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SonicWall Wins 7 New Awards, Bringing 2018 Total to Over 30

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SonicWall is proud to announce it has garnered seven awards, including three from the Network Products Guide IT World Awards, two from the Globee Awards, and one each from the PR World Awards and the CEO World Awards.

With these seven new accolades, SonicWall has earned more than 30 awards so far in 2018.

First from the Network Products Guide IT World Awards is a gold award in the ‘Firewalls’ category for the SonicWall NSA 2650 firewall. The SonicWall NSa 2650 is a next-generation firewall that delivers high-speed threat prevention over thousands of encrypted and unencrypted connections to mid-sized organizations and distributed enterprises.


SonicWall also won silver in the ‘Managed Security Services’ category for the SonicWall Global Cloud Management System, or Cloud GMS. Cloud GMS is a web-based management and reporting application that provides centralized management and high-performance reporting for the SonicWall family of firewalls.


Rounding out the three from Network Products Guide, SonicWall earned silver in the ‘Email, Security and Management’ category for SonicWall Email Security 9.1. SonicWall Email Security is a multi-layer solution dedicated to combating emerging threats. It protects organizations from outside attacks with effective virus, zombie, phishing and spam blockers, leveraging multiple threat-detection techniques.


In addition to the awards from Network Products Guide, SonicWall also garnered a silver award in the ‘PR Achievement of the Year’ category from the PR World Awards for the launch of the 2018 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report. The annual report is the go-to source for cyber threat intelligence, industry analysis and cyber security guidance for the global cyber arms race.

The launch of the 2018 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report also took home gold in the ‘Public Relations Achievement of the Year’ from the Globee Awards. The team also earned a silver in the Globee Awards in the ‘Product Management/Development Team of the Year’ for the team led by SonicWall COO Atul Dhablania.

Finally, SonicWall CEO Bill Conner won silver in the ‘CEO Excellence of the Year’ award for organizations with 500-2,499 employees.

eWeek Goes 1-on-1 with SonicWall CEO Bill Conner

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Bill Conner has a plan for SonicWall. And he’s already ahead of it.

In a recent interview with eWeek, the SonicWall CEO provided high-level perspective on not only where SonicWall is and how it got here, but also where it’s going in the future. It was a candid, one-on-one conversation that really lets the industry get to know SonicWall as a company.

“Everything comes through some kind of a network … where we think the market is going is really going to be about automated, real-time breach detection and prevention,” said Conner.

Announced in May 2018, SonicWall financially separated from Quest with oversubscribed investment interest and unprecedented growth in the last six quarters. This success is less than two years removed from Francisco Partner’s purchase of SonicWall from Dell.

“We still have Dell as a partner, and as an OEM, and still do a great deal of business with them,” Conner told eWeek. “We also have business that has nothing to do with Dell.”

Conner walked eWeek through the last 10 months of fast-moving growth for SonicWall, which included 12 new products that featured updates to trusted firewalls, introduced new virtual firewall offerings and unveiled the SonicWall Capture Cloud Platform.

Conner stressed that all of the development into defending endpoints, email and other areas of vulnerability does not mean that SonicWall is diverging from its true nature, which is primarily that of a network security company. SonicWall is simply expanding the breadth of its cyber security portfolio to deliver more cost-effective, real-time protection to customers and partners.

“One of the big questions when I came in was, ‘Is the brand going to be alive?’” said Conner. “Then there were questions about our roadmap and ability to deliver … Now our vision, that I started talking about six quarters ago, is starting to be real.”

This fiscal year SonicWall also added over 24,000 SecureFirst partner organizations, a 60 percent year-over-year increase, while closing $530 million in partner deal registrations. Since the start of 2018, SonicWall has collected 27 cybersecurity industry accolades, most recently being named the Editor’s Choice Security Company of the Year by Cyber Defense Magazine.

