A glitch in one of SonicWALL’s licensing servers earlier this week left thousands of corporate users unprotected for several hours. According to SonicWALL, the problem caused certain products' license keys to be reset; these products included SonicWALL UTM firewall appliances (PRO series, TZ series, and NSA series), email security appliances, email security software, Content Security Manager appliances, continuous data protection (CDP) appliances, and SGMS managed appliances. Supposedly “secured” networks were exposed to numerous email threats, including spam, phishing, and malware attacks. SonicWALL has apologized for the “inconvenience” to customers and posted instructions on the company’s website for how to resynchronize the affected products’ licenses.

SonicWALL customers were understandably upset at the incident. They clogged the company’s technical support lines and forums, seeking solutions and simply venting their frustrations. But even the company’s solution raised users’ hackles. The posted workaround didn’t work for some customers—which SonicWALL has explained as “slight variations between the different SonicWALL products when executing the steps to resolve [the] issue.” Moreover, the company is advising customers to check all their devices to ensure they are functioning correctly—which could be a monumental task in some instances.

Astaro, another security appliance vendor, has responded with a unique offer: Trade in your SonicWALL appliance and get 50 percent off of an Astaro product. They’re calling it the “Sonic Switch” promotion. Through January 31, 2009, SonicWALL users can get half off the list price of any Astaro hardware or software, including 3- and 5-year maintenance agreements. In addition, Astaro is extending SonicWALL users’ existing contract terms. For more information about the SonicWALL failure, go to http://www.sonicwall.com/us/11087.html; for more information about Astaro’s Sonic Switch, go to http://www.astaro.com/sonicwall_switch.