{"id":8276,"date":"2015-02-02T18:55:46","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T18:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/?p=8276"},"modified":"2017-05-25T13:54:17","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T20:54:17","slug":"you-are-smarter-than-your-firewall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aerocominc.com\/info\/you-are-smarter-than-your-firewall\/","title":{"rendered":"You are Smarter than Your Firewall"},"content":{"rendered":"

IT Pro\u2019s Will Like This Story<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Many moons ago, there was brave warrior who had fought and won many battles against many evil empires.\u00a0 One day, as he was traveling, he came upon a beautiful castle sitting on the most amazing property he had ever seen.\u00a0 The castle had a 360 degree view of the most breathtaking countryside you could ever imagine and all of the surrounding land was green, bright and plentiful.\u00a0 He thought “Surely, this will be a good place to rest for the night.”<\/p>\n

\"castle\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He rang the bell, and was greeted by the King immediately and let inside without even having to give his name.\u00a0 To his shock, within minutes, he was given a full tour of the castle and grounds… and even shown the King’s most valuable possessions and given permission to stay as long as he’d like.<\/p>\n

After dining with the King and his family that night, he couldn’t help but finally ask “Pardon my curiosity Sir, but is this how you always treat strangers?”<\/p>\n

The King replied “Yes, unless we know someone to be a proven criminal, we always treat every stranger like a member of the Royal Family until we find out they are not trustworthy.\u00a0 At that point, we ask them to leave.”<\/p>\n

The warrior said “Has that ever caused distress within your home?”<\/p>\n

The King replied “Oh yes, every year or two, our entire castle is ransacked and we have to alert the guards to eradicate our home of a wretched thief whom we assumed was good and trustworthy.”<\/p>\n

Just as he said that, an ear-piercing horn blew and the entire castle started running around in a state of chaos.\u00a0 “The stranger from last week tried to steel your crown and is now running loose around on the grounds!” shouted a guard.\u00a0\u00a0 The king ran up to the brave warrior and pleaded “Please help us!”<\/p>\n

Within a few hours, the brave warrior tracked down and captured the thief, single-handed and order was restored.\u00a0\u00a0 But the warrior was tired and sat confused, dumbfounded and a little frustrated…<\/p>\n

“Why would they give a complete stranger full reign of the castle?\u00a0 Couldn’t they figure out a little more about a stranger before giving them so much trust?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t there a middle-ground?\u201d<\/p>\n

You and the warrior have a lot in common<\/strong><\/h4>\n

You and I both know that this castle’s security runs a lot like your firewall.<\/p>\n

I know that you feel like this warrior every time another malicious stranger marches inside your network without a signature, through Port 53, Port 80 or Port 443, like nobody\u2019s business\u2026 then screams of terror as havoc ensues, and you are summoned.\u00a0 Frantically, you run around and eventually dispatch the threat but only after some damage has already been done.\u00a0 You wonder, isn\u2019t there a better way?<\/p>\n

Why are most firewalls\u2019 policy to let traffic (without a signature) in the network first, then try to whack them after they realize they are malicious and causing damage?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been told that malicious attacks are becoming more and more advanced and this is becoming a bigger problem for IT Departments, every year.<\/p>\n

Sure, there is one Firewall that does not do this\u2026 we know the name\u2026 but it isn\u2019t cheap and you have to really know your stuff to manage it in-house.<\/p>\n

Here is some good news I heard last week<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Last week, I learned one of our providers has a hosted firewall offering that does not allow anything in, without a \u201cknown as safe\u201d signature.\u00a0 If it doesn’t know it, it doesn’t get in.\u00a0 Then, it immediately hands the stranger over to your IT Department to determine if it should be allowed in the future.\u00a0 It does NOT let any unknown strangers into the castle, no matter what hole or port they try to enter through.<\/p>\n

It does not cost a fortune and you don\u2019t have to own it.\u00a0 You pay for it monthly and the provider has product-matter-experts manage it for you.<\/p>\n

Of course, I don\u2019t personally manage a firewall for a mid-size company, so who am I to know how useful this weapon is to you IT Warriors?\u00a0 My job is to find interesting stuff from the hundreds of service providers we sell, then throw it over the fence for you to sniff out.<\/p>\n

So what are your thoughts?\u00a0 Is that an interesting product?\u00a0 What questions would you have?\u00a0 Gimme\u2019 a good question and I\u2019ll go back to this provider and get you the answer.<\/p>\n

Want an AeroCom expert to help you shop hundreds of cloud-based Firewall solutions and help you find the best 3?<\/span> Click below.<\/h5>\n