Security Basics: RE: What firewall for small medical research lab

["Nguyen, PB" <PB.Nguyen () thus net>]

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