Our network was recently attacked with a Port 25 Bot attack. The attack would shut down my exchange server. To fix this I:
Put a monitor on the server to determine exactly when it goes down
-Enabled logging on the exchange SMTP service
-Changed the SMTP timeout on the exchange server to 5 minutes instead of 10.
-Changed the exchange connection limit from unlimited to 1000 connections.
-Change the service timeout for SMTP on the netscreen 5GT to 5 minutes instead of 30.
-Enabled "Tar-pitting" on the Exchange server (to add a delay between SMTP responses)
This has thwarted the attack, it is still going on, but the server is holding up. I don't know which of the solutions worked, if it's the firewall or the exchange timeouts that are working, but it is working.
I'm looking to get a security device that will stop these attacks on the fly, I'm not that confident in what I have done, I'm looking at IDP solutions.
Netscreen has priced themselves out of the small bizz game, It's about 15K startup before service.
I am looking at the following products, does anyone have any opinions on them? Good or Bad?
1. Astaro Security Gateway 220 - Unrestricted Users / my security consultant recommends, says he can stop the attacks with this device: About 5K in hardware and subscriptions.
2. Sonic wall 3060, about $7K with 2 year subscription to gateway protection, 3yr 24x7 support and viewpoint. The customer likes this because it is mainstream. My security guy and myself are not big sonicwall supporters, but understand the safety in using a mainstream box.
3. FortiGate-100A. My security guy understands about Astaro being a relatively unknown firm so he suggested FortiGate because they have been around a while and they just received an ICSA certification.
About $1,900 for hardware and subscriptions for 1 year. 1-year subscription to all FortiGuard services: Antivirus, IPS, Web Content Filtering, & Antispam.
Any thoughts would help
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