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Charterhouse Voice & Data

Palo Alto VM-Series Next-Gen Firewall

Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls and Security Operating Platform is the industry’s most advanced prevention solution for highly evasive zero-day malware/exploits. Our service uses unique approaches that combine dynamic/static analysis, innovative machine learning (AI) techniques, and an advanced analysis environment to detect and prevent evasive cyber threats.

Features

  • Threat Prevention: Prevention of known threats and malware
  • App-ID: Complete network visibility of all applications regardless of port
  • User-ID: Visibility of all users and groups for policy, logging
  • WildFire: Identification and analysis of unknown malware
  • URL Filtering: Customisable and rapid-responding URL filtering engine
  • DNS Security service applies predictive analytics, machine learning, and automation
  • GlobalProtect: Extend NGFW policies to remote endpoints
  • Available as virtual machines, cloud or hardware,delivered
  • Built for automation, scalability and reliability at all times
  • Natively integrated: an industry leading API and adoption

Benefits

  • Collapse multiple separate security services onto a single platform
  • Cost effective service supporting all environments (small or large)
  • Flexible policy-based access for different user group requirements
  • Proactive approach to detection and prevention of cyber-attacks
  • Detailed malware and threat analysis and reporting
  • Identify application usage; type, what and who is using it
  • Enhance work efficiencies by enabling the right applications during worktime
  • Prevent data leakage through unauthorised file transfer
  • Automated protection against attacks

Pricing

£190 a unit a year

  • Education pricing available

Service documents

Request an accessible format
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Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

6 2 3 4 1 3 1 8 8 2 6 7 2 1 4

Contact

Charterhouse Voice & Data Liz Holmes
Telephone: 02076137441
Email: publicsector@cvdgroup.com

Service scope

Service constraints
None
System requirements
  • For Cloud-Delivered: A Panorama and Cortex Data Lake instance
  • For Virtual: A supported hypervisor/public cloud environment
  • For Hardware: Racking, Power, Cabling etc.

User support

Email or online ticketing support
Email or online ticketing
Support response times
24x7x365 Support Priority 1 (Critical) - < 1 Hour Priority 2 (High) - 2 Hours Priority 3 (Medium) - 4 Hours Priority 4 (Low) - 8 Business Hours Support Service Level Agreements (SLA) are identical for Monday to Friday and Weekends/Public Holidays.
User can manage status and priority of support tickets
Yes
Online ticketing support accessibility
None or don’t know
Phone support
Yes
Phone support availability
24 hours, 7 days a week
Web chat support
No
Onsite support
Yes, at extra cost
Support levels
All products come with a standard support offering included which entitles the customer to 24x7x365 email, telephone and web support. A dedicated "Resident Engineer" is available at an additional cost.
Support available to third parties
Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

Getting started
Palo Alto Networks offers on-site training (EDU-210, EDU-214, EDU-220, EDU-330, and more) and online training (EDU-110, EDU-114, EDU-120, etc.). In addition, publicly accessible user-documentation which details everything from initial setup through to ongoing maintenance & usage and how to use the API. Professional Services are also available in the form of "Quickstart" packages to rapidly onboard organisations.
Service documentation
Yes
Documentation formats
  • HTML
  • PDF
End-of-contract data extraction
All customer data is exportable should the contract come to an end. Cloud data that Palo Alto Networks hold on an organisation/tenant can be exported and deleted by contacting Palo Alto Networks support. If no contact is made data will automatically be purged after 90 days post cessation of the contract(s)
End-of-contract process
At the end of the contract, if the organisation chooses not to renew and continue with the service all data pertaining to the organisation is deleted. If the organisation chooses to renew then the service continues as normal. 90-days prior to the contract expiration date an initial reminder email is sent, followed up by gradually increasing reminders until the date of expiration.

Using the service

Web browser interface
Yes
Using the web interface
The web interface is accessible either by the dedicated management interface or by enabling web management capabilities on a traffic-processing (dataplane) interface. All features and functionality are primarily delivered through the web interface. This includes the initial setup, system-configuration, network-configuration, supporting objects configuration, security policy creation, monitoring and reporting. A role-based access control mechanism is available if desired to restrict certain users/roles to only certain configuration functions or views.
Web interface accessibility standard
None or don’t know
How the web interface is accessible
The web interface is accessible either by the dedicated management interface or by enabling web management capabilities on a traffic-processing (dataplane) interface. Access to this management interface can be restricted by IP address if desired
Web interface accessibility testing
Unknown
API
Yes
What users can and can't do using the API
The RESTful API has near full-functionality of what is available through the command-line interface (CLI) or the web-interface. The API can be used to program practically any aspect of the platform and then be used to monitor and report the health and data the platform itself holds. The API can also be used to “Bootstrap” or provision the NGFW to cut-down on deployment time. There are prebuilt examples of using the API to integrate with other third-party services to streamline operations and improve efficiency
API automation tools
  • Ansible
  • Chef
  • OpenStack
  • SaltStack
  • Terraform
  • Puppet
  • Other
Other API automation tools
  • Python/Go Libraries – Published libraries for use in custom project
  • Demisto (Cortex XSOAR) - Supports the industry leading SOAR toolset.
API documentation
Yes
API documentation formats
  • HTML
  • PDF
Command line interface
Yes
Command line interface compatibility
  • Linux or Unix
  • Windows
  • MacOS
Using the command line interface
The command-line interface (CLI) used by the NGFW is accessible via telnet, SSH and serial. The CLI can be utilised to configure and manage all aspects of the platform. The CLI has two primary operating modes, an “operator” read-only mode which is used to display information and configuration, the other being a “configurator” read-write mode which can be used to make configuration changes. The CLI also supports role-based access control (RBAC) allowing for more granular control over what can and cannot be done per user.

Scaling

Scaling available
Yes
Scaling type
  • Automatic
  • Manual
Independence of resources
Quality of service policies can be leveraged to restrict and control/shape traffic using Layer 3-4, user and application information to ensure that no single entity/user can abuse the available bandwidth and processing power available. In addition, if the virtual firewalls are used auto-scaling and load-balancing within the public or private cloud can be leveraged to ensure that when capacity is being exhausted another instance can come online and share the load.
Usage notifications
Yes
Usage reporting
API

Analytics

Infrastructure or application metrics
Yes
Metrics types
  • CPU
  • Disk
  • HTTP request and response status
  • Memory
  • Network
  • Number of active instances
  • Other
Other metrics
  • Current active sessions
  • Layer-7 application statistics: bandwidth, sessions, users etc.
  • User statistics: bandwidth, sessions, threats, etc
  • Known malware and IPS events
  • Benign, Grayware and Malicious files
  • File transfer activity
  • URL Filtering activity
Reporting types
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

Supplier type
Reseller providing extra support
Organisation whose services are being resold
Palo Alto Networks

Staff security

Staff security clearance
Other security clearance
Government security clearance
Up to Developed Vetting (DV)

Asset protection

Knowledge of data storage and processing locations
Yes
Data storage and processing locations
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
  • Other locations
User control over data storage and processing locations
Yes
Datacentre security standards
Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
Penetration testing frequency
At least every 6 months
Penetration testing approach
In-house
Protecting data at rest
  • Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
  • Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
  • Physical access control, complying with another standard
  • Encryption of all physical media
  • Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
  • Other
Other data at rest protection approach
Amazon and Google uses several layers of encryption to protect data. Using multiple layers of encryption adds redundant data protection and allows us to select the optimal approach based on application requirements. (further information to follow) Google Security statement https://cloud.google.com/security/overview/ https://cloud.google.com/security/ AWS Security Statement https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/data-center/controls/ https://d1.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/aws-security-whitepaper https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/data-center/data-centers/ All logs are stored in the Cortex data lake, user activity is monitored and stored in the Cortex data lake for the agreed retention period
Data sanitisation process
Yes
Data sanitisation type
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
  • Hardware containing data is completely destroyed
Equipment disposal approach
Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Backup and recovery

