Cisco ASA: All-in-One Firewall, IPS, and VPN Adaptive Security Appliance

Identify, mitigate, and respond to network attacks

• Understand the evolution of security technologies that make up the unified ASA device and how to install the ASA hardware
• Examine firewall solutions including network access control, IP routing, AAA, application inspection, virtual firewalls, transparent (Layer 2) firewalls, failover and redundancy, and QoS
• Evaluate Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) solutions including IPS integration and Adaptive Inspection and Prevention Security Services Module (AIP-SSM) configuration
• Deploy VPN solutions including site-to-site IPsec VPNs, remote- access VPNs, and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
• Learn to manage firewall, IPS, and VPN solutions with Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM)

Achieving maximum network security is a challenge for most organizations. Cisco® ASA, a new unified security device that combines firewall, network antivirus, intrusion prevention, and virtual private network (VPN) capabilities, provides proactive threat defense that stops attacks before they spread through the network.

This new family of adaptive security appliances also controls network activity and application traffic and delivers flexible VPN connectivity. The result is a powerful multifunction network security device that provides the security breadth and depth for protecting your entire network, while reducing the high deployment and operations costs and complexities associated with managing multiple point products.

Cisco ASA: All-in-One Firewall, IPS, and VPN Adaptive Security Appliance is a practitioner’s guide to planning, deploying, and troubleshooting a comprehensive security plan with Cisco ASA. The book provides valuable insight and deployment examples and demonstrates how adaptive identification and mitigation services on Cisco ASA provide a sophisticated security solution for both large and small network environments.

The book contains many useful sample configurations, proven design scenarios, and discussions of debugs that help you understand how to get the most out of Cisco ASA in your own network.

“I have found this book really highlights the practical aspects needed for building real-world security. It offers the insider’s guidance needed to plan, implement, configure, and troubleshoot the Cisco ASA in customer environments and demonstrates the potential and power of Self-Defending Networks.”

–Jayshree Ullal, Sr. Vice President, Security Technologies Group, Cisco Systems® 

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.

Jazib Frahim, CCIE® No. 5459, is a senior network security engineer in the Worldwide Security Services Practice of Advanced Services for Network Security at Cisco. He is responsible for guiding customers in the design and implementation of their networks with a focus in network security.

Omar Santos is a senior network security engineer in the Worldwide Security Services Practice of Advanced Services for Network Security at Cisco. He has more than 12 years of experience in secure data communications.