FIREWALLS

UAB being one of the large research university does not have border firewall. It does not make sense to put a firewall on border in front of 30,000 computers. It is against UAB network policy to connect a department/user owned network equipment to campus, and firewalls fall in this category too. We at department of Communication & Networking Services take security seriously. Understanding defense in depth; for the last six months we have been providing firewall services to departments and we will continue to do so. We have chosen Cisco Pix Hardware firewalls over other vendors after extensive testing of Cisco Pix firewalls. Being Hardware based firewall, one does not have to rely on the security of the operating system.

The prices below are based on three year depreciation plan. These prices include vendor price, maintenance contract, DCNS configurations, manpower, configuration charges, and 24x7 service along with replacement guarantee in case of failure. After three years, the price does not drop as we keep replacement units in stock and maintain vendor contracts. Prices have been set by DCNS Finance department and are non-negotiable. From time to time some departments install software based or OS based firewalls which keeps DCNS from providing services beyond the firewall. If some department has software or OS based firewall then it is clear that DCNS is not responsible for providing service beyond that point.

Following are the Firewall services that DCNS offers to various departments. Number of users mentioned in service description is what we recommend to departments and not vendor specific. Firewall service depends on the department's size and requirement. Bandwidth usage, host processing behind firewall, encryption, number of users are some factors that dictates Firewall Service Type. DCNS is always there to help you select the firewall. Problem tickets can be open as usual through UserServices@uab.edu. Last but not least DCNS has the most trained and certified individuals providing 24x7 service.

Remember Installing a Firewall does not guarantee that your department will be 100% secure, firewall is yet another layer of defense to secure your department against intruders. You still need to take measures to ensure security of your department.