Check Point SandBlast Network Reviews

Our company works in the area of developing and delivering online gambling platforms. The Check Point Next-Generation Firewalls are the core security solution we use for the protection of our DataCenter environment located in Asia (Taiwan).

The environment has about 50 physical servers as virtualization hosts, and we have two HA Clusters that consist of 2x5400 hardware appliances, managed by an OpenServer Security Management Server on a Virtual Machine (KVM), all running on R80.10 with the latest JumboHotfix.

The Check Point SandBlast Network software blade is one of the numerous blades activated on the NGFWs in the DataCenter. It provides the additional layer of security from the perspective of the possible malicious files being scanned and analyzed.

The overall security of the environment has been greatly improved by the Check Point NGFWs with the SandBlast Network blade activated. Before implementing the Check Point solutions, we relied on the Cisco ACLs and Zone-Based firewalls configured on the switches and routers, which in fact is a simple stateful firewall, and currently appear to be not an efficient solution for protecting from the advanced threats.

The Check Point SandBlast Network software blade has increased the protection of our environment by enabling the Threat Emulation and Threat Extraction features. The first feature performs the sandboxing of the suspicious file types, where more than 70 file types may be emulated, in the Windows and macOS virtual machines.

The second feature works faster by just converting the files to the clean file of the PDF format thus deleting potentially dangerous Macros, JavaScript Actions, etc.

1. It provides a high rate of catching the zero-day advanced threats. I suppose due to the integrated AI-engine.
2. The Threat Extraction feature takes the suspicious document and converts it to another type/extension, which is harmless, like DOC to PDF.
3. The processes for the software blade activation and configuration and very easy.
4. In addition, Check Point SandBlast Network provides protection against phishing emails.
5. Good logging and reporting capabilities, on the level of other Check Point products.
6. Built-in compliance checks, with a reasonable set of the default regulations provided.

In our setup we don't use any SandBlast Physical or Virtual Threat Emulation Appliances, so all the sandboxing is performed on the hardware Check Point NGFWs. The Threat Emulation software blade significantly affects the performance of the NGFWs, we have a significant increase in the CPU and memory consumption. 

In addition, some of the end-users complain that it takes too long to transfer the files to the servers in the data center since the Threat Emulation adds delays to the transfer used for the emulation.

I hope these issues will be fixed in the next release.

We have been using the Check Point SandBlast Network for about three years starting late 2017.

The Check Point SandBlast Network software blade is stable, we haven't experienced any stability issues so far.

I think it may be difficult to scale the Check Point SandBlast Network in cases where you don't have a dedicated software or hardware appliance for it to run on. This is because it requires so much in terms of computing resources to run.

We have had several support cases opened, but none of them were connected with the Check Point SandBlast Network software blade. Some of the issues were resolved by installing the latest recommended JumoHotfix, whereas some required additional configuration on the OS kernel level.

The longest issue took about one month to be resolved, which we consider too long.

We used the ACLs and Zone-Based firewalls with NBAR on the Cisco switches, routers, and found that this approach doesn't provide sufficient security protection against the modern advanced threats.

The setup was straightforward. The configuration was easy and understandable.

The in-house team completed the deployment. We have a Check Point Certified engineer working in the engineering team.

Choosing the correct set of licenses is essential because, without the additional software blade licenses, the Check Point gateways are just a stateful firewall.

Since we already had the Check Point NGFWs, we just activated the additional software blade on it.

Our company sells Check Point products. We give our customers support on these products. We use it here in our company, but mainly we give support to our customers who are using the product.

Our clients use it for improving the security in their environment. We are also using it to improve our security. 

We are using this solution extensively. It is available all the time for any file that we download.

We have some on-premise equipment that goes to the cloud.

When our workers are downloading software, SandBlast Cloud is useful to emulate the downloads that the workers are doing. Then, there are no threats coming into the company.

We have never had a case of a virus entering our company in computer. I think we are safe because of this solution. One of the features of the Check Point product, SandBlast Cloud, is that it prevents the downloading of malicious files.

