti-Virus?

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In previous webcasts and blogs, I’ve spoken of a woman who was the victim of a terrible ransomware attack as well as an intrusion on her computer. It was her first computer breach in over 25 years of business.

When these happened, she was running traditional anti-virus and minimal network security in front of her endpoints. These two attacks, which she believes cost her around $50,000 in damages, were alarming wakeup calls to the realities of today’s threat landscape.

One of the lessons learned by people like Elizabeth over the past three years of the ransomware age is that traditional signature-based anti-virus solutions are lacking the power to combat today’s flood of evasive malware.

This is why SonicWall is excited to launch our Capture Client, a client security solution that leverages the SentinelOne Endpoint Protection engine, powered by static and behavioral artificial intelligence, to deliver next-generation anti-virus (NGAV) capabilities.

So, what exactly is a NGAV solution, and why does it matter?

No signatures

Traditionally, anti-virus solutions (AVs) have required frequent (daily or weekly) updates of their signature databases to protect against the latest threats. Capture Client uses a static artificial intelligence (AI) engine to determine if new files are threats before they can execute. In addition, it has a behavioral AI engine to protect against file-less threats (e.g., PowerShell scripts, macros within documents, lateral movement, etc.).

No weekly updates

These AI engines do not require daily/weekly updates, as they “degrade” very gracefully over time. This is because the behavior analysis engines do the work instead of matching files to an ever-aging database of file IDs.

Even if customers upgrade their agents only once a year, they will have much greater protection than what traditional AV is able to provide. With the power of SentinelOne’s AI models, today’s zero-day attacks are instantly convicted by models developed in the past. This is the benefit of a mathematical approach to malware prevention, detection and response versus legacy, signature-based approaches.

No recurring scans

Apart from the management overhead of updating signatures, traditional AVs also recommend recurring disk scans to make sure threats did not get in. These recurring scans are a big source of frustration for the end users, as their productivity is impacted during the scans. With Capture Client, these recurring scans are not required at all. End-users get much better performance and, in many cases, do not even know or experience any slowdown caused by the AV.

No performance overhead

Another reason for the poor performance of traditional AVs is that they became bloated by implementing many features, such as endpoint firewall, full-disk encryption, etc. Many of these features are now available on modern operating systems. Capture Client was designed to orchestrate OS functionality instead of replicating it. This also translates into a much better end-user experience.

No cloud dependence

Another limitation of traditional AVs is their reliance on cloud connectivity for best protection. Signature databases have grown so large that it is no longer possible to push the entire database down to the device. So, they keep the vast majority of signatures in the cloud, and only push the most prevalent signatures down to the agent.

Furthermore, end users frequently work in cafés, airports, hotels and other commercial facilities. In most of these cases, the Wi-Fi provider is supported by ad revenues, and encourage users to download the host’s tools (i.e., adware) to get free connectivity. These tools or the Wi-Fi access point can easily block access to the AV cloud, which poses a huge security risk. Capture Client is fully autonomous and protects the user in these situations. The efficacy of the agent isn’t impacted by its connection to the internet.

NGAV for endpoints

I invite you to learn more about Capture Client, which not only provides NGAV capabilities, but also seamlessly integrates with SonicWall firewalls and related capabilities, such as DPI-SSL certificate management, firewall enforcement and firewall-independent, cloud-based reporting.

To learn more, download the “SonicWall Capture Client powered by SentinelOne” data sheet.

Download Datasheet