Backup and recovery
Yes
What’s backed up
All data held within the service
Backup controls
The service configuration can be backed up via API on demand or via the CLI or web interface. The central managed platform (Panorama) can be scheduled to export configuration data of managed devices via SCP or FTP to an external storage repository
Datacentre setup
  • Multiple datacentres with disaster recovery
  • Multiple datacentres
  • Single datacentre with multiple copies
  • Single datacentre
Scheduling backups
Users schedule backups through a web interface
Backup recovery
Users can recover backups themselves, for example through a web interface

Data-in-transit protection

Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
  • Private network or public sector network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Bonded fibre optic connections
Data protection within supplier network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Other
Other protection within supplier network
Palo Alto Networks uses a proprietary encryption layer for API calls, telemetry and update services.

Availability and resilience

Guaranteed availability
Not Applicable for this service
Approach to resilience
This is down to customer requirements. Further information on request
Outage reporting
NA

Identity and authentication

User authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Limited access network (for example PSN)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
  • Other
Other user authentication
Users predominately authenticate using a username and password combination, a role-based access control (RBAC) system is in place to specify what each user has access too.
Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
Restrictions can be implemented by restricting IP addresses able to access the management interface(s). In addition a role-based access control (RBAC) system is in place to further restrict users to user definable configuration views and modes
Access restriction testing frequency
At least once a year
Management access authentication
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Limited access network (for example PSN)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
  • Other
Description of management access authentication
Restrictions can be implemented by restricting IP addresses able to access the management interface(s). In addition a role-based access control (RBAC) system is in place to further restrict users to user definable configuration views and modes
Devices users manage the service through
  • Dedicated device on a segregated network (providers own provision)
  • Dedicated device on a government network (for example PSN)
  • Dedicated device over multiple services or networks
  • Any device but through a bastion host (a bastion host is a server that provides access to a private network from an external network such as the internet)
  • Directly from any device which may also be used for normal business (for example web browsing or viewing external email)

Audit information for users

Access to user activity audit information
Users have access to real-time audit information
How long user audit data is stored for
User-defined
Access to supplier activity audit information
Users have access to real-time audit information
How long supplier audit data is stored for
User-defined
How long system logs are stored for
User-defined

Standards and certifications

ISO/IEC 27001 certification
Yes
Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001
British Assessment Bureau
ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
06/11/2023
What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
NA
ISO 28000:2007 certification
No
CSA STAR certification
Yes
CSA STAR accreditation date
28/10/2016
CSA STAR certification level
Level 1: CSA STAR Self-Assessment
What the CSA STAR doesn’t cover
No exemptions
PCI certification
No
Cyber essentials
Yes
Cyber essentials plus
Yes
Other security certifications
Yes
Any other security certifications
  • SOC2
  • FIPS 140-2
  • NCSC Foundation
  • See https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/legal-notices/trust-center/technical-certifications#

Security governance

Named board-level person responsible for service security
Yes
Security governance certified
Yes
Security governance standards
  • CSA CCM version 3.0
  • Other
Other security governance standards
SOC2 FIPS 140-2 NCSC Foundation See https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/legal-notices/trust-center/technical-certifications#
Information security policies and processes
Palo Alto Networks has a formal Enterprise Risk Management program, which includes the performance of an annual risk assessment, with periodic updates, as applicable, to identify and assess key risks and their mitigation approaches. The scope of the program encompasses information security risks and product risks. Our security program consists of a risk-based approach that includes administrative, technical and physical safeguards reasonably designed to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of customer data. Palo Alto Network's information security program is aligned to ISO 27001/2, and includes key controls from HIPAA, PCI and SOC2.