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

RSA Conference 2018: SonicWall is Hot

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Fresh off of April’s massive SonicWall Capture Cloud Platform launch, SonicWall has been featured in a pair of CRN articles highlighting the hottest products at RSA Conference 2018.

The SonicWall Capture Cloud Platform is lauded in CRN’s “10 Hot New Cloud Security Products Announced at RSA 2018” listing. CRN recaps the platform’s ability to integrate security, management, analytics and real-time threat intelligence across SonicWall’s portfolio of network, email, mobile and cloud security products.

Complementing that accolade, a pair of new SonicWall products were listed in the “20 Hot New Security Products Announced at RSA 2018” category. The new SonicWall NSv virtual firewall (slide 7) and SonicWall Capture Client (slide 12) endpoint protection were showcased.

SonicWall Capture Client is a unified endpoint offering with multiple protection capabilities. With a next-generation malware protection engine powered by SentinelOne, Capture Client delivers advanced threat protection techniques, such as machine learning and system rollback.

SonicWall’s Scott Grebe explains automated, real-time breach detection and prevention during RSA Conference 2018

SonicWall Network Security virtual (NSv) firewalls protect all critical components of your private/public cloud environment from resource misuse attacks, cross virtual machine attacks, side channel attacks and common network-based exploits and threats. It captures traffic between virtual machines (VM) and networks for automated breach prevention and establishes access control measures for data confidentiality and ensures VMs safety and integrity.

Protect Web Applications Running Private, Public or Hybrid Cloud Environments

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With the number of attempted web attacks ranging up to millions over the course a year, you need to ensure web application security. You need a solution that protects both your public and internal web properties.

Why you need a web application firewall

Today’s businesses strive to provide the highest possible service experience and engagement through different types of interactive web applications and user-friendly mobile applications. Over half of the world population uses the internet. Ninety three percent of them now go online, and perhaps stay online longer, using their mobile devices as opposed to their computers.

With the addition of the Internet-of-Things (IoT), we have now added tens of billions of devices already connected, communicating and exchanging data through web and mobile applications today — from TVs, digital wearables, cars, gaming consoles and vending units, to all sorts of smart appliances. This makes web applications more critical now than ever before. You need keep them all online and safe.

What makes a good web application firewall?

An ideal   solution requires a comprehensive foundation for application security, data leak prevention, performance and management. With most web servers vulnerable to a wide spectrum of web-based exploits, you need a dynamic web application firewall to provide continuous real-time protection for web properties, whether they are hosted on-premises or in the public cloud. A best-practices WAF solution requires feature-rich web security tools and services to keep web properties safe, undisrupted and in peak performance every single day.

SonicWall Web Application Firewall

Our award-winning solutions give you a defense-in-depth strategy to protect your web applications running in private, public or hybrid cloud environments. It offers you a complete, out-of-box compliance solution for application-centric security that is easy to manage and deploy.

The SonicWall WAF series arms you with advanced web security tools and services to protect your data and web properties against modern, web-based threats. It applies deep packet inspection of Layer 7 web traffic against a regularly updated database of known signatures, denies access upon detecting web application threats and redirects users to an explanatory error page.

In addition, the SonicWall WAF baselines regular web application usage and behavior, and identifies anomalies that may be indicative of attempts to compromise the application, steal data and/or cause a denial of service (DoS).

SonicWall WAF employs a combination of signature-based and application profiling deep-packet inspection, and high-performance, real-time intrusion scanning engine, to dynamically defend against evolving threats, as outlined by the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), as well as more advanced web application threats like denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and context-aware exploits.  Moreover, it learns, interrogates and baselines regular web application usage behaviors and identifies anomalies that may indicate attempts to compromise the application, steal data and/or cause a denial of service.

The WAF series gives you economy-of-scale benefits of virtualization. You can deploy it as a virtual appliance in private clouds based on VMWare or Microsoft Hyper-V; or in AWS or Microsoft Azure public cloud environments. This gives you all the security advantages of a physical WAF with the operational and economic benefits of virtualization, including system scalability and agility, speed of system provisioning, simple management and cost reduction.

