Tag Archives: firepower threat defense

The Evolution of Cisco’s Firepower

CCIE Security, CCNA Security, CCNP Security,

firepower

If you read the post here on the blog regarding a short history of Cisco Firepower, you recall that Cisco acquired a successful company named Sourcefire and this brought the Firepower technology into the company.

Let’s take a look at the progression of products that have resulted from this acquisition, and provide some more details on the latest technology (as of this writing) which is Firepower Threat Defense (FTD).

2013

  • Classic FirePOWER 7000 Series Appliances
  • Classic FirePOWER 8000 Series Appliances
  • VMware

2014

  • FirePOWER Services on ASA 5500-X
    • ASA5506-X, ASA5506H-X, ASA5506W-X
    • ASA5508-X
    • ASA5516-X
    • ASA5512-X
    • ASA5515-X
    • ASA5525-X
    • ASA5545-X
    • ASA5555-X

2015

  • Firepower Threat Defense on ASA 5500-X
  • Firepower 9300
  • VMware
  • AWS

2016

  • Firepower Threat Defense on Firepower 4100 Series
    • 4110, 4120, 4140, 4150
  • Azure

2017

  • Firepower Threat Defense on Firepower 2100 Series
    • 2110, 2120, 2130, 2140

Remember, FTD is so exciting because it represents the convergence of code from the Sourcefire FirePOWER software and the Cisco ASA software as well as the code representing new features.

The Sourcefire code is actually implemented as multiple software components inside the system and includes:

  • Firepower core software – includes Snort, Web server, database, and firmware
  • Software patches and hotfixes 
  • Snort rules
  • Vulnerability database (VDB)
  • Geolocation database (GDB)
  • URL filtering database
  • Security Intelligence Feed 
  • Local malware detection 
  • Integration components – might include ISE integration, AD integration, etc.