Firewalls are a crucial element to your organisation’s security. They monitor traffic coming and going, to and from your network, on the lookout for anything unknown or threatening. Firewalls also play an important role in the security of those working remotely, something that thanks to coronavirus (COVID-19) more and more of us are experiencing. A few weeks back we wrote a post – “Coronavirus: Can you business continue running” looking into specific IT solutions that facilitate productive remote working. At the time of this post it may well be that your entire workforce is now working remotely. Whether this has been a seamless move or you’ve come across difficulties there may still be things you haven’t thought of, namely security. In this post we explore how Firewalls (specifically Sophos XG Firewall) enable you to work securely from home.

Sophos XG Firewall

We recommend Sophos XG Firewall (who just this year launched it’s new version v18) – offering the world’s best visibility, protection and response. Compared with other Firewall providers (Cisco, Fortinet, SonicWALL), XG Firewall provides better integration with other security solutions, better visibility, and is still as fast as its competitors. Purchasing Sophos XG Firewall when you already have other Sophos solutions in place also allows you to benefit from Synchronised Security (more info below).

So how does my Firewall enhance security from home?

When accessing your company network your firewall provides security, checking traffic coming and going. So when you remotely access things like network drives, remote desktops or remote applications on your company network it’s crucial this is over a secure connection. If you have an XG Firewall you have two options for secure connectivity – IPsec and SSL VPN (see “facilitate remote working with Sophos XG Firewall” from Sophos). The easiest method of secure remote connection we recommend is through the Sophos Connect Client. There are a number of VPN software tools out there but Sophos Connect focusses on ease of use and reliability. Set up is simple and can be done easily by end users. Once connected, an encrypted VPN tunnel is established that secures transmission of traffic between the firewall and remote device.

XG Firewall & Synchronised Security

By having both XG Firewall and one or more other Sophos solutions (i.e Intercept X Endpoint Protection, Sophos Email) you can enable Synchronised Security providing a ‘Security Heartbeat’ to elevate your protection. Put simply, if either Intercept X or XG Firewall identifies a threat, they can work together to provide an automatic response and isolate a compromised host to prevent spread.

Discover exactly what Synchronised Security looks like when having both XG Firewall and Endpoint Protection in this video from Sophos:

Happy with your existing Firewall?

If you’ve had no issues with your existing firewall but are interested in exploring Synchronised Security then Sophos XG Firewall can run in-line with your existing firewall. This means you can get the extra visibility and automated threat response without any disruption to your network. So what are you waiting for? Get in touch and protect your organisation with the world’s best visibility, protection and response.