Acceleration features include load balancing, content caching, compression and connection multiplexing to improve performance of protected websites, and significantly reduce transactional costs. A robust dashboard gives you an easy-to-use, web-based management interface featuring status page overview of all monitoring and blocking activities, such as signature database status information and threats detected and prevented since boot-up.

The is available in four models that represent their inspection capacities and can be deployed on a broad range of public cloud, private cloud and virtualized deployment use cases.

To learn more about protecting web applications, explore our latest solution brief, “Best Practices for Web Application Firewall.”

New Virtual Firewalls: SonicWall NSv Provides Robust Security for Public, Private or Hybrid Cloud Environments

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To keep pace with innovations and modernize data center operations and services, businesses are embracing today’s application-centric, virtualized world. Virtualization and cloud can cut costs and increase efficiency and operational agility.

Four common pitfalls of modern virtual environments

However, advantages in savings and efficiency must be weighed against applying constrained budgets to prevent potential damages due to growing threats and common pitfalls. Vulnerabilities within virtual environments are well-documented. New ones are discovered regularly that yield serious security implications and challenges. Common IT challenges in securing virtualized environments include:

  1. Monitoring and securing traffic between virtual machines
  2. Managing policy change across virtual environments
  3. Tracking and controlling the sprawl of virtual machines
  4. Protecting virtualized assets in public cloud environments

What you need in a next-generation virtual firewall

To best capitalize on virtualization trends, you should operationalize the complete virtualization of computing, networking, storage and security in a systematic way. Implement a new approach for selecting an appropriate and effective next-generation virtual firewall solution. You should explore new virtual security solutions that go beyond legacy approaches and technologies. Plus, solution components must be tightly integrated to deliver application services safely, efficiently and in a scalable manner.

A next-generation virtual firewall must offer all the security advantages of your physical firewall, along with the operational and economic benefits of virtualization. These include system scalability and agility, speed of system provisioning, simple management and cost reduction.

Introducing the SonicWall NSv virtual firewall series

The new SonicWall NSv virtual firewall series offers you all the security advantages of a physical firewall with the operational and economic benefits of virtualization. With full-featured security tools and services including Reassembly-Free Deep Packet Inspection (RFDPI), security controls and networking services equivalent to what a SonicWall physical firewall provides, NSv effectively shields all critical components of your private and public cloud environments.

NSv is easily deployed and provisioned in a multi-tenant virtual environment, typically between virtual networks (VN). This allows it to capture communications and data exchanges between virtual machines (VM) for automated breach prevention, while establishing stringent access control measures for data confidentiality and VMs safety and integrity.

The NSv Series also includes infrastructure support for high availability and scaling to fulfill any Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) scalability and availability requirements. NSv virtual firewalls help ensure:

  • System resiliency
  • Operational uptime
  • Service delivery and availability
  • Conformance to regulatory requirements

Security threats, such as cross-virtual-machine or side-channel attacks and common network-based intrusions and application and protocol vulnerabilities, are neutralized successfully through SonicWall’s comprehensive suite of security inspection services.

All VM traffic is subjected to multiple threat analysis engines, including intrusion prevention, gateway anti-virus and anti-spyware, cloud anti-virus, botnet filtering, application control and Capture Advanced Threat Protection multi-engine sandboxing.

The NSv Series is available in multiple virtual flavors carefully packaged for broad range of virtualized and cloud deployment use cases. Delivering multi-gigabit threat prevention and encrypted traffic inspection performance, the NSv Series can adapt to capacity-level increases and ensure VN safety and application workloads and data assets are available as well as secure.

