We all know that the bad guys are getting more sophisticated and determined to invade business networks. The first week of 2013 started out with a bang: a series of well-publicized Java exploits, watering hole campaigns, and denial of service attacks – and that was just business as usual for the modern cyber-crook.
Enterprise network managers have to fight these exploits with better tools, and one ray of hope is a new context-aware firewall from Cisco called ASA CX. I tested one of their midrange ASA-5525-X devices this month and came away impressed. Overall, Cisco has done a superior job at its next generation of firewall technology. The user interface of the Prime Security Manager is, well, prime and one of the best pieces of software I have seen from them, and the features are on par if not better than what their competitors offer.
There is also an accompanying video screencast review where you can see the firewall in action.