What is firewall monitoring?

What is firewall monitoring?

Firewall monitoring is the process of keeping your network firewalls secure by analyzing key parameters like traffic, bandwidth utilization, and session settings. Firewall monitoring is the process of closely tracking the health, availability, and performance of the firewalls in your network using a firewall monitoring tool.

To utilize a firewall at its fullest potential, a firewall monitor is essential. However, these challenges can hinder its performance.

The importance of firewall monitoring for modern network security

Cyberattack tactics and malware constantly change over time. Firewalls can only protect network devices from security breaches and unauthorized access if their rules are up to date. This is true both for hardware firewalls made by reputable brands like Cisco, Juniper, and Check Point as well as software and cloud-native firewalls.

To properly protect networks from unauthorized access, security teams need to implement security rules designed with the network’s unique set of hardware and software applications in mind. If a system administrator installs a new application without updating the relevant firewall rules, productivity and security are likely to suffer.

A new application could be hosted on a cloud platform like Azure or AWS or on hardware running operating systems like Linux or Windows. Each scenario requires security teams to make changes to firewall rules so they can effectively monitor network traffic, denying unauthorized traffic while allowing legitimate traffic to pass through.

Key features & capabilities of firewall monitoring tools and solutions

• Advanced change management tools. Undocumented changes to firewall rules introduce security vulnerabilities and confusion into the network monitoring process. Security teams need firewall monitoring tools that automatically save new configurations with extensive version histories and generate comprehensive documentation easily.
• Automated rule optimization. Redundant and unnecessary firewall rules can inhibit security performance. Identifying sub-optimal rules is a repetitive and time-consuming process, which makes it an ideal candidate for smart automation with a firewall monitoring plug-in.
• Configuration simulation capabilities. Sophisticated firewall monitoring platforms allow security leaders to plan configuration changes using realistic simulations and scenarios. This helps organizations identify security gaps and close them without the risk of opening new ones in their place.

What to look for in a firewall monitoring solution?

Obtain comprehensive performance analysis

From availability to health analytics and performance monitoring, AlgoSec holds responsibility for monitoring, thus, protecting the whole of your sensitive firewall device.

Track metrics like backplane utilization

Monitor critical performance metrics such as CPU, memory, and backplane utilization, active session count, oversize and undersize packets, and much more to warrant firewall security.

Measure in and out traffic utilization

Get to know the real-time network traffic of any SNMP device. AlgoSec provides you interface level bandwidth utilization based on in and out traffic along with graphs.

Capture real-time performance data

Gain deep insights on firewall performance with an on-premises agent that connects to the SNMP MIB of the device, and collects detailed information from there.

Track the anomalies instantly

Identify and rectify problems with solid data about outages and SNMP traps. Root cause analysis reports will help you keep track of the anomalous behavior of firewall devices.

Receive precise downtime notifications

Up, down, or trouble – Act to your priority with timely notifications. Get email, SMS, voice, instant messenger, RSS, and push notifications about downtime.

Which firewall performance metrics should be displayed in a network traffic monitoring dashboard?

• Real-time monitoring of network traffic
• Monitoring firewall rules and IP addresses
• CPU utilization
• Disk usage
• Memory utilization
• System low memory usage
• Number of intrusions detected
• Number of VoIP connections
• Number of virus transmissions detected
• Number of HTTP proxy requests processed
• Number of current SMTP proxy connections
• System sessions count
• VPN SSL login users
• VPN SSL active tunnels
• VPN tunnel interface status
• VPN tunnel in octets
• VPN tunnel out octets

5 common firewall monitor challenges

1. Outdated firewall rules and policies

New applications, users, and workflows constantly change the organization’s security posture, and security teams must constantly race to catch up. Many cyberattacks occur during the gap between implementing changes and updating firewall rules to meet the organization’s current security risk profile.

2. Change management

When security professionals update firewall policies without maintaining comprehensive documentation, effective change management becomes impossible. This leads to situations where redundant rules become obstacles to firewall performance and critical vulnerabilities are easy to overlook.

3. Errors caused by internal users

Unintentional errors contribute to nearly nine out of ten cybersecurity breaches. Many cybercrime exploits rely on human error at some point in the kill chain. Unpatched software and badly enforced security policies are just two examples of how internal users can weaken enterprise security – yet many firewall monitoring platforms fail to provide visibility into these problems.

4. Unencrypted data and traffic

Cybercriminals intercept unencrypted data when conducting reconnaissance into potential targets. They can read this data using a