New cloud-based reporting tool provides the flexibility to create custom historical reports on network activity for free.

XG Firewall v18 is here, and with it comes a slew of terrific new features that address the visibility, protection, and performance problems organizations face every day. One of the more exciting enhancements v18 adds is Central Firewall Reporting (CFR), Sophos’ new cloud-based reporting tool. Sophos CFR enables customers to create historical reports on network activity with a great deal of customization. It’s extremely flexible, and it’s included for free on any XG Firewall capable of running the v18 firmware.

Greater insight through analytics

If you are in any way responsible for your organization’s network, here’s a simple question to ask yourself. Do I have a good understanding of the user activities, applications, network events, risks, and performance in our security environment? If you don’t or the solution you’re using only scratches the surface, a reporting tool that provides deeper insight in these areas could be just what you need. Armed with deeper analytics, you can implement policy changes to drive efficiencies that enhance productivity while also protecting against cyber threats.

Flexible, customizable reporting

Creating reports on the topics that are important to you should be easy. And with CFR it is. An integral component of Sophos Central, Central Firewall Reporting provides organizations with a flexible set of options to capture network activity through your Sophos Central account and XG Firewall. Using the interactive dashboard, you can drill down into the syslog data for a granular view that is presented in a visual format for easy understanding. The data can then be analyzed for trends that could lead to gaps in security, requiring policy changes.

Key features in Central Firewall Reporting

With Central Firewall Reporting, you can create reports to fit your needs using one of pre-defined report templates and customizing it the way you want. Here are some of the key features:

Up to seven days of historical reporting

Rich, granular data organized into easy-to-understand reports

Pre-defined out-of-the-box report templates

Flexible report table and charts allow you to customize each report

Report Dashboard provides an at-a-glance view from the XG Firewall for network operational health, policy control events, and all security-driven events

Visual representation of data displayed in graphical form

Search and retrieval of all log data from the XG Firewall

Moving from iView or a 3rd party Syslog Server

If you have a Sophos Central account and one or more XG Firewalls running v18, you will have everything you need to get started. If you don’t have a Sophos Central account, create one for free today to get started!

Adding your firewalls into Sophos Central couldn’t be easier, simply navigate to the “Central Synchronization” screen via the main menu on your XG Firewall, enter your credentials, and turn on Sophos Central Services.

If you’re a Sophos Managed Threat Response Advanced customer with XG Firewall and Sophos Central Reporting enabled, your firewall will automatically begin feeding ATP and IPS events to our MTR analysts to enhance threat hunting and investigations for your organization starting on March 5th.

Check out the full release notes here.

Coming soon

What’s next for CFR? Because Central Firewall Reporting is cloud-based, we’ll roll out additional features and report templates without requiring any firmware update to your XG Firewall. Even bigger, however, is a new reporting service with more features and built-in reports. Complementing the free version of Central Firewall Reporting, CFR Premium is a “for pay” service that unlocks more capabilities and built-in report templates along with historical reporting up to one year. CFR Premium is designed for organizations with more connected devices that generate larger amounts of syslog data and want the flexibility to add storage capacity as needed. Look for CFR Premium to launch in the coming months. In the meantime, try out the free version to see the types of custom reports you can create and the insights you’ll get into network activity. For more information, see the CFR web page on our website.