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    • Network Firewall Security Challenges

    In the early days of networking, your network firewall sat in the perimeter of your data center. Today, your network firewall may be on-premises, in public and private clouds, in a software-defined network, or multi-cloud hybrid environment. Your network is comprised of many kinds of firewalls, not just physical firewall devices. Increasing network complexity makes it difficult to manage your network security.
    Challenges with network firewall security include:

    • Visibility – The traffic flows over your network are complex. Lack of visibility over traffic flows makes managing firewall policies complex.
    • Automation – Network firewalls have hundreds of security policies. Spread over multiple devices, manual management is difficult and time-consuming. Automation of network security management is the solution.
    • Compliance – Proper configuration of your network security devices is a common regulatory requirement. Make sure you can demonstrate compliance.

    FAQ

    Understanding the network security devices in your network is crucial to maintaining your network’s security.

    What are some common network security devices?

    Network security devices include application and network firewalls, which are the most popular network security devices. However, your network may have other devices such as intrusion detection and protection systems, antivirus scanning devices, content filtering devices, as well as pen testing devices, and vulnerability assessment appliances.

    What is an application firewall?

    An application firewall controls access from an application or service, monitoring or blocking the system service calls that do not meet the firewall’s configured policy. The application firewall is typically built to control network traffic up to the application layer.

    What is a firewall device and how do firewalls work?

    A firewall is a network security device that monitors network traffic and decides whether to allow or deny traffic flows based on a defined set of security rules. Firewalls can be physical hardware devices, software, or both.

    What is network security management?

    Network security management lets network administrators manage their network, whether on-prem, in the cloud, or a hybrid network, consisting of physical and virtual single and multi-vendor firewalls.

    What are some challenges in network security management?

    Network administrators need to get clear and comprehensive visibility into network behavior, automate single and multi-vendor device configuration, enforce global network security policies, view network traffic, and generate audit-ready compliance reports across their entire network. Network administrators must continuously deploy security policies across the network. Yet, there may be thousands of firewall policies accumulated over the years. Frequently, they are cluttered, duplicated, outdated, or conflict with new rules. This can adversely affect the network’s security and performance.

    Resources

    Discover more about the benefits of using AlgoSec to prepare for a firewall audit.

    Firewall Rule Recertification – An Application-Centric Approach

    As part of your organization’s security policy management best practices, firewall rules must be reviewed and recertified regularly to ensure security, compliance and optimal fir...

    Firewalls Ablaze? Put Out Network Security Audit & Compliance Fires

    The growing body of regulations and standards forces enterprises to put considerable emphasis on compliance verified by ad hoc and regular auditing of security policies and control...

    Firewall Rule Recertification

    In the past, the only way to recertify a rule was to manually review the comments field of each firewall rule. At a minimum, the comment should include the name of the original rul...

    Tips for Firewall Rule Recertification

    In this lesson, Prof. Wool examines some tips for including firewall rule recertification as part of your change management process, including questions you should be asking and be...

    Additional Features

    How AlgoSec Helps with Network Firewall Security:

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    End-to-end network visibility

    Get visibility of the underlying security policies implemented on firewalls and other security devices across the network. Understand your network's traffic flows. Gain insights into how they relate to critical business applications so you can associate your security policies to their business context.

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    Find unused rules

    Enabling unused rules to be included in a policy goes against best practices and may pose a risk to the organization. The AlgoSec network firewall security management solution makes it easy to find and identify unused rules within your firewall policy.

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    Associate policy rules with business applications

    Firewall rules support applications or processes that require network connectivity to and from specific servers, users, and networks. The AlgoSec AppViz add-on automatically associates the relevant business application that each firewall rule supports, enabling you to review associated firewall rules quickly and easily.

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    Manage multi-vendor devices across your entire hybrid network

    Each firewall vendor often has its own management console, but your network is made up of multiple devices from an assortment of vendors.

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    Ensure continuous compliance

    Simplify and reduce audit preparation efforts and costs with out-of-the-box audit reports for major regulations including PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOX, NERC, and GDPR.

    Network Firewall Security Tips

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    Conduct a network security audit

    Periodically auditing your network security controls are critical. Network security audits help to identify weaknesses in your network security posture so you know where your security policies need to be adapted. Firewall audits also demonstrate that you have been doing your due diligence in reviewing security controls and policy controls.

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    Consider micro-segmentation

    By building and implementing a micro-segmentation strategy, networks can be broken down into multiple segments and made safer against potential breaches by dangerous cybercriminals and hackers.

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    Conduct periodic compliance checks

    Your network firewalls are a critical part of many regulatory requirements. Ensuring that your network firewalls comply with critical regulations is a core part of your network security posture.

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    Periodically evaluate your firewall rules

    Following firewall rules best practices, you should periodically evaluate your firewall rules. Identify and consolidate duplicate rules, remove obsolete or unused firewall rules, and perform periodic firewall rule re-certification.