Segmentation security

With NSv segment-based security capabilities, NSv can apply an integrated set of dynamic, enforceable barriers to advanced threats. By applying security policies to the inside of the VN, segmentation can be configured to organize network resources into different segments, and allow or restrict traffic between those segments. This way, access to critical internal resources can be strictly controlled.

NSv can then automatically enforce segmentation restrictions based upon dynamic criteria, such as user identity credentials, geo-IP location and the security stature of mobile endpoints.

For extended security, NSv is also capable of integrating multi-gigabit network switching into its security segment policy and enforcement. It directs segment policy to traffic at switching points throughout the network, and globally manages segment security enforcement from a single pane of glass.

Since segments are only as effective as the security that can be enforced between them, NSv applies intrusion prevention service (IPS) to scan incoming and outgoing traffic on the VLAN segment to enhance security for internal network traffic. For each segment, it enforces a full range of security services on multiple interfaces based on enforceable policy.

Governs centrally

NSv deployments are centrally managed using both on premise with SonicWall GMS, and with SonicWall Capture Security Center, an open, scalable cloud security management, monitoring, reporting and analytics software that is delivered as a cost-effective service offering.

The SonicWall Capture Security Center gives the ultimate in visibility, agility and capacity to govern the entire SonicWall virtual and physical firewall ecosystem with greater clarity, precision, and speed — all from a single-pane-of-glass.

For more information, visit our NSv web page, and watch the video below.

SonicWall Capture Cloud Platform Ushers in New Era of Threat Intelligence, Connectivity and Automation

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SonicWall’s mission is to help organizations protect themselves from the growing number of cyber attacks in the fast-moving threat landscape.

There are many schools of thought on how this is best accomplished. And much of this depends on the wares of a particular vendor. But I’ve made it a priority that SonicWall helps defend networks and data in a manner that is automated, layered, intelligent, easy to use and cost-effective.

Today marks a monumental milestone in that focused effort.

This morning we proudly introduced the SonicWall Capture Cloud Platform, which tightly integrates security, management, analytics and real-time threat intelligence across our full portfolio of network, email, mobile and cloud security products. This launch includes:

  • New SonicWall Network Security Virtual (NSv) Firewalls
  • New SonicWall Web Application Firewall (WAF)
  • New SonicWall Capture Client Endpoint Protection
  • Updated SonicWall Network Security Appliance (NSa) Firewalls
  • Updated SonicOS 6.5.1

The significance of the unified and connected Capture Cloud Platform is highlighted by the escalating threat landscape. In the first quarter of 2018 alone, the average SonicWall customer faced 7,739 malware attacks, a year-over-year increase of 151 percent; 335 of these attacks were hidden using SSL/TLS encryption.

The SonicWall Capture Cloud Platform also identified more than 49,800 new attack variants in the first quarter, with the new SonicWall Real-Time Deep Memory InspectionTM (RTDMI) identifying 3,500 never-before-seen variants.Capture Cloud PlatformThe numbers are alarming. The threats continue to grow. And it’s the reason I promise that SonicWall teams around the world are dedicated to ensure our customers are protected from today’s most malicious cyber threats — both known and unknown.

Here’s a helpful rundown of the new products we are proud to announce today under the SonicWall Capture Cloud Platform:

New NSv Virtual Firewalls

SonicWall Network Security virtual (NSv) firewalls protect all critical components of private and public cloud environments. SonicWall NSv virtual firewalls deliver the security advantages of a physical firewall with the operational and economic benefits of virtualization, including system scalability and agility, speed of system provisioning, simple management and cost reduction.

> Go to NSv Virtual Firewalls

New Web Application Firewalls

The new SonicWall Web Application Firewall (WAF) delivers defense-in-depth capabilities to protect web applications running in private, public or hybrid cloud environments.

The SonicWall WAF behavior-based detection engine learns, interrogates and baselines regular web application usage behaviors and identifies anomalies that may be indicative of attempts to compromise the application, steal data and/or cause a denial-of-service.