The mostly useful feature is we can download a file and emulate it outside of our company, then we can get the file and know that the file is clean. It's safe to run inside our company and we have no risk of viruses, Trojans, and so on.

I would like if it could emulate bigger files and somehow improve this usability. I don't know if this would be possible. However, if it was able to scan or emulate bigger files, then it would be safer for a company using it.

About two years.

It is very stable. We don't have many problems regarding this aspect. Most of the tickets that we receive are doubts about the configuration and feature improvements.

It is scalable. We can just add more computers into the solution if the equipment becomes obsolete or their capacity reaches its maximum. We just need to use a bigger appliance. However, we have no experiences regarding this, as usually the equipment is better than the customer's needs.

In my company, there are maybe 50 users. It's not a very big company, so everyone has their function, but most of them are technicians. Other users are sellers, directors, supervisors, and security analysts (like me). If we consider that every worker has one computer, we can say that there are about 50 computers using this solution.

It has very good support. If I had to give them a score from zero to 10, I would give them a nine. Sometimes it takes a bit too long for them to give the first answer. It's not something that we can't wait for, but sometime we will need that answer right in the moment that we ask, and maybe we are waiting some hours depending on the issue.

None.

With some of our customers, I have been involved in the initial setup. It is very simple and intuitive. With just a few clicks, we can make it work.

After the system is running, just to enable each of the features, we take no more than 10 minutes.

I just followed the Check Point documentation. I just read and replicated it into our production environment, then it was good to go.

About five of my colleagues are responsible for implementing the product.

I haven't evaluated other solutions.

I am very satisfied with this product.

Anyone who deploys this solution needs to understand their network, e.g., the amount of data transferring through it. This way, they can define the product according to their needs.

I would rate this solution as a 10 out of 10.

We have the Check Point SandBlast TE100X device private cloud sandbox.

We use sandboxing to scan files in our network. The unknown file will reach the security gateway, the gateway will check for the verdict in the cache, and if not found, it holds the file while the security gateway sends it to SandBlast.

We have enabled four images and depending upon the results of SandBlast, it will determine a verdict that will be given to the security gateway. At this point, the gateway will allow or deny the file and save the results in cache for future reference.

Before using sandblast, we were relying only on the firewall for protection against threats. Like all antivirus solutions, IPS antibot is signature-based protection and we can only upgrade the signatures on daily basis.

But, with SandBlast, we are getting almost instant protection for new threats as well. We now scan all of the incoming files and unknown threats are handled by SandBlast. We can even extract the malicious content from files or block the file outright.

SandBlast can also work as Email APT & can remove malicious content from the email body. It can even block the same & notify the user regarding the event.

The most valuable feature is comprehensive threat prevention, whether signature-based or a zero-day secure network. This is the key benefit & the Check Point SandBlast Network does its job up to the mark.

The file formats most used by industry are all in the list that can be emulated.

Threat extraction can help us to remove malicious content from documents by converting them to PDF.

Visibility is the key to all these efforts & SandBlast done its job. We can even have a video during emulation of what exactly happens when we open the file.

The Static Analysis feature works without using much processing power to analyze files, which helps us to conserve resources.

In Check Point SandBlast, improvement has to be made with respect to the GUI.

The problem we face is due to log queue files, which were being delivered with a delay.

All details should be provided on the smart dashboard and made easier to use. For example, it should display what file it is currently emulating, how many files are currently in the queue, and how much time each file is taking.

There should be an option to flush the queue in case of any issues. Similarly, we should be able to remove particular files from the queue on demand.

Also, policy creation can be more simplified or we can say more specific to particular traffic.

I have been working with the Check Point SandBlast Network for the last two years.

This product is stable enough.

As of now, it is great and there have been no issues observed regarding scalability.

Check Point TAC is always very supportive.

Previously, we were not using any APT solution.

Initially, we had to install all images for emulation, which was tough to understand.

We deployed using an in-house team.

We have evaluated McAfee.

We make use of Check Point firewalls to secure our corporate network and the SandBlast Network software blade is one component in use to help prevent and minimize zero-day threats. 

The Threat Emulation and Threat Extraction features provided by SandBlast are invaluable pieces to securing our environment and ensuring that we remain secure to the best extent possible.

Our corporate network is very small consisting of only a few routers/switches, a firewall, and some client machines without any connected servers. Regardless, Check Point is a key piece of the puzzle.

By enabling the Threat Emulation and Threat Extraction features, we have increased our overall security posture and improved the protection of our corporate environment. We receive a high volume of incoming files and having this in place brings a certain level of peace of mind.

As a new organization, prior to implementing Check Point as part of our network, we relied on everyone just being careful. This is obviously not the best security practice. As we have grown, our security posture has changed and Check Point was part of our maturation as a company.

Preventing zero-day threats and extracting potential threats from incoming files with Threat Extraction is the most valuable feature for us. We receive a large volume of files from external sources and knowing that we are protected as best as possible is a major priority.

Getting everything set up, activated, and configured was relatively painless, which was a huge bonus since I was doing this not as a network or security professional but from a software engineering background. For someone entirely new to the ecosystem, it was a smooth implementation.

We have noticed a slight performance hit when the Threat Emulation and Extraction features were enabled, but the protection trade-off is worth it for us. If the performance could be improved in the next release, that would be beneficial.

We have had a few instances where the firewall has seemed to stop checking for updates and gets behind on the updates, forcing us to go in and manually check for and install updates. Maybe there is something going on here that could be improved even though it is not specific to the SandBlast feature.

I have been using the Check Point SandBlast Network for two years.

We have not experienced any stability issues to date.  It has run without issue or intervention required in order to maintain coverage.

It runs on a dedicated hardware appliance. We are pretty small and scaling has not been an issue, but perhaps larger organizations may have a problem.

We did not use another similar solution prior to this one.

The initial setup was straightforward with relatively easy configuration.

The implementation was done in-house by a networking novice.

I think the overall cost for introducing Check Point with SandBlast was reasonable and competitive in the market.

We evaluated Fortinet. We went with Check Point for the perceived ease of use advantage along with a slight price advantage for us.

We have Implemented Check Point SandBlast Network Solution at the email Gateway provider where our primary use case was to clean email attachments. We have also enabled Anti-Virus & Antibot blades. We want to convert each & every document should convert into the PDF file With all their active content for example links etc neutralized or disabled.

Also, we are using on-premises as well as cloud sandboxing at the same time. Means particular file format sandboxing will happen on cloud & remaining on the private cloud means on-premise box.

Check Point SandBlast Network Solution works well if ignore 2 -3 points. All emails are getting scanned for signatures & Threat emulation works well. Check Point SandBlast Network Solution helps to understand the exact daily email traffic flowing. Threat extraction also works quite good help to neutralized or block any malicious attachment received depending upon the severity.

Cacheing & static analysis really reduces the time taken for scanning & sandboxing the same file for potentially less dangerous files. 

Check Point SandBlast Network Solution provides signature-based as well as zero-day threat protection. Also sandboxing can be performed on an on-premise device, cloud as well as the combination of both. Threat emulation is done on multiple OS & verdict is provided.

Static analysis as per checkpoint its a python code that helps to provide verdict without emulating every single attachment which results in an increase in performance.

Every scan email will automatically add text which helps us to understand email has been scanned or malicious content has been removed. we can also customize the same.

Firstly, performance in our case daily many emails were queued for scanning & among that 30% emails were getting skipped means delivered without scanning. Some times queue was so large that we need to flush or dump emails.

Many Important controls are only available in CLI & very very complicated. All tecli command features should available on GUI so that it will become easy for normal users to monitor & control queue.

Threat Emulation device HA Configuration is also CLI based.

Monitoring Queues and related operations are very complex as it needs to check on CLI.

Two years.

I have worked on R80.20 & R80.10 I have seen bugs but the TAC team provided hotfixes.

Overall scalability has been a good experience. 

For Threat Emulation Security team is responsible & those are I think limited no of peoples are available. The checkpoint should increase the skill set on TE. 

The initial setup was a complex task need to configure MTA & Configuring & troubleshooting needs good CLI.

I have implemented it with my team.

Cost is on the higher side though ill suggest buying a bigger box than required.

In our company, we already have in use our Check Point gateway - provisioned in the Microsoft Azure public cloud - to help us with the entire cloud infrastructure, in addition to the fact that it has helped us to protect ourselves with current threats, zero-day threats, in addition to using the intelligence against Check Point threats which collects information globally making it available to the client. It's really a very valuable security tool. It has helped us improve the security posture in the cloud in our case.

Check Point's SandBlast blade has helped us a lot to increase the security of our network. Both cloud and some users access it directly. It has zero-day protection and reports so that the company can make decisions for improvements. Its willingness to implement best practices security according to the manufacturer against modern threats is undoubtedly one of the best features that Check Point offers us. For the company and users, all its implementation through the use of a virtual Check Point gateway.

The power of Check Point and the power of ThreatCloud intelligence at the service of the blade helps us to detect modern threats that have appeared in some environments at a global level. It shares the information of all its devices, this generates more robust perimeter security in addition to generating trust of the company with the manufacturer to prevent threats.

Its reports and log reading through the Check Point management service are very good to be able to review what is currently happening in our network.

We use the infinity portal of Check Point to manage our services through smart cloud to manage our gateway and our SandBlast blade, however, sometimes the service has performance problems which generates some delays in administration.

It would be very good for Check Point to improve its support. They can improve a lot in providing more effective and faster solutions and sessions with customers to validate the problems that are usually generated.

For the rest, Check Point does not have so many problems to improve.

The Sandblast Network can be used in a private network or in the cloud with the same characteristics. In our case, we use it for the Microsoft Azure cloud through its Check Point gateway; it has really helped us with perimeter security for both emails and zero-day threats.

At the moment, we rely on Check Point's security technology; we have not used another similar device.

My recommendation is to find a partner that can provide cost options, validate the requirements and help us to validate which of their applications fits our needs.

Before implementing it, we validated other options on the market, however, the use of Check Point SandBlast was a very good option.

We strongly believe that we can recommend this Check Point technology for the protection of company networks and perimeters.

We are using Check Point Sandblast Network devices for both a proxy firewall and direct internet usage firewall. They have Check Point thread extraction licenses. If someone or some application needs to reach the internet zone, it must pass through via the next generation firewalls connected with Sandblast devices. 

We are planning to use them for submitting emails. Hence, most of the sandbox solutions can miss the first file, which is unknown. If there is no reputation or analysis report, they need time to examine it and they permit the unknown file. Sandblast does not. It has a trick in that it allows the file to download but never allows you to finish the download until analysis ends. When it ends, it releases the file and user experience feels just like slow downloading.

Generally, network sandbox solutions must be in-line configured. This may cause high availability problems and you must consider hardware bypass modules etc. However, Sandblast has native integration with Check Point Next Generation Firewalls. The firewall handles the signature base checks for antivirus, anti-malware, anti-bot, IPS solutions and if there is unknown file it sends the file for analysis in Sandblast. Reputation is calculated and feeds back to NGFW and if Sandblast fails only the sandbox ability fails. The thread extraction ability is really amazing.

You do not need to risk your network by using the in-line sandbox, if the hardware or software fails only sandbox ability fails. You have file or hash submitting ability and this ability needs different hardware in some vendors. However, Check Point Sandblast Network gives you this as an out-of-the-box matter. Check Point Sandblast does not miss the first file like other competitors; it has trick not to miss it. It gives permission to a user for downloading the file but never allows him to finish downloading until the analysis ends.

EDR and EPM solutions like Carbon Black or CyberArk have integrations with the cloud version of Sandblast, however, there must be on-premise Sandblast options also (due to the fact that there are regulations for cloud usage restrictions in some countries). Also, some of the military standards might force you to not send a whole file to the cloud for examination. The thread extraction part has very good capabilities to remove all executables from a document, and, if the user wants to download the original file, it gives link for it. This page needs more customization options or files could be stored on third-party device and could be shared by a third-party product.

I've used the solution for 18 months.