Elron: Response to firewall RFP

Solution: CommandView Firewall for NT. Version 2.5

Elron's CommandView Firewall solution successfully meets the requirements outlined by Happy Pharmaceuticals. Below is matrix summarizing the feature requests for this proposal. Where appropriate, we have detailed the product's features and capabilities.

We have also included a screen shot (attached) illustrating a key reporting feature of CommandView Firewall.

Pricing information is also listed below.

Feature Request	CommandView Firewall
Firewall that provides 99.99% network uptime1	X
Ability to process high speed traffic	X
-Customizable Security Features2	X
Ability to handle up 3000 user sessions simultaneously with additional room for growth3	X
Ability to run NAT without negatively affecting the network performance4	X
Central and remote site management with individual firewall rules stored and updated from one machine5	X
Strong security logging capability and log file analysis with report generation6	X
Mechanism to page a network manager or alert the standard network management platform if attempted attack or break in occurs7	X

X = Indicates Feature Requirement Met

Feature Description

1 = In independent testing, CommandView Firewall scored the highest in reliability.

2 = All security features are customizable with a click of button.

3 = The product supports fast Ethernet. There are no inherent performance constraints. The default configuration for CommandView Firewall is set for FTP and HTTP services and simultaneous 3,584 user sessions with NAT.

4 = Supports NAT and NAT exceptions as part of the product's base price.

5 = One manager machine can administer all firewalls from one central location.

6= Files can currently can be exported into an ASCII text file for analysis by a 3rd party software vendor. The upcoming version of CommandView Firewall (3.0 in September) will have built in report generation and logging.

7 = Elron Firewall has a built-in alert mechanism which is sent to the manager's machine. CommandView Firewall also has a built-in hook that works with a company's existing paging software.

Elron Software's CommandView Firewall solution employs seven years of firewall development experience as well as the industry's most advanced security architecture - Stateful Multilayer Inspection (SMLI) technology. SMLI is a third generation architecture that combines the high performance of packet filters (1st generation) and the application level security of proxy firewalls (2nd generation).

Robust Security with SMLI technology

CommandView firewall works with the philosophy that all traffic is blocked except that which is expressly permitted. CommandView firewall controls network traffic between your protected internal network and all unprotected external networks as configured through your Master Security Plan (MSP). Stateful Multilayer Inspection Technology (SMLI) monitors "state" information about traffic in order to provide the full context for filtering decisions (e.g., verifies that the destination of an inbound DNS ( Domain Name Service) packet matches the source of a previous outbound DNS request). This allows complete verification of a packet's authenticity and immediate blocking of suspicious activity.

Caption: With CommandView Firewalls Express Configuration Wizard, installation takes only a few minutes. To install simply complete a series of yes, no questions, select the Internet services you want internal and external users to have access to and you're done. CommandView Firewall is now up and running and your network is protected.

Extensive application support

CommandView Firewall supports over 150 pre-defined IP and IPX applications, services and protocols including standard TCP/IP applications such as Email, Web, FTP, Pointcast, Java, RealAudio and can be easily extended for new and custom applications. Designed from the ground up for fast and efficient operations as an NT-based service, it runs on a Windows NT workstation or server with an intuitive Windows based interface that makes it easy to administer and significantly reduces the risk of security holes due to mis-configuration.

Built-in Alerts and Logging  CommandView Firewall not only prevents malicious attempts to hack your network, but also logs and reports all firewall security issues. CommandView Firewall can even inform you the second a hacker attempts to jeopardize your network. It does this by sending an alert to the manager console.

Network Address Translation ( NAT)
When using NAT, you configure one Translation IP Address to filter all traffic through the firewall. This is usually sufficient but problems can occur if multiple publicly accessible servers are providing the same service (i.e. two or more web servers need to be accessible from the Internet). To handle such situations, CommandView Firewall provides the NAT Exception service. NAT Exception lets you add another internal server for a service by using a second registered External IP Address, or a third with yet another address, and so on.

CommandView Firewall NT platform

Using a proprietary TCP/IP stack, CommandView Firewall for NT is inherently more stable and secure when compared to other Windows NT-based firewalls that run on top of the Microsoft TCP/IP stack. This also avoids the need for constant maintenance on the part of the administrator to insure that all Service Packs and any TCP/IP related post SP "hot-fixes" are applied. To date, Microsoft has released five Service Packs for Windows NT. In addition, other NT-based firewalls running on Windows NT may expose the box on which they are running to hackers, whereas CommandView Firewall for NT makes it inaccessible to external users.

Recommendation and price

In accordance with the RFP Elron Software agrees with the proposed network diagram for Happy Pharmaceuticals. With this "four firewall" layout, the total price from Elron Software would be $15,980. This price includes

two (2) 255 user licenses for the central site
USD6495 x 2

25 user license at each of the two remote locations.
USD1495 x 2

The RFP
Vendor responses:

Axent BorderWare Check Point Cisco

CyberGuard Elron LanOptics Livermore

Lucent NetScreen Radguard Sun

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