Untangle NG Firewall Provides Local Government with Network Security It Can Rely On

Background

Clay County Sheriff’s Department in Hayesville, North Carolina is housed across two buildings containing 4 departments: Deputies, Detention Center, Dispatchers and Staff, and the Administration Staff. The Sheriff’s Department network infrastructure consists of two departments—one for administration and one for the detention center—with 35 devices, including desktops and laptops, and 60 users utilizing mobile devices. Les and Des Keller were brought on as the IT consultants, with more than 30 years of computing and networking experience, for the Sheriff’s Department over a year ago. The Sheriff’s network was encompassed with the Public School system’s network, making it difficult for the Sheriff’s department to meet their specific requirements.

To fix this issue, the Kellers decided to separate the sheriff’s network from the public school system’s network, and went about researching his own solutions that would fit their needs. He needed to find a solution that could separate the internal network from guests, vendors and remote users, and implement bypass and NAT 1:1 rules, all while keeping the price low.

Technology Solution

During their search, the Kellers came across Untangle NG Firewall and gave the free trial a test run, allowing him to try out the paid applications. They were surprised at how simple it was to install and saw that the NG Firewall platform could provide the sheriff’s department with a network security solution that fit all their requirements. The sheriff’s department purchased the NG Firewall Nonprofit Complete package which entitled them to all of the NG Firewall apps. The Kellers were also able to save money by repurposing an old server instead of buying an additional appliance. “We did a lot of pre-planning before we switched over to Untangle, and it paid off,” said Les Keller. “Once we pre-configured NG Firewall to fit our needs, it was pretty much plug-n-play, which almost never happens.”

The sheriff’s department has successfully separated its internal network from its five vendors, remote employees, and guests ensuring the internal network stays safe from threats and unauthorized access to sensitive information. All mobile and personal devices are bypassed so they do not infiltrate the internal network. Port forwarding and NAT 1:1 rules have been implemented to separate the department’s five different vendors who supply various services such as fingerprint machines, video teleconferencing, commissary accounts, video surveillance equipment, and monitoring of inmate phone calls.

Once we pre-configured NG Firewall to fit our needs, it was pretty much plug-n-play, which almost never happens.

“I appreciated the thoughtful default settings that came pre-configured in NG Firewall,” said Les Keller. “The Firewall, Web Filter, Virus Blocker, Phish Blocker and Spam Blocker applications work in the background to protect the network from hackers as well as malware, phishing schemes, and spam.” Recently, the Kellers implemented new policies regarding which applications are accessible on the network via Application Control. “Application Control had sensible defaults that worked out of the box. When I was ready to implement our own policies, I was able to quickly and easily configure which apps we want blocked and flagged.”

The Kellers were won over by not only the effectiveness but also the ease of use of NG Firewall. They have subsequently purchased two u25 appliances for the 911 and EMS departments in the county to help those agencies manage the strict rules and regulations they must abide by. The u25 appliances is ideal for both these small departments with fewer than five active users each. “I would definitely recommend the product to others organizations, governmental or otherwise” said Les Keller. “We plan to continue to implementing Untangle for my other clients.”