Vladimir Yakovlev - Check Point Firewall Administration R81.10+: A practical guide to Check Point firewall deployment and administration

A practical guide to Check Point firewall deployment and administration

Vladimir Yakovlev

BIRMINGHAMMUMBAI

Copyright 2022 Packt Publishing

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First published: August 2022

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To my parents. Its all your fault

One of my colleagues recently told me that no matter when you get into an industry, youre always getting in on the ground floor of something. For me, that something ended up being the early days of Check Point FireWall-1, and what ultimately became the cyber security industry.

Ive seen Check Points various products and services grow and change over the last 26 years. Ive helped a lot of people make the best use of Check Point products, both directly and indirectly, including writing my own Check Point books in the early 2000s. While a lot has changed since, including Check Points corporate logo, the core philosophy behind every Check Point product and service has not.

These days, you need a lot more than just network firewalls to Secure Your Everything. Even so, firewalls still play a critical role in most environments by defining boundaries between both private and public networks, enabling controlled access to network resources, blocking malicious content, and preventing both data exfiltration and the unauthorized use of systems.

In the 20 years since Essential Check Point FireWall-1 NG was published, Ive been asked numerous times if I was going to write another book on Check Point firewalls. If I were going to do so, Id probably take the approach that Vladimir has taken in this book. There are concise explanations of the essential features of the Check Point Quantum Security Gateway and Management products, along with step-by-step instructions and annotated screenshots!

If youre just getting started with deploying Check Point Quantum Security Gateways, or youre trying to refresh your knowledge, this book is a great place to start. Theres also CheckMates (https://community.checkpoint.com), Check Points official cyber security community, which is full of additional learning resources and discussions to help those who want to continue their learning on Check Point after finishing this book.

Dameon D. Welch (a.k.a. PhoneBoy) Cyber Security Evangelist Check Point Software Technologies, Ltd.

Vladimir Yakovlev, CISSP, is an infrastructure and security solutions architect and CTO at Higher Intelligence LLC., with over 20 years of Check Point experience.

He is recognized as a champion in the ISC2 and Check Point CheckMates communities and has been awarded Member of the Year and Contributor of the Year designations by peers, while also speaking at regional and international conferences.

Vladimir has previously held the roles of Sr. V.P. of Technology and CISO, responsible for the design, implementation, and operation of multiple iterations of secure and resilient infrastructures in the financial industry.

He enjoys helping others in the field of cybersecurity and can often be found in the CheckMates, LinkedIn, and ISC2 communities.

This project wouldnt have happened without the encouragement and help from two authors of previous books dedicated to Check Point: Dameon D. Welch (a.k.a. PhoneBoy), my Technical Reviewer, and Timothy Hall, who went above and beyond in engaging with me in deep-dives on a multitude of subjects and sanity checks. Thank you both!

Huge thanks to all members of the Packt editing team and, especially, Romy Dias.

Last but not least, to my family, who tolerated my virtual absence for a year, and, specifically, to my son, Sam Yakovlev. He was (against his will) subjected to the first technical reading of this book, and is mainly responsible for defending the dignity of the English language (and the Oxford comma) from me.

Dameon D. Welch, widely known as PhoneBoy, is a Cyber Security Evangelist for Check Point Software Technologies. He is the public face of CheckMates, the Check Point cyber security community.

A recognized industry security veteran, with more than two decades of experience, Welch is best known for his creation of the PhoneBoy FireWall-1 FAQ in the mid-1990s. It was used by Check Point and thousands of its customers worldwide. He is also the author of Essential Check Point FireWall-1 NG: An Installation, Configuration, and Troubleshooting Guide.

Id like to thank everyone who has supported and encouraged me over the years.