> Go to SonicWall WAFs

New SonicWall Capture Client

The new SonicWall Capture Client extends an organization’s ability to defend endpoint devices that connect and interact with its networks, applications and data.

Capture Client is a unified client platform that delivers multiple endpoint protection capabilities, including next-generation malware protection and support for visibility into encrypted traffic. It leverages layered protection technologies, comprehensive reporting and enforcement for endpoint protection, and also offers critical ‘rollback’ capabilities via SentinelOne integration.

> Go to Capture Client

New SonicWall NSa Firewalls

The new SonicWall NSa 3650, 4650 and 5650 next-generation firewalls continue the evolution of SonicWall’s vision for a deeper level of network security without a performance penalty.

Built on a multi-core hardware architecture featuring 10-GbE and 2.5-GbE interfaces, the NSa series scales to meet the performance demands of mid-sized networks, branch offices and distributed enterprises.

> Go to NSa Firewalls

Each day this week we’ll do an in-depth review of the above and how each can be leveraged to better protection your organization, networks, data and customers.

RTDMI Expanded to Protect Organizations from Malicious PDFs, Office Files

Complementing the major Capture Cloud Platform announcement, we also announced new Real-Time Deep Memory InspectionTM capabilities that protect businesses and users from memory-based attacks and zero-day malware, including malicious PDFs and Microsoft Office documents.

Since January 1, 2018, RTDMITM has identified more than 3,500 never-before-seen attack variants. 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 is already operational for SonicWall customers with active subscriptions to SonicWall Capture ATP sandbox service and SonicWall Email Security solutions.

> Read the Press Release

ee Real-Time Threat Intelligence

Did you know you can improve your security posture by knowing what attacks are most likely to target your organization? Visit the SonicWall Security Center to see the latest attack trends, types and volume across the world.

VISIT THE SECURITY CENTER

Bad Rabbit Ransomware: The Latest Attack

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What Is Bad Rabbit Ransomware?

On Tuesday, Oct. 24, a new strand of ransomware named Bad Rabbit appeared in Russia and the Ukraine and spread throughout the day. It first was found after attacking Russian media outlets and large organizations in the Ukraine, and has found its way into Western Europe and the United States. The initial installer masquerades as a Flash update but is believed to be an updated version of NotPetya, since the infection chain and component usage is identical.  Interestingly, this malware contains a list of hardcoded Windows credentials, most likely to brute force entry into devices on the network.  According to SonicWall Capture Labs Threat researchers, Bad Rabbit spreads using the SMB protocol within Windows. We should think of it as a bug fix maintenance release of NotPetya (within EternalBlue method of propagation removed). The purpose of using the SMB protocol is to spread laterally across an organization. 

Are SonicWall Customers Protected from Bad Rabbit?

Yes. SonicWall Capture Labs released signatures to protect against Bad Rabbit malware, which are available for anyone with an active Gateway Security subscription (GAV/IPS).  In addition, SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) sandboxing service is designed to provide real-time protection against new strains of malware, even before signatures are available on the firewall. SonicWall Capture ATP customers will be protected against new forms and copycat versions of this malware. Multiple variations of this ransomware strain have been processed in Capture ATP, with a 100 percent success rate of catching it.

How Can I Stop Ransomware Like Bad Rabbit?

SonicWall customers should immediately ensure they have the Capture Advanced Threat Protection sandbox service turned on with their next-generation firewalls, and have the Block Until Verdict feature activated.  For Bad Rabbit, there is no need to manually update the signatures on SonicWall firewalls, as they are automatically propagated to the worldwide installed base upon deployment.