Operational security

Configuration and change management standard
Supplier-defined controls
Configuration and change management approach
Both Palo Alto Networks and the end-user organisation are in full control of their relevant and respective change control processes. Palo Alto has a documented change control procedure in line with ISO27001 and additional details are available upon request.
Vulnerability management type
Supplier-defined controls
Vulnerability management approach
Applications and software that collect, transmit or display, or process End User Data. Palo Alto Networks conducts an application security assessment review to identify common security vulnerabilities as identified by industry recognised organisations annually or for all major releases, whichever occurs first. The scope of the security assessment will primarily focus on application security, including, but not limited to, a penetration test of the application, as well as a code review. Palo Alto Networks utilises a qualified third party to conduct the application security assessments. Palo Alto Networks may conduct the security assessment review directly, following industry standard best practice.
Protective monitoring type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Protective monitoring approach
Applications and software that collect, transmit or display, or process End User Data. Palo Alto Networks conducts an application security assessment review to identify common security vulnerabilities as identified by industry recognised organisations annually or for all major releases, whichever occurs first. The scope of the security assessment will primarily focus on application security, including, but not limited to, a penetration test of the application, as well as a code review. Palo Alto Networks utilises a qualified third party to conduct the application security assessments. Palo Alto Networks may conduct the security assessment review directly, following industry standard best practices.
Incident management type
Conforms to a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v3.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
Incident management approach
We have a documented incident management policy and process, which have been implemented, maintained and assessed in accordance with the guidance from ITIL v.3 and the current ISO20000 and ISO27001 standards. Further information is available on request.

Secure development

Approach to secure software development best practice
Supplier-defined process

Separation between users

Virtualisation technology used to keep applications and users sharing the same infrastructure apart
Yes
Who implements virtualisation
Third-party
Third-party virtualisation provider
End Customer
How shared infrastructure is kept separate
Single Tenanted deployments

Energy efficiency

Energy-efficient datacentres
Yes
Description of energy efficient datacentres
Palo Alto follows the best practice guidelines for the EU Code of Conduct on Data Centre Energy Efficiency

Social Value

Social Value

Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

Fighting climate change

We have committed to achieving Carbon Net Neutrality and have in place a clear and achievable plan to get there. See section 5 for more details. We know our operations and delivering for customers has an impact on the environment. We have a carbon footprint and we have completed significant works to understand the extent of that impact on the environment. That allows us to adopt genuine and realistic targets to reduce our impact, as well as implement new ways of working to achieve those reductions. Throughout 2022-24+ we have worked with experts from Sustainable Advantage, a leading environmental consultancy, to complete a thorough ESG review, and to complete a full carbon baselining. Through this work we have adopted a bold and ambitious new Environmental Policy, which includes targets to achieve Carbon Net Zero. We also publish a Carbon Reduction Plan on our website which outlines how we plan to achieve Net Zero.

Tackling economic inequality

We support our staff with enhanced benefits, including additional holidays, employee assistance programs, health insurance, and other benefits. We pay our employees above the minimum wage in all our locations and invest in external benchmarking to objectively measure that we are paying fair rates for the work our people do. Our Cyber Security team, based in Peterborough, have established links with local secondary schools to support a school leaver program. We actively recruit school-leavers into appropriate roles in the business and invest in their learning. Where possible, we work with local companies to support us in our purchasing and delivery of goods and services. In addition to our supply chain, our colleagues travel across the UK to support our customers, and we spend money in the local communities we travel to.

Equal opportunity

We have an established D&I policy and are working hard to make the demographic profile as a business match those of the communities where our offices are based. We employ people from across the UK, and offer a hybrid working policy as standard. We also support fully remote working where the role permits, which ensures our many vacancies are open to everyone from John o’Groats to Land’s End. We publish a modern slavery statement on our website annually, which sets out how we ensure no modern slavery exists in our supply chains.

Wellbeing

We invest in well-being programmes, train mental health first aiders and support an employee assistance programme giving access to confidential help on any issue for any employee. Each year our employees nominate our chosen charities who we then support throughout the year as part of our charity initiatives. We ensure our chosen charities are local to our office locations. We encourage our employees to volunteer with their local communities and support them when they do through flexible working. We have colleagues who volunteer with sports clubs and charities, as well as share their expertise on committees and boards.

Pricing

Price
£190 a unit a year
Discount for educational organisations
Yes
Free trial available
No

Service documents

Request an accessible format
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at publicsector@cvdgroup.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.