We all know that the bad guys are getting more sophisticated and determined to invade business networks. The first week of 2013 started out with a bang: a series of well-publicized Java exploits, watering hole campaigns, and denial of service attacks – and that was just business as usual for the modern cyber-crook.

Enterprise network managers have to fight these exploits with better tools, and one ray of hope is a new context-aware firewall from Cisco called ASA CX. I tested one of their midrange ASA-5525-X devices this month and came away impressed. Overall, Cisco has done a superior job at its next generation of firewall technology. The user interface of the Prime Security Manager is, well, prime and one of the best pieces of software I have seen from them, and the features are on par if not better than what their competitors offer.

Here is my report.