Protect critical data and maintain uptime with Cisco ASDM and Cisco Security Agent 

• Understand how attacks can impact your business and the different ways attacks can occur
• Learn about the defense-in-depth model for deploying firewall and host protection
• Examine navigation methods and features of Cisco ASDM
• Set up Cisco ASA, PIX Firewall, and ASDM hardware and software
• Use the Cisco ASDM startup wizard to safely connect your network to the Internet and securely add public devices such as mail and web servers to your network
• Authenticate firewall users and users of public web servers
• Filter traffic and protect your network from perimeter attacks
• Deploy Cisco Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) to provide more granular traffic inspection and proactive threat response
• Stop attacks launched at the desktop by deploying Cisco Security Agent
• Extend the defense-in-depth model to remote users through IPSec virtual private networks (VPN)
• Enhance your security posture through proper security management
• Understand the advanced features available in the Cisco PIX version 7 operating system
• Recover from software failure with Cisco PIX version 7

Many people view security as a “black-box-voodoo” technology that is very sophisticated and intimidating. While that might have been true a few years ago, vendors have been successful in reducing the complexity and bringing security to a point where almost anyone with a good understanding of technology can deploy network security.

Securing Your Business with Cisco ASA and PIX Firewalls is an extension of the work to simplify security deployment. This easy-to-use guide helps you craft and deploy a defense-in-depth solution featuring the newly released Cisco® ASA and PIX® version 7 as well as Cisco Security Agent host intrusion prevention software. The book simplifies configuration and management of these powerful security devices by discussing how to use Cisco Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM), which provides security management and monitoring services through an intuitive GUI with integrated online help and intelligent wizards to simplify setup and ongoing management. In addition, informative, real-time, and historical reports provide critical insight into usage trends, performance baselines, and security events. Complete with real-world security design and implementation advice, this book contains everything you need to know to deploy the latest security technology in your network.

Securing Your Business with Cisco ASA and PIX Firewalls provides you with complete step-by-step processes for using Cisco ASDM in conjunction with Cisco Security Agent to ensure that your security posture is strong enough to stand up against any network or host attack whether sourced from the Internet or from inside your own network.

"Firewalls are a critical part of any integrated network security strategy, and books such as this will help raise awareness of both the threats inherent in today’s open, heterogeneous internetworking environments and the solutions that can be applied to make the Internet a safer place."

—Martin E. Hellman, professor emeritus of Electrical Engineering,

Stanford University and co-inventor of public key cryptography

This security book is part of the Cisco Press® Networking Technology Series. Security titles from Cisco Press help networking professionals secure critical data and resources, prevent and mitigate network attacks, and build end-to-end self-defending networks. 

About The Author
Greg Abelar has been an employee of Cisco Systems® since December 1996. He was an original member of the Cisco Technical Assistance Security team, helping to hire and train many of the engineers. He has held various positions in both the Security Architecture and Security Technical Marketing Engineering teams at Cisco. Greg is the primary founder and project manager of the Cisco written CCIE® Security exam.

Customer Reviews & Comments
Oh if life were only easier. The web must be a lot like the old west was rumored to be. Except that there doesn't even appear to be a sheriff anywhere around. All of us have to build our own little forts for protection against the bad guys. One of the best forts you can build uses the Cisco ASA/PIX Security Appliance. You can, of course, set up the equipment without anything but the manual. But this book goes into a lot more background that is very nice to know. It starts with why they might want into your network. (I couldn't imagine why anyone would want into mine until they started attacking to use my equipment for re-mailing and bandwidth.) It then goes into they types of attacks that might be used against you. It's probably impossible to build a totally secure system unless it isn't connected to the outside world in any way at all. But when your users want things like e-mail, web access and more, you've got to do something. The Cisco approach at least makes it very difficult for all but the most determined bad buy to get into your system. The author has been working on the Cisco approach to security since 1996, he understands it pretty well and has a good writing style to make it understandable to you. Highly Recommended! Comment | Permalink | (Report this)