Security Basics mailing list archives

RE: What firewall for small medical research lab


From: "Nguyen, PB" <PB.Nguyen () thus net>
Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 15:23:46 +0100

http://sourceforge.net/projects/efw/

 

-----Original Message-----
From: bill.louis () gmail com [mailto:bill.louis () gmail com] On Behalf Of
Alice Bryson
Sent: 10 May 2006 02:46
To: rmillisl () millis-it com
Cc: firewalls () securityfocus com; security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: Re: What firewall for small medical research lab

hi there:
    Fortinet FortiGate 60 possibly is suitable for you. I has integrate
Anti-Virus, IPS, VPN, Anti-Spam, Web-filter and etc together, and it's
cheap.
    See http://www.fortinet.com

2006/4/27, rmillisl () millis-it com <rmillisl () millis-it com>:
I have been asked to research what good, low cost, firewall solutions 
might prove suitable for a medical research lab at a local University 
to protect confidential patient data from outsiders.

In addition to other research I though I would ask here.

I realize a firewall is just one component of an overall security 
policy / implementation.

Basically what is needed is a simple NAT box that generally keeps 
outsiders out, and allows authorized lab servers and workstations to 
access certain services out on the main building network (DNS, IMAP, 
POP, SMTP, HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SSH) and through that network to the 
Internet (through the main building campus/network).

Cost is a very important factor so suggested solutions have been:

- Pay someone to set up a PC based firewall running on surplus 
hardware using either Fedora Core 5 and Shorewall 3.0.6 (to allow easy

configuration of iptables rules).  The hardware and software cost are
low.
The time could add up. I have considerable experience with this so 
this would be the lowest learning curve. Problem is Fedora with its 
frequent updates may make managing this more of a chore.

- Pay someone to set up a a PC based firewall running on surplus 
hardware using either OpenBSD 3.7 or 3.8 and pf. The hardware and 
software cost are low. The time could add up. I have some OpenBSD 
experience and no pf background.

- Pay someone to set up a a Linksys or D-Link broadband 
switch/firewall/router. The hardware cost is low. The time to set up 
may be minimal (Plug&Play + some common sense and provided 
firewall/filter capabilities). Are these a serious and secure enough
solution?

- Some other low cost hardware or software based alternative. What 
else might be out there that I don't know about that might be 
comparable in cost to the D-Link or Linksys options.

The PC based solutions I personally have the most confidence in with 
respect to hand crafting a minimal OS build and hardening and patching

the OS and doing rules mostly by hand. With pf there is some concern 
of errors introduced due to learning curve.

Comments? Suggestions?




--
Homepage: http://www.lwang.org
mailto:abryson () bytefocus com


Current thread: