In this short video review, I will show you the most important features of Secure Firewall (form. known as Sidewinder) from McAfee/Secure Computing.

As enterprises depend more on Internet-based applications, it becomes harder to defend your network against blended exploits and attacks that target your specific applications. You need something like this product which is more than a standard firewall that typically relies on intrusion prevention and signature based defenses. Secure Firewall is a network and application security device with numerous protective features built-in that are especially useful for protecting your critical applications and data. Secure Firewall has a great track record in the industry when it comes to emergency security patches and CERT advisories, and comes with solid reporting and analysis features as well as the ability to create rules to defend Web applications.

We tested version 70007 on a small network in October 2008.

Pros:
• Combines inbound and outbound network & application protection for both known and unknown attack vectors
• Simple configuration of the TrustedSource global intelligence, and Geo-Location provide unique protections to reduce your organizations exposure to attack
• SSL & SSH inspection (decryption and filtering) protects against these holes in most deep inspection firewalls today
• Rules can be customized for particular defenses and very granular controls over applications

Cons:
• Uses a variety of management tools, some Windows-based, some browser-based
• Setting up different administrative roles is fairly complex

Info: www.securecomputing.com 55 Almaden Boulevard, Suite 500, San Jose, CA 95113
Product category: Email security appliance
Pricing: Least expensive unit $1,900 up to $70,000 for the largest networks