Firewall Wizards: Re: Firewall-1 and use in Arab countries

[Chad Schieken <cschieken () lucent com>]

As a consultant I've always subscribed to the theory of recommending the 
product that best meets the clients needs. All of the professional services 
firms I've worked for have subscribed to this theory. It's worked quite 
well, and could be considered IMHO to be a fundamental "law" of 
professional services.
I would be surprised  learn that the bank in question had a policy that 
dictated the place of incorporation for the vendors it employed. It's 
certainly a reasonable question to ask. Assuming no such purchasing policy 
existed, I would think that it would be irresponsible to not at-least 
consider Checkpoint's products. They hold the highest market share in the 
category, and it's certainly a quite discerning market. I'd want to align 
the clients requirements to several products, then help them choose the 
best fit. There are several advantages of this type of method, enumerating 
them is left as a exercise to the reader ;-P.
Without starting the old flame war about the alleged backdoor in that 
product (AND THERE IS NO PROOF OF SUCH), it certainly stands to reason that 
verifying that the copy you install isn't Trojan'ed or otherwise tainted 
sounds like a safe precaution. I would be more worried about some group 
wanting their own special flavor of FW-1 installed at any particular bank 
than about the country of origin of the software.
Lastly this whole discussion could be moot as Israel has restriction crypto 
limitations, and an Arab nation (presumedly where the Arab bank is located) 
may be a export restricted list. That would be a geo-political issue that 
i"m not qualified to comment or interpret geo-political policy.
Thanks,
Chad Schieken, CISSP
Lucent Technologies
Philadelphia, PA








At 12:19 AM 9/30/2001, Allan Pratt wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Since Firewall-1 is made by an Israeli company, does anyone have 
> experience recommending its use in Arab countries and for Arab clients?
> The reason I ask is that I will be on a security architecture project for 
> an Arab bank based in the middle east.
> Should I refrain from recommending Firewall-1??
>
>
> Thanks!
>
> Allan
>
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