Cisco ASA 5500 Series Business Edition Provides an All-in-One Security Solution
Challenge
• Unauthorized access: Can lead to loss of company data, unplanned downtime, and related liability concerns
• Peer-to-peer file sharing and instant messaging: Distracts employees and reduces productivity
• Viruses: Can infect systems, bringing them down and resulting in outages and lost revenue
• Spam and phishing: Creates a nuisance and contributes to loss of employee productivity
• Browsing of non-work-related Websites: Leads to loss of employee productivity and possible company liability issues
• Infected VPN traffic: Creates a vector for threats to enter the network and disrupt the business
Solution
• Most trusted and deployed firewall technology: Building on the Cisco PIX® Family of security appliances, the Cisco ASA 5500 Series allows valid business traffic to flow, while keeping out unwelcome visitors. And with its application control capabilities, the solution can limit peer-to-peer file sharing, instant messaging, and malicious traffic, while enabling secure deployment of new business applications for improved profitability and competitiveness. This prevents security leaks and the introduction of threats to the network.
• Market-leading content security capabilities: With robust content security capabilities delivered via the optional Content Security and Control Security Services Module (CSC-SSM), the Cisco ASA 5510 Adaptive Security Appliance provides critical perimeter security services needed for comprehensive protection.
– Antivirus: Award-winning antivirus technology shields your internal network resources from both known and unknown virus attacks, at the most effective point in your infrastructure, the Internet gateway. Cleaning your e-mail and Web traffic at the perimeter eliminates the need for resource-intensive malware infection cleanup and helps ensure business continuity.
– Anti-spyware: Blocking spyware at the gateway prevents spyware from entering your network through Internet traffic (HTTP and FTP) and e-mail traffic, frees up IT support resources from costly spyware removal procedures, and improves employee productivity.
– Anti-spam: Effective blocking of spam with very low false positives helps to restore the effectiveness of e-mail, so communication with customers, vendors, and partners continues uninterrupted.
– Anti-phishing: Identity theft protection guards against phishing attacks, thereby preventing employees from inadvertently disclosing company or personal details that could lead to financial loss.
– Real-time protection for Web access, e-mail, and file transfer: Many employees access their own private Webmail from their company PCs or laptops, introducing another entry point for Internet-borne threats even if an organization's e-mail is already protected. Similarly, employees may directly download programs or files that may be contaminated. Real-time protection of all Web traffic at the Internet gateway greatly reduces this often-overlooked point of vulnerability.
– URL filtering: Web and URL filtering can be used to control employee Internet usage by blocking access to inappropriate or non-work-related Websites, improving employee productivity and limiting the risk of legal action being taken by employees exposed to offensive Web content.
– E-mail content filtering: E-mail filtering minimizes the legal liability companies can face, due to exposure to offensive material transferred by e-mail. Filtering also enforces regulatory compliance, helping organizations meet the requirements of legislation such as the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act and the Data Protection Act.
• Investment protection: The Cisco ASA 5500 Series include an expansion slot to support add-on capabilities. The Cisco ASA 5510 supports the CSC-SSM, which provides content security features. In the Cisco ASA 5505, the expansion slot supports future add-on options. This capability enables small businesses to deploy firewall and VPN capabilities today, and add features in the future as their business grows and the security needs change.
• Threat-protected VPN: The Cisco ASA 5500 Series provides market-leading, threat-protected remote access. The solution provides both site-to-site and remote-user access to internal network systems and services. This solution combines SSL and IPsec VPN capabilities for maximum flexibility. And since the solution combines firewall and optional content security services with VPN services, the VPN traffic cannot introduce malware or other threats to the business.
• Easy deployment and management: The Cisco ASA 5500 Series Business Edition includes the Cisco Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM), which provides a powerful yet easy-to-use browser-based management and monitoring interface. This single solution provides comprehensive configuration and monitoring of all the services in a single application. And to help with quick deployment, wizards guide the administrators through initial and ongoing configuration of their Cisco ASA 5500 Series appliances.
Business Benefits
• Support evolving business needs: Safely deploy new applications by providing advanced application-layer security services for a wide range of popular applications, including Web-based applications, e-mail, voice over IP (VoIP), video, and multimedia applications.
• Control access to business resources: Prevent unauthorized access to applications or information assets by providing identity-based access control services that can tie into services like Microsoft Active Directory, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), or RSA SecurID.
• Increase employee productivity: Prevent the loss of employee productivity by preventing spam, spyware, and inappropriate Web browsing.
• Improve business resiliency: Prevent disruption of business-critical applications and services due to security breaches by implementing the industry's most-deployed enterprise-grade firewall and content security security technology.
• Reduce cleanup costs: Free up IT support resources and reduce the costly process of cleaning up spyware, viruses, and other malware by preventing the infection from occurring.
• Enable safe remote access: Allow employees and partners to remotely access the network without the introduction of business-crippling threats by using the solution's unique, threat-protected VPN capabilities.
• Achieve operational efficiency: Reduce costs associated with deployment and ongoing management and monitoring of the security solution by using a single, easy-to-install, easy-to-use solution.
• Decrease liability: Reduce the company's exposure to liability related to compromised data or inadequate corporate controls by implementing comprehensive access control and threat protection services in a single device.
Recommended Business Edition Solutions
Table 1. Recommended Cisco ASA 5500 Series Business Edition Solutions
Note: For countries with import regulations on shipping strong encryption (Triple Data Encryption Standard/Advanced Encryption Standard [3DES/AES]), Cisco provides DES-only encryption via the following two "K8" part numbers: ASA5505-K8 and ASA5510-K8.
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