It seems crazy, but it's been a year since we started CheckMates. 

And yes, we are going to have a party to celebrate.

As part of this, we are going to give out a few awards, Oscars style, with a video to announce the winners with special guests.

During my last visit to Israel, I sat with Amit Sharon‌ and Moti Sagey‌ and we came up with a couple of categories that we will solicit nominations for:

• Post of the Year
• Member of the Year
• Check Point Feature of the Year

I would love to get additional ideas from the community for award categories.

Think of it as an RFC (Request for Categories)

From among the submissions, which should occur as comments to this post, we will choose a few to include in our list above.

Next week, we will begin soliciting for nominations in each category.

Welcome to "This Week in CheckMates," your weekly highlight reel for all things CheckMates!

Past and future posts will be available here: About CheckMates

To have these updates show up in your preferred RSS reader add the following URL: About CheckMates RSS Feed 

See also our social media accounts:

• Twitter: @CPCheckMates
• Facebook: Check Point CheckMates
• LinkedIn: Check Point CheckMates

CheckMates Returns to Atlanta

This week Vicky Broadwater‌ and I did an event in Atlanta. She did the "bring your own malware" part, I talked about the R80.10 API:

Oh yeah, and I autographed a few of Tim Hall‌'s books as well:

The next CheckMates event I am doing is in Geneva in late May!

More details here: Geneva: Best Practices for Check Point Security‌

Community Highlights

Meanwhile, here are the top threads from the past week:

Check Point R80.20 Production and Public EA 

All the details are here!

Deploying Auto Scaling CloudGuard gateways in Azure using VM Scale Sets 

Useful guide as you start deploying CloudGuard gateways in Azure.

Adding an interface in ClusterXL High Availability 

It's an older thread, but it came up in another thread as someone asked the best way to change interface topology on a cluster object.

Mass Modify Log Server of All Gateways (replace, add, remove) - MDS/SMS - 80.10 api 

You don't generally need to modify the log server of a bunch of gateways, but when you do... 

GAiA WebUI not working with latest Chrome browser 

Something changed in the recent Chrome and Firefox builds. Workaround is listed in this thread.

HTTPS inspection real life examples and caveats in R77.30 

Some real-world experience with this feature documented.

MLM Performance Optimization 

Some tips from the community here

SecureXL is enabled, but the traffic is not accelerated  

HTTPS Inspection is definitely a culprit here

Compatible HFs on top of R77.30 Jumbo HFA 

If you install non-jumbo hotfixes, be aware they may not be compatible with the most recent jumbo hotfix!

Installing Checkpoint Gaia  R80.10 in Dell Poweredge R440 

Not every Open Server is supported. Always check before you buy!

Upcoming Events

Here's what's coming up in the next few weeks:

• 24^th May 2018: Geneva: Best Practices for Check Point Security 

Hello,

I do not like some strange auto-generated username - Serged7631f0d-a6fd-4106-8d02-849f1cfd08dd

I seem to recall registering with my real name and then trying to get forum name as my truncated first name - Serg

I noticed this Jive cloud instance is using OKTA for identity and SSO. We are using OKTA in our company as well. It this auto generated user-name has something to do with this?

Regards,

Sergej

Welcome to "This Week in CheckMates," your weekly highlight reel for all things CheckMates!

Past and future posts will be available here: About CheckMates

To have these updates show up in your preferred RSS reader add the following URL: About CheckMates RSS Feed 

See also our social media accounts:

• Twitter: @CPCheckMates
• Facebook: Check Point CheckMates
• LinkedIn: Check Point CheckMates

CheckMates Events in Canada

This week, I was in the Great White North doing the "Migrate to R80.10" talk, which has been very popular!

Peter Stack‌ claimed he could have filled more than a couple rooms in Toronto--may have to take him up on that in the future

Someone even brought me an old Check Point CD to autograph. I had signed it before, too!

Meanwhile, we did a smaller, more intimate event in Calgary:

Next week, I'll be in Atlanta! 

If you haven't already signed up for the event: Atlanta: Check Point R80 API and Bring Your Own Malware 

Community Highlights

Meanwhile, here are the top threads from the past week:

CPAPI - Web API Tool 

A sample web portal that leverages the R80.x APIs to create objects and rules.

Upgrade 1470 to 1490 

Yes, you can do this!

How to check the access list in Check Point via CLI 

Covers both R77.30 and R80.10

Best Practice: Skype for Business (Lync) with(out) QoS 

Do you use Skype for Business with or without QoS? Weigh in!

https://community.checkpoint.com/thread/7523-management-server-internet-facing 

Should you or should you not expose your management server to the Internet?

Upcoming Events

Here's what's coming up in the next few weeks:

• 25^th April 2018: How to Prevent the Next Global Attack with IPS‌ 
• 25^th April 2018: Cleveland CheckMates: Endpoint Security Lab and Happy Hour  
• 26^th April 2018: Atlanta: Check Point R80 API and Bring Your Own Malware 
• 24^th May 2018: Geneva: Best Practices for Check Point Security 

Welcome to "This Week in CheckMates," your weekly highlight reel for all things CheckMates!

