Stonesoft

A quick interjection to the normal posting style - on Friday the 5th of February I attended a superb training event hosted by nViron and run by Stonesoft. Rather than a standard vendor training event which breaks down as 10% new information, 40% reading from Powerpoint slides and 50% sales hype; this was all interesting.

Stonesoft brought a test rig from their Scandinavian HQ and guided a small group of IT managers through some remote attacks using FOSS tools. They had one of their Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) running in passive mode, which detected the attacks without stopping them. The event was useful and enjoyable, and has made me think more highly of both nViron and Stonesoft, which is extremely rare for marketing...

If you get the opportunity to attend one of these events, do so. People without experience in using pen testing tools can learn how to perform a basic pen test, and more advanced users can really test Stonesoft's IPSs.