Just a quick note here, mainly for some of my customers. The Dell R610 has been added to the Check Point Open Server HCL. Looks like it is only for R70 at this point and no word if support for R65 will be added.
R65 HFA50 EA Open to the Public
Just announced this morning, the R65 HFA50 EA program is now open to the public. There does not appear to be any new features, just an extensive
list of “resolved issues.” This is very exciting news as it will also include for the first time an HFA for R65 2.6 customers!
Check out the HFA50 release notes [...]
R70.1 EA is now public
Quietly released today was an announcement that R70.1 EA (early availability) is now public…well sort of.
Upcoming features in R70.1:
Smart Workflow
SmartWorkflow is a full-featured security policy change management solution, incorporated into the Security Management Server and
Provider-1 Environments.
It introduces:
Automatic creation and management of security database
revisions
Highlighting changes in SmartDashboard to the security
objects and rules.
Allowing visual navigation between the [...]
Check Point’s R65 EAL4 Public Announcement
I had announced a few months ago that Check Point had quietly achieved Common Criteria EAL4 certification for R65. Well last week Check Point made the official public announcement. This is great news for anyone looking to pass an audit or do government work while using R65.
Now contrast that with Cisco’s lack of certification. [...]
Check Point Acquisition of Nokia Security is Complete
Well it is official: Check Point has completed the acquisition of Nokia Security.
Yahoo’s Confirmation
Check Point’s Confirmation
Nokia’s Confirmation
Word is that Nokia employees already have an internal welcome portal, and are rapidly being plugged into the mothership. I think that pretty much everyone at this point agrees this is a great move for Check Point. We [...]
Where is the Conficker protection in Smart Defense?
I provided a few screen shots showing where the SmartDefense protection is for Conficker. Here is the “short but sweet” way to find it in R65:
Open SmartDashboard and go to the SmartDefense Tab. Select:
Application Intelligence –> MS-RPC –> MS-RPC over CIFS –> Block Microsoft Server Service Remote Code Execution (MS08-067)
This will bring you to the [...]
HFA50 for R65 2.6 End of Q209
The original party line from Check Point on R65 2.6 was that there was to be no HFAs created to support this release; only individual HotFixes. Well apparently there was a loud enough cry from the field (hello Dell 1950/2950 users) because as of now there will indeed be an HFA created for R65 2.6 [...]
Cisco Fails on the upcoming Conficker Worm
Despite a six month notice, Cisco still fails the Enterprise in addressing the pending Conficker worm. According to Cisco’s (ridiculously long) document, the recommended way to address Conficker is to apply an ACL that essentially blocks all Microsoft traffic.
Since when is it practical to block all internal TCP 139 and 445 traffic ? When [...]
Moving to R70? Look at sk37042 First
With the release of R70 last week, a lot of people are now considering the timing for their upgrade. Before you get too far you may want to take a look at the sk37042 “R70 Known Limitations” document. This will give you a starting point as to what limitations you might expect with the initial [...]
R70 Release Notes Here
If you want to take a look at the release Notes for R70….
I have it posted here.
Some notable changes for R70:
Solaris is no longer supported as an OS platform for the Security Gateway.
Software Blades (of course).
Completely new IPS engine. Tons of enhancements here.
Broader hardware support, although the R70 column on the HCL list has not [...]