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Stonesoft Customer Newsletter Issue 2, 2010
|
Dear
Customer,Summary
- StoneGate IPS provides protection against the latest Adobe and Microsoft vulnerabilities
- Stonesoft expands operations to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
- Stonesoft strengthens its position on the Chinese market with Teamsun Technology
- Latest News from Stonesoft MENA area
- The Annual Report of Stonesoft Corporation for 2009 has been published in English and in Finnish.
- Stonesoft introduces StoneGate IPS-1205 for advanced gigabit network protection
- Overcoming Cloud Computing’s Biggest Challenge: Virtual Network Security
- Key terms and concepts related to virtualization
- Virtual Appliances – Free Trial
- Reinforce your troubleshooting skills in Stonesoft’s Network Troubleshooting Course
- Free Techstart Day for our UK customers
- Network Security Management for Firewall, VPN and IPS
Company News
StoneGate IPS provides protection against the latest Adobe and Microsoft vulnerabilities
“Malware is spreading in the Internet regardless of the financial crisis, and organizations should not save in the wrong places. Cleaning up after damage is always a lot more expensive than attack prevention. In practice, organizations who do not have an adequate intrusion prevention system in place, will first pay for cleaning up and then for the implementation of the system. StoneGate IPS customers have full protection against dynamic vulnerabilities and can focus on their business”, said Klaus Majewski, Vice President of Marketing at Stonesoft.Read more here
Stonesoft expands operations to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Stonesoft has signed partnership agreements with four leading Saudi-Arabian system integrators: Saudi Business Machines Ltd., Dar Beta Information Technology, Al Moammar Information Systems Co., and GIZA Arabia. The partners have a strong focus on ICT and especially network security as well as an established customer base consisting of organizations operating in the verticals that are important to Stonesoft; government, finance, telecom operators, oil and gas industry.Read more here
Stonesoft strengthens its position on the Chinese market with Teamsun Technology
Teamsun will include Stonesoft’s StoneGate network security solution comprising of high availability Firewall, IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) and SSL VPN in its total solution as well as in its cloud computing data center. As the integrated one-stop IT service provider for the whole cycle of IT construction, Teamsun has obvious advantages in providing total cloud computing and virtual solutions to Chinese enterprises and the in-depth cooperation with Stonesoft will further strengthen its competitiveness in this sector. The StoneGate solution is centrally manageable and ideally suited for both physical and virtual environmentsRead more here
Interview with Hamid
Boughazi
Latest news from Middle East and North Africa
What major trends are you seeing in MENA - network security market?
Companies and organizations in our area are more and more aware of different security threats they are facing. This rise in the awareness among our customers has come with the increasing openness of their own networks to the Internet. So they are now including security and especially network security as an important part in all their IT projects. The link between networking and security is becoming one of the major trends because it determines a new way of building the organizations' infrastructure. Security and connectivity are becoming one and the same in the customer's mind and this is essential for us at Stonesoft because it means we are going to be more and more involved in building the customer's network infrastructure. This is where our centralized management tool SMC (StoneGate Management Center) becomes an asset when compared to the competition and that is what makes the difference.
Can you tell me about Stonesoft’s new StoneGate IPS-1205?
The StoneGate IPS-1205 is the latest Intrusion Prevention System appliance launched by Stonesoft. With the IPS -1205 appliance there is no tradeoff between speed and security. The customer has both. It is a 2 gigabit appliance that is designed to protect intranet users and data center services against advanced attacks. StoneGate IPS-1205 controls the web traffic and prevents attacks with URL Filtering, achieves real time security with Virtual patching and inspects encrypted SSL traffic. A promotion campaign is running, offering this powerful IPS to our existing customers for a small fraction of the real price during June 2010. This is an excellent opportunity for our firewall customers to discover how StoneGate IPS complements the security solution that they already have.
Are there other StoneGate solutions and functionalities that are getting a lot of interest from network security professionals in MENA area?
For a long time, Stonesoft was seen as a Firewall vendor despite the launch of the other products in its current portfolio. However, with time people have discovered the interest to have all their network security components working together seamlessly. Our solution is the answer, as our StoneGate firewall and IPS are built on the same kernel. Furthermore, having the same management tool to administer both solutions is also seen as a plus by the customers. So more and more people who plan to acquire StoneGate Firewall solutions are looking at StoneGate IPS, and vice versa. In some of the markets in the region whose IT is more mature, StoneGate SSL VPN solutions is getting a lot of interest, too, and constitute the best way for us to penetrate these markets.
Stonesoft continues to expand in MENA area . What are your strategies for success in this market?
