Fire! Fire!
Crimson flames rise above your roof, a sight you thought you’d never see.
What started as smoldering embers turned into an unwanted cremation, transforming everything you own into ash.
And as you stand, surrounded by a pile of rubble that you once called home, you can’t help but wish you installed a sturdy firewall.
But your home isn’t the only place that needs one.
Your computer needs a top-notch preventer, too.
Accidents Happen, but Disaster doesn’t have to follow
Many fires can start on accident. Maybe you left the stove on or visited the wrong website. All you can do is expect the unexpected and prepare for the worst.
And when you’re preparing for the worst, it’s essential to seek out the experts. If you’re protecting your home from a fire, you’d call a skilled home builder.
But if you’re protecting your computer from a breach, call your local IT experts at Acumen Consulting.
Contact Us today, and we’ll get you started!
What is a Firewall?
So now you know that you need a firewall, but what exactly is it?
A firewall is simply a barrier, but it’s a necessity for all home and business computers.
Usually either a program or hardware device, a firewall filters the information coming through the internet connection into your private network or computer system.
If an incoming packet of information is flagged by the filters, it’s not allowed access to your system.
Every 39 Seconds
A Hacker Attacks
A Hacker is Born Every Day
Much like a fire can destroy your valuables, threats from the internet can destroy your personal data and property on your computer.
And new fire starters are joining the ranks every day, ready and waiting to engulf your system in flames.
In fact, there is a hacker attack every 39 seconds, according to a Clark School study conducted at the University of Maryland. These attacks impact 30 percent of Americans every year.
Small Businesses Beware
Like any other invasion, web attacks are carefully planned and orchestrated, right down to the choosing of whom to attack. Most hackers target a certain organization or business. And unfortunately, many of them place their bullseye on small businesses.
According to a report by Kelser Corporation, 65 percent of cyber-attacks are aimed at small and medium-sized businesses.
And the average cost of a data breach for these companies is expected to cost businesses more than $2 trillion total this year, according to data from Juniper Research. Read more statistics on cybersecurity from Web Hosting Professionals.
This target group is all a part of the hacker’s strategic plan to attack smaller companies; it’s a common theory that smaller businesses don’t have the infrastructure in place to prevent cyber-attacks.
of Cyber-Attackers are Aimed at Small to Mid-Sized Businesses
in Data Breach Costs
But with Acumen as your expert IT team…
Even the stealthiest hacker won’t be able to breakdown your firewall barrier.
And that’s because we use Fortinet.
Fortinet is a multinational corporation, powering and protecting small businesses all over the world with the best network security.
When it to comes selecting top of the line firewall appliances for our customers, we choose Fortinet.
Fortinet offers unique Unified Threat Management solutions. With many of their secure network products, such as the FortiGate firewall device, you can manage all of your security needs through one single console.
FortiGate UTM is driven by dedicated security processors while many other firewall devices are powered by general purpose processors.
You can manage web and email filtering, data loss prevention and more right from your fingertips with this high-performance, next generation firewall.
Preventing Flames with FortiGate 1500D
We suggest a variety of FortiGate firewalls for our customers, depending on how big their business is.
Larger organizations require higher threat protection performance.
And that was certainly the case for Ritenour School District.
That’s why we suggested the FortiGate 1500D series, a firewall that delivers high performance threat protection for mid-sized to large businesses and service providers.
In fact, the school district’s user base is so large that Acumen equipped them with two of these industry-leading devices.
And these firewalls have a big job to do on a regular basis. With nearly 10,000 devices being used by students, teachers and faculty, the 1500D is the perfect product to protect the school’s network from malicious websites and malware.
With high port density and throughput, this device enables flexible deployment modes, provides industry-leading performance and protection for SSL and protects against unknown attacks using dynamic analysis.
The device also uses purpose built security processor (SPU) technology, delivers extensive routing, switching, wireless controller and high performance IPsec VPN capabilities, and enables flexible deployment modes that fit into your organization’s evolving network infrastructure requirements.
The district’s network administrator, Darrell Jones, said the school’s thousands of devices see a lot of content, but the 1500D series doesn’t have to work overtime to sift through it.
“We have a lot of heavy traffic,” he said. “But the Fortigate doesn’t even blink to catch disruptive content coming through.”
Jones said that before implementing the 1500D, the district used another brand of firewall that couldn’t quite keep up.
But once Acumen installed the FortiGate 1500D series, it’s been nothing but smooth web surfing.
“We bit the bullet and haven’t looked back,” he said.
Looking for more Firewall tips?
Check out our Top 10 Firewall Maintenance tips!