Past and future posts will be available here: About CheckMates

To have these updates show up in your preferred RSS reader add the following URL: About CheckMates RSS Feed 

See also our social media accounts:

• Twitter: @CPCheckMates
• Facebook: Check Point CheckMates
• LinkedIn: Check Point CheckMates

Community Highlights

Here are the top threads from the past week:

R80+ Change Control: A Visual Guide 

Building on the work of others and previous CheckMates articles, Tim Hall‌ has put together a nice visual guide!

R80.10 upgrade from JHF 70 to JHF 91 failed 

Upgrading between JHF releases might fail if you also have private fixes installed that were not integrated into the Jumbo Hotfix.

VSX: Add Many Routes At Once? 

Yes, it's possible to do.

Understanding Threat Emulation logs 

This article digs into what you might find in the Threat Emulation logs.

What do you use for monitoring Gateways/Management? 

Some suggested tools you can use to monitor your network (including Check Point gateways).

Properly defining the Internet within a security policy 

An older thread that has cropped up with some new suggestions.

https://community.checkpoint.com/thread/7424-did-you-know-add-snort-protections-with-r8010-api 

Snort is the language you can use to add custom signatures to our IPS. Those signatures can be loaded through the API.

Upcoming Events

Here's what's coming up in the next few weeks:

• 17^th April 2018: CheckMates Live Toronto: Migrating to R80.10, Live! 
• 19^th April 2018: CheckMates Live Calgary: Migrating to R80.10, Live!
• 26^th April 2018: Atlanta: Check Point R80 API and Bring Your Own Malware 
• 24^th May 2018: Geneva: Best Practices for Check Point Security 

Welcome to "This Week in CheckMates," your weekly highlight reel for all things CheckMates!

Past and future posts will be available here: About CheckMates

To have these updates show up in your preferred RSS reader add the following URL: About CheckMates RSS Feed 

See also our social media accounts:

• Twitter: @CPCheckMates
• Facebook: Check Point CheckMates
• LinkedIn: Check Point CheckMates

Community Highlights

Here are the top threads from the past week:

https://community.checkpoint.com/community/management/visibility-monitoring/blog/2018/04/04/threat-p... 

As promised in the Security Visibility Best Practices with SmartEvent‌ TechTalk, Oren Koren‌ has made available the "Cyber Kill Chain" SmartEvent report for R80.10.

R80.10 log server question 

A thread on setting up a separate log server in R80.10, which you might want to do in larger environments.

Overview of ISOmorphic and Blink 

To tide you over until our TechTalk on CDT and Blink, we provide a video overview of ISOmorphic and Blink.

GAIA R80.20 Release Date And New Features?  

People are definitely interested in R80.20. This is the list of features in an EA release and may not be final.

Management Public IP redundancy 

$FWDIR/conf/masters is still a thing

Security Gateway Inventory  

Useful script that queries the various gateways that are managed to get a complete inventory of what's running what.

How to deal with DNS over HTTPS, DNS over TLS, QUIC and PSOM? 

A "best practices" and "what's possible" discussion (not entirely Check Point specific, but useful none the less).

Editing Policy from no layers to 2 layers 

Explanation of a concept that might look confusing when you start adding policy layers. 

Upcoming Events

Here's what's coming up in the next few weeks:

• 17^th April 2018: CheckMates Live Toronto: Migrating to R80.10, Live! 
• 19^th April 2018: CheckMates Live Calgary: Migrating to R80.10, Live!
• 26^th April 2018: Atlanta: Check Point R80 API and Bring Your Own Malware 

It's that time of the month, where we recognize great contributors to the CheckMates community. 

Put your virtual hands together for Member of the Month: https://community.checkpoint.com/people/heiko95414c6c-7c56-4fb8-862e-45505910335d‌

Heiko was an easy choice thanks to his fantastic work on mapping the various TCP/UDP ports used by Check Point products visually: Ports Used for Communication by Various Check Point Modules‌ (and updating based on feedback).

That and a number of other threads!

Heiko, tell us a little about yourself & what you do

Born in Germany, I have been working as an IT Security Consultant for AXIANS IT Security GmbH with Check Point and other security products for about 10 years. My experience with Check Point products goes back to the year 1997 (FireWall-1 version 3.0b). Privately, I like to relax with my family or do sports--mountain biking or ice hockey. It helps to forget the IT issues

Tell us a little about your experience with Check Point

I see Check Point as a technology leader since 1997. That is why I have worked hard to earn my CCSM and work on all Check Point products from SMB Appliances to 61K Appliances. I like to optimize the performance of Check Point Firewalls and Software Blades. Furthermore, I find the debugging of the Blades very interesting. It's helpful to our customers here.

Do you have a unique deployment of a Check Point product?

I have a VMWare Lab zoo and a couple of Appliances in our LAB. Feels like a million systems!

What do you use the CheckMates platform for?

I think the exchange of information in CheckMates is great. I like it and I think the participation is great. Well done!

What do you like to do for fun?

When I not working. Have a lot of fun with my kids and my family.

If you could create any new technology right now, what would it be?

Fully automated houses secured by Check Point. Alternatively without Internet connection

Anything else you'd like to let other CheckMates members know about?

Keep up the good work. It's a great forum with great users. A thank you to everyone who wrote great articles and answers here.