The main features of Stonesoft’s StoneGate solutions fit perfectly with the specific needs of organizations operating in the Emerging markets. For instance, the main issue faced by these organizations is network downtime due to the poor quality of the network infrastructure in place. This issue is tackled perfectly by our Multi-link technology. Our centralized management tool is also meant to tackle the lack of skilled competencies in those countries. There is definitely a place for Stonesoft in the Middle East and North Africa area and we need to have a strategy to penetrate these markets and to build a sustainable business there. A part of our strategy is to be close to our customers and partners in order to bring them the best possible support. That’s why we have been setting up more offices in the area with local sales and presales resources. In parallel, we are building a strong channel made of first tier partners to whom we provide technical and sales training and support. In some countries we have nominated local distributors to manage the channel. We also need to build our brand in the region and that’s why we participate in many events like the Riyadh Gitex and future events more focused on some key customers or around specific topics in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. In some countries where Stonesoft’s presence is already strong enough, we plan to have our own events soon.
Is Stonesoft focused on supporting any particularly vertical markets in MENA area?
We are clearly focusing on specific verticals where Stonesoft has a strong presence all over the world. Among these verticals, I can name the banking vertical. The number of references in this sector is important and in some countries very impressive, for example in Egypt more than 20 banks are using our technology. This doesn’t mean we are not working on the other verticals. Our solutions fit with all kind of verticals where enterprises or organizations have a large number of branches they need to connect and secure. The references we have in Algeria in different verticals with hundreds of branches connected together are a good example of that.
What are Stonesoft’s major competitive advantages today?
There are clearly two major? advantages we have over the competition:
- Business continuity - High availability throughout the whole solution: Appliances, network links, management system, among others.
- Situation awareness – Manageability of the whole network, even third-party products, with informative report tools that give the customers a detailed view of their network at all times.
On top of this we can name the quality of our support, thanks to the great work that is being done by our support teams in the two Support Centers in Helsinki and Atlanta. To be frank, we are also getting benefits in this region from the fact that we are the only European vendor at this level of solutions. For customers that want to diversify their sources in security solutions we are clearly “The Alternative”.
Why do companies in your area choose Stonesoft solutions?
The main reason is the high technical quality and robustness of our products. The proof is that we are carrying out a very large number of PoCs and in most cases the final choice is made based on the conclusions drawn from these pilots. Another proof is that it is not that often that our customers switch to competition. When people have the occasion to try out our products, they like them and they stick to them. This is what we call the customer experience and our management tool, with its easy-to-use interface, plays a key role in making this experience so successful.
The Annual Report of Stonesoft Corporation for 2009
The Annual Report of Stonesoft Corporation for 2009 has been published in English and in Finnish. Both documents are available in PDF format here.Upcoming Events
Check our upcoming industry events hereProduct Literature
You can find useful product literature on our web site.Click here for our latest datasheets and other material.
Stonesoft in the News
IT Analysis Overcoming Cloud Computing's Biggest Challenge: Virtual Network Security (in English)IT securidad Cuidado con las redes sociales, el Cloud Computing y los dispositivos móviles (in Spanish)
www.i-dome.com Cloud Computing e Social Media tanto famosi quanto pericolosi (in Italian)
Sécurité Privée Magazine ( www.securite-privee.org ) Données bancaires : Maîtrisez vos flux réseaux dans vos infrastructures virtuelles (in French)
www.news4press.com Stonesoft: Fünf Wege,, um die virtuelle Netzwerksicherheit zu erhöhen (in German)
Tietokone.fi Tietoturva vetää taas − Stonesoft kasvaa Kiinassa ja Lähi-idässä (in Finnish)
Product News
Stonesoft introduces StoneGate IPS-1205 for advanced gigabit network protection
The StoneGate IPS-1205 offers internal network users efficient protection against client-side attacks. Unlike traditional attacks that originate from outside the network, client-side attacks are initiated within the organization’s internal network. When users are browsing infected websites, these attacks come in as responses to internal network user requests. At gigabit network speeds, these threats can cause significant infection and damage across the network.Read more here
Overcoming Cloud Computing’s Biggest Challenge: Virtual Network Security
Today, most organizations deploy virtualization technologies without involving information and network security teams in the initial planning stages. As a result, many organizations are simply retrofitting their virtual networks with existing physical network security strategies and technologies. This lack of foresight and technological preparedness drastically weakens network security, which presents the biggest known challenge to the success of cloud computing with large-scale organizations.In response, Stonesoft has identified five ways IT teams can protect themselves against cloud security threats and attacks, while helping ensure the success of their cloud computing strategies. They include:
- Federated ID
- Always-on Connectivity
- Multi-layer Inspection
- Centralized Management
- Virtual Desktop Protection
- Read more here
Key terms and concepts related to virtualization
Virtualization will bring a revolutionary approach in the way we do business and even in the way we conceive information technology today. To understand this new trend that is probably going to permanently change the world of IT, please find below some key concepts of the "virtual language".Read more here
Virtual Appliances – Free Trial
Register for free 30-day trial of our VMware certified virtual appliances here.Availability
StoneGate IPS-1205 for advanced gigabit network protection is available and currently shipping to customers. Read moreStoneGate Firewall and VPN 5.2. is available for download read more
Appliance photos
Appliance photos are available at http://www.stonesoft.com/en/press_and_media/brand_place/appliance_photos/Training News
Stonesoft provides a wide range of product training courses for our partners and customers.
Our instructors are experienced network security specialists. They actively participate in field support, network security consulting and solution implementation to bring real-life experience to the classroom environment.Please visit our training site to find out more or register for a course
https://my.stonesoft.com/training/course/list.do
For our UK customers: New to Stonesoft? Want to learn more? Join us for our FREE Techstart Day
To learn more email info.uk@stonesoft.comAlso in the UK: Understand the attack methods used by real cyber criminals
Live demonstration with audience participation of how to penetrate deep into a fictional company´s network:- port scans and other information gathering tricks
- web application attacks, including SQL injection to gather credit card numbers
- using compromised systems as stepping stones to penetrate deeper into the networks
- finding and stealing the trade secrets from the protected database server
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Network Security Management for Firewall, VPN and IPS
The StoneGate Management Center forms the core of the StoneGate Platform, providing unified network security management for StoneGate Firewall, VPN and IPS solutions.- Manage the security solution holistically
- Utilize shared network elements
- Benefit from shared logging, reporting, auditing, and other tools
In contrast, StoneGate products have been designed to get the full benefits from a unified management system.
Join us on our 60 Min interactive Webinar every Friday at 11.00am GMT for a demonstration conducted by our UK offices.
For more detail, click here
StoneGate Network Troubleshooting
Tired of spending too much time in solving network problems? The StoneGate Network Troubleshooting course teaches you how to analyze network problems accurately and reduce the time spent troubleshooting.Whether the network problem is caused by a misconfiguration, a network device failure or a software bug, it is most important to solve the problem quickly. The troubleshooting process is in a key role: the faster the problem can be narrowed down to the exact point of failure, the faster a solution can be found. To be able to make correct conclusions on what is seen on the network and focus solely on the relevant information can significantly decrease the amount of time spent troubleshooting.
The StoneGate Network Troubleshooting course is designed for StoneGate administrators using StoneGate components together with other network analysis tools when troubleshooting network problems. The One-day Training consists of several hands-on exercises which are reinforced by theoretical lessons. All necessary background knowledge for efficient network troubleshooting as well as the troubleshooting process itself will be covered.
See the schedules for all StoneGate courses organized in your region, including the Network Troubleshooting Course or contact training@stonesoft.com
Customer Highlights
StoneGate NextGen Firewall Reconnects Brown McCarroll to a Higher Standard of Performance
StoneGate NextGen Firewall Reconnects Brown McCarroll to a Higher Standard of PerformanceBrown McCarroll, a successful law firm based in Texas, has always maintained a laser focus on how to keep their operations efficient and productive. With 230 employees and four offices spread across the state – Austin, Houston, Dallas and El Paso – Brown McCarroll has turned to technologies like VoIP and videoconferencing to cut travel costs, improve productivity and strengthen inter-office communications.Read the entire case study here
Escambia County Sheriff's Office -Stonesoft Meets Rigorous Network Demands
Through a trial period, Magruder, deputy sheriff and MIS director for the Escambia
County, Florida Sheriff’s Office decided to experiment with the StoneGate Platform. During this
time, he found that not only was the StoneGate technology reliable, it simply worked. He found that
it provided the ease of set-up and administration that he needed. Beyond that, the StoneGate
Management Center gave him and his team the view into the network’s security to better manage the
risks that this type of infrastructure faces on a daily basis. That was five years ago, and he
says:
“The Stonesoft firewalls are the easiest I have ever used.”
Read the entire case study here
StoneBlog
This past quarter we have been following a very interesting journey on our StoneBlog. Where our blog normally offers a forum for our Customers, Partners and all StoneGate users to discuss and exchange ideas and tips, this time we have brought in an interesting story about a group of mountain climbers on a quest to reach the top of the world, Mt. Everest.
Read more here.
Stone Gate 5.2 tips and features on our Blog! Read more here.
Tip of the Month
Find the correct elements quickly and efficiently in all contexts!In SMC 5.2 you can just put focus to the element list and start typing any keywords. The system automatically looks for substring match from Name, IP, Comment and many other fields and filters away all the rows that don’ t match your keywords.
See more new tips and feature previews from StoneBlog.
