StoneBlog.stonesoft.com

SMC 5.3.1 is now publicly available and FW/VPN 5.3.0 is also published as controlled shipment. I wanted to conclude the StoneGate 5.3 feature previews by listing the other significant enhancements that are introduced in version 5.3. More details can be found from SMC and FW Release Notes and product manuals.

Continue reading »

written by Tero Jantunen - 1,205 views \\ tags: 5.3, ADSL, Certificates, Dynamic routing, Feature Previews, firewall, SMC, SNMP agent, VPN, WiFi

Version 5.3.1 of StoneGate Management Center includes a brand new functionality which enables Stonesoft to become a player in Identity Management and Authentication arena: StoneGate Authentication Server. Built to answer the pressing need to secure the access to the cloud (no matter if it is a private or public one), StoneGate Authentication Server is completely integrated in StoneGate Management Center from configuration, usability and backup/restore standpoint.

Continue reading »

written by Tero Jantunen - 877 views \\ tags: 5.3, AD, Authentication Server, Feature Previews, MobileID, Secure access to cloud, SMC

StoneGate Firewall 5.3 contains a new integrated Anti-Spam feature that complements the StoneGate UTM feature portfolio. The Anti-Spam feature has been developed in-house and contains a lot of different algorithms and tools for spam detection. It suits well for example small MSSP customers that have a single firewall and own email domain.

Continue reading »

written by Tero Jantunen - 877 views \\ tags: 5.3, Anti-Spam, DNSBL, Feature Previews, firewall, SMC, UTM

Internet Key Exchange (IKE or IKEv2) is the protocol used to set up a security association (SA) in the IPsec protocol suite. StoneGate FW/VPN 5.3 introduces the support for IKEv2 (in addition to IKEv1) in VPN configuration. IKEv2 includes the support for IKEv2 Mobility and Multihoming Protocol (MOBIKE). MOBIKE enables transparent recovery for VPN clients if the IP address of the VPN client or the IP address of the gateway to which the VPN client is connected changes in the middle of an open VPN connection.

Continue reading »

written by Tero Jantunen - 1,006 views \\ tags: 5.3, Feature Previews, IKEv2, SA, SMC, troubleshooting, VPN

StoneGate FW/VPN and SMC 5.3 provide a couple of nice enhancements related to StoneGate’s unique Multi-Link feature.

Continue reading »

written by Tero Jantunen - 1,110 views \\ tags: 5.3, Aggregation, Feature Previews, multilink, QoS, Throughput, traffic balancing, VoIP, VPN

In StoneGate 5.3, you can now predefine the policy to be installed on the firewall engine after it has contacted the Management Server for the first time. With this small enhancement the administrators can make sure that the devices start working in a planned way right from the beginning without the need of someone waiting at HQ to be ready to upload the correct security policy for the device once it is deployed.

Continue reading »

written by Tero Jantunen - 730 views \\ tags: 5.3, automatic policy push, Feature Previews, Initial configuration, Policy, SMC

StoneGate Log Server can be configured to forward StoneGate Firewall/VPN and IPS logs in Common Event Format (CEF) to ArcSight. This streamlines and simplifies the integration of StoneGate product family event logs with the Arcsight Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution. Stonesoft is one of the first security vendors to offer full CEF support.

Continue reading »

written by Tero Jantunen - 865 views \\ tags: 5.3, ArcSight, CEF, Feature Previews, Log forwarding, logs, SMC, Third-Party Monitoring

To make the mass deployment scenarios even more convenient from the administrator point of view, StoneGate 5.3 introduces a new “Create Multiple Single Firewalls” wizard. With that wizard the administrator can create hundreds of Single Firewall and Internal Gateway elements. In the end of the wizard, you can optionally upload the initial configurations to be available for Plug & Play installation.

The end result is that the administrator can set up hundreds of Firewalls ready to be deployed in a few minutes. And the appliances can actually be delivered directly to the remote office – the administrators don’t even need to open the appliance boxes before they are deployed.

Continue reading »

written by Tero Jantunen - 728 views \\ tags: 5.3, Feature Previews, firewall, Plug and play, SMC, Wizard

StoneGate 5.3 introduces really nice tools for mass deployment scenarios. One of them is so called Plug & Play Installation. It basically means, that administrator can prepare the firewall elements in SMC in advance and publish the configuration to be available in Stonesoft Installation Server. Once the appliance is shipped to the remote office, anyone can just plug in the network and power cables. The device will automatically contact to Stonesoft’s Installation Server and retrieve its configuration from there. After that it can automagically establish the initial contact with the correct Management Server, receive its initial security policy and start working. Here is a short video how the process actually goes:

Continue reading »

written by Tero Jantunen - 790 views \\ tags: 5.3, Feature Previews, Installation, Mass deployments, Mass Security, Plug & Play, SMC, Videos

StoneGate Management Server 5.3 contains a couple of nice enhancements related to SMC High Availability (HA) feature.

Synchronization between the primary Management Server and the secondary Management Server(s) is now done incrementally in real time. Only the changed parts of the Management database are replicated to the secondary Management Server(s). The changes that have made in SMC 5.3 decrease significantly the amount of information that needs to be transferred between the Management Servers. There are also many improvements that increase the robustness of the SMC HA solution in general.

Continue reading »

written by Tero Jantunen - 1,363 views \\ tags: 5.3, Feature Previews, HA, High Availability, Management Server, SMC