SonicWall Unveils New Firewalls and Comprehensive Managed Cybersecurity Service

SonicWall has unveiled a new line of advanced firewalls and a comprehensive managed cybersecurity service designed to combat the evolving threat landscape, with particular emphasis on attacks targeting non-standard ports.

The announcement comes on the heels of concerning findings in SonicWall’s 2019 Cyber Threat Report, which highlighted a growing trend of cybercriminals exploiting vulnerabilities across conventional and unconventional network access points.

The newly launched firewall lineup represents a significant advancement in SonicWall’s security portfolio, specifically engineered to tackle the rising challenge of non-standard port attacks.

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Traditional firewalls primarily focus on standard ports assigned by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), such as port 80 for HTTP, port 443 for HTTPS, and port 25 for SMTP.

However, SonicWall’s latest offering extends comprehensive protection across all 40,000+ registered ports, with enhanced scrutiny for both standard and non-standard configurations.

“Organizations have increasingly adopted ‘security through obscurity’ strategies, using non-standard ports for their services to evade conventional attacks,” explained SonicWall’s Chief Security Officer.

“While this approach may temporarily confuse attackers, our data shows cybercriminals are adapting.

Our new firewalls employ artifact-specific analysis rather than analyzing all traffic, resulting in more efficient and effective protection regardless of port configuration.”

Cybersecurity Service Delivers Layered Protection

Complementing the hardware release, SonicWall’s new managed cybersecurity service provides organizations with a holistic security framework that moves beyond reliance on port obscurity alone.

The service implements the security principle that multiple defensive layers provide superior protection compared to single-strategy approaches.

The managed service incorporates automated password rotation protocols, mandatory two-factor authentication implementation, and systematic patch management.

According to SonicWall, this multi-faceted approach addresses the limitations of security through obscurity, which their threat report indicates is becoming increasingly ineffective as a standalone strategy.

“Our 2019 Cyber Threat Report found that attacks on non-standard ports increased from 17.7% in 2017 to 19.2% in 2018, with December 2018 peaking at 23%,” stated the company’s Director of Threat Intelligence.

“This data informed the development of our managed service, which provides continuous monitoring and rapid response capabilities across all potential entry points.” Bolsters Defense Mechanisms

Integration Bolsters Defense Mechanisms

A distinguishing feature of both new offerings is the integration of SonicWall Capture Labs’ threat intelligence, providing customers with real-time updates on emerging attack vectors.

This intelligence-driven approach allows the firewall technology and managed service to adapt proactively to changing threat methodologies.

The threat intelligence component is particularly crucial for organizations that have implemented non-standard port configurations but lack comprehensive monitoring capabilities.

SonicWall’s analysis indicates that while using unconventional ports-such as port 8080 instead of 80 for web traffic-may temporarily redirect attackers, sophisticated threat actors can ultimately discover these configurations through systematic scanning techniques.

“Just as a superhero can’t rely solely on anonymity for protection, organizations can’t depend exclusively on port obscurity to secure their networks,” noted SonicWall’s CEO.

“Our new solutions provide the comprehensive, layered security approach that modern networks require.”

The new firewalls and managed cybersecurity service will be available to enterprise customers starting next month, with specialized configurations for small and medium businesses to follow.

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