General recommendations for everybody, regardless of their security vendor, include:

  • Apply all patches to operating systems
  • Protect endpoints with an up-to-date anti-virus solution
  • Promote good password hygiene policies
  • Ensure firewall and end point firmware is current
  • Implement a network sandbox to discover and mitigate new threats
  • Deploy a next-generation firewall with a gateway security subscription to stop known threats

I will update this post as analysis of Bad Rabbit ransomware develops.  For more information, read the SonicAlert posting from SonicWall Capture Labs Threat Research Team. To learn more about ransomware defense, please read our Solution Brief: Eight Ways to Protect Your Network Against Ransomware.

View SonicAlert

Ransomware Negotiation: How Hackers Target SMBs

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It was a Tuesday afternoon. Liz, a local attorney with 26 years of experience, had given up.

She was easily over 20 hours in to trying to free her computer, with all of her files, from a ransomware attack. She just spent a few thousand dollars on a local IT team to break the encryption and remove the malware. They ultimately couldn’t succeed, but charged $2,000 for their time anyway.

Law enforcement and a local FBI contact both shrugged their shoulders. They only offered sympathy instead of a commitment to investigate. With all of her client files locked, she did what roughly 5 percent of small businesses did this year: contact the hacker via the email address in the ransom note.

Shortly later, a message came through: “Hi, the price to decrypt your files is 1.5 bitcoin.”

With icy fingers, she proceeded to converse with the hacker, via a Russian-based email address, who was going by the name Alkash; possibly an Armenian slang term for “alcoholic.” She began to negotiate with him by acting as an elderly person with little money. She told him she had about $350. His reply was simply, “No.”

She didn’t give up. She replied, “I am supporting my kids and I have to use my computer to earn money. Why are you doing this? Don’t you have family?”

He didn’t bite. He replied, “You live in a rich country. I give you 3 days after which I delete the keys to your files.”

She didn’t flinch. She came back and told him to look at the news on how the government treats the poor and how rich people keep their money to themselves. She said her healthcare was being taken away and she was very sick.

“You own a server with open access,” he said. “Why would a poor sick woman own a server?”

This reveals how she was infected. A lot of us think we are too small to be a target, but in the end, all of us our IP and email addresses that will eventually be found. She had little in the way of security, only endpoint antivirus; an easy target.

She convinced the hacker that she could borrow money from a relative to make it $500. The attacker agreed and instructed her to send a few files that he would unlock as a guarantee he will unlock them all when she pays.

Two days after the initial exchange, Liz was able to buy the right amount of bitcoin from a problematic dealer in South America. She finally unlocked her files.

It was done. Her files were back. She sobbed.

It took around 50 hours to get to this point. Fifty hours of living in fear her client files were gone forever. Fifty hours of lost productivity. Fifty hours of being at the mercy of a thief.

Liz was able to return to work and eventually took time off to recuperate from the attack. Later, while on vacation, she received a call from someone who shared an office with her.

“Are you remotely accessing your computer from your vacation spot?” they said.

The answer was solid: “No!”

Someone, possibly Alkash, was accessing her computer and eventually stole her personal credit card information saved in her browser. She returned from her trip and went right back to work to remediate another breach of her system.

A call to the IT team, a security vendor and the FBI gave her another 20-hour headache, a stack of bills and quotes. Between both attacks, Liz estimated she lost around $50,000 in consultant fees and lost productivity alone.

Feeling like she was getting the run around, Liz called someone she knew at SonicWall. The team went to work to segment her office network and set her up with a firewall. It included the Advanced Gateway Security Suite, which comes with the SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection cloud sandbox service,  to stop known and unknown malware attacks, as well as intrusion attacks, against her server.

So, how are things today?

“Great!” says Liz.

She doesn’t have to worry about follow-on attacks, ransomware attempts and deflating calls to the FBI.

Studies have shown that when a small business is hit with a critical cyber-attack, one in six have to stop business for more than 25 hours. Liz knows the truth to that.

Moreover, roughly 60 percent of small companies that experience a crippling cyber attack are run out of business. A fear that Liz mulled over for 50 hours in June 2017.

To better arm yourself against these forms of cyber attacks, please read our eBook, “How ransomware can hold your business hostage.”

SonicWall PEAK17 Partner Roadshow Touring Europe

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19-City Tour Brings SonicWall Enablement, Networking to EMEA Partners

It’s no secret that SonicWall is committed to its partner community. The latest testament to this dedication is the PEAK17 partner roadshow, which is currently on a 19-city European tour that launched in March.

The annual roadshow takes SonicWall right to the partners to deliver updates to the SonicWall SecureFirst partner program, news on SonicWall SonicOS 6.5 launch, market momentum, new marketing tools and more.

“We have been working together with SonicWall for 15 years, but this power of innovation is the greatest we’ve ever seen,” said Ralf Leibmann of CONCIPIA GmbH, a SonicWall partner. “Especially as a managed security provider, we are very happy to have a professional partner like SonicWall that leads us to be one of the greatest MSPs in Germany.”

In September, the roadshow started its second leg by visiting Wien, Austria; Essen, Germany; Bern, Switzerland; and Ulm, Germany. The next stop will be Oct. 3 in Stockholm, Sweden. The 2017 roadshow will conclude on Nov. 11 in Paris, France.

“It was a great event with brand-new, first-hand information from representatives and partners,” said Werner Lenz of LENZ IT & NetWorking Solutions. “A big thanks to SonicWall for being a reliable partner over the years. It enabled us to continuously expand our business and build strong relationships to our customers.”

Upcoming stops will be highlighted by keynote sessions from SonicWall President and CEO Bill Conner (UK and Italy), dedicated channel strategy sessions from Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer Steve Pataky (UK and Italy), and exclusive product updates from Executive Director of Product Management Dmitriy Ayrapetov (UK, Italy, Ireland and Germany).

Each day-long event will feature product-specific positioning sessions – new NSA 2650 firewall and SonicWave Wireless Access Points, marketing and partner enablement updates, and professional service presentations. The roadshow — featuring popular social events like cooking classes, wine tasting, theatre visits and escape rooms — is the perfect opportunity to learn best practices for engaging prospects, exceeding customer expectations and growing revenue opportunities.

“I really enjoyed the experience to attend the PEAK17 Partner Roadshow in Essen in a nice location,” said choin! CEO Boris Wetzel, a SonicWall gold partner in Germany. “It was an excellent event with great updates on products and roadmap. It is great to see the changes and the commitment from SonicWall.”

This is the roadshow’s second trip through Europe in 2017. Earlier in the year, SonicWall hosted partner events in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. This drove SonicWall’s European partner outreach program to 19 cities for the year.

Honoring SonicWall Partners

At the PEAK17 events in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, SonicWall hosted award ceremonies to honor the region’s most successful partners.

Germany

  • SonicWall Distributor 2017: Infinigate
  • SonicWall Most Valuable Partner 2017: Axsos
  • SonicWall Security Project 2017: Kodak with Partner Axsos
  • SonicWall MSSP 2017: Concipia
  • SonicWall Mittelstandspartner 2017: Tarador

Switzerland

  • SonicWall Partner of the Year 2017: Vitodata

Austria

Attend PEAK 17

If you’re interested in attending an upcoming PEAK17 roadshow event in Europe or Africa, please reference the table below and register for a city near you.

City Country Date Registration
Wien Austria 13.09.2017 Complete
Essen Germany 19.09.2017 Complete
Bern Switzerland 20.09.2017 Complete
Ulm Germany 21.09.2017 Complete
Stockholm Sweden 03.10.2017 Complete
London United Kingdom 04.10.2017 Complete
Madrid Spain 04.10.2017 Complete
Florence Italy 05.10.2017 Complete
Dublin Ireland 06.10.2017 Complete
Hamburg Germany 10.10.2017 Complete
Johannesburg South Africa 19.10.2017 Complete
Nantes France 07.11.2017 Register
Paris France 09.11.2017 Register