Improving Network Security with Watchguard UTM Firewall
Lehmonen, Harri (2017)
Metropolia Ammattikorkeakoulu
2017
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201703093118
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201703093118
Tiivistelmä
After working many years in close contact with end customers, the author has noticed that Finnish small and mid-size businesses are not paying as much attention to network security threats as they should. Even though different kind of security threats are probably present and reported often in news, very basic security practices are discarded and no resources are spent advancing the issue.
The topic of this thesis is Improving Network Security with Watchguard’s UTM Firewall. It focuses on how to gain more security with as simple a mean as replacing the old firewall with a new firewall with UTM features. UTM stands for Unified Threat Management and it is a set of features that work within the firewall to investigate passing traffic in order to find anomalies and threats.
In this thesis, first different kind of threats are presented. After that various UTM modules are described, followed by the best practices about how to install the Watchguard firewall. The customer’s current environment was investigated, a proof of concept with a new firewall with UTM features was deployed with the best practice information and details that were agreed on with the customer.
After the deployment, data was gathered for a couple of months. The gathered data was then analyzed and multiple findings of viruses and intrusions were discovered. Also botnets and bad URL’s were blocked. The findings were clear evident of the proof of concept and supported the recommendation about the purchase. The final deployment was made and the customer was pleased with the new security system. The customer continues to invest on improving their security in general.
The topic of this thesis is Improving Network Security with Watchguard’s UTM Firewall. It focuses on how to gain more security with as simple a mean as replacing the old firewall with a new firewall with UTM features. UTM stands for Unified Threat Management and it is a set of features that work within the firewall to investigate passing traffic in order to find anomalies and threats.
In this thesis, first different kind of threats are presented. After that various UTM modules are described, followed by the best practices about how to install the Watchguard firewall. The customer’s current environment was investigated, a proof of concept with a new firewall with UTM features was deployed with the best practice information and details that were agreed on with the customer.
After the deployment, data was gathered for a couple of months. The gathered data was then analyzed and multiple findings of viruses and intrusions were discovered. Also botnets and bad URL’s were blocked. The findings were clear evident of the proof of concept and supported the recommendation about the purchase. The final deployment was made and the customer was pleased with the new security system. The customer continues to invest on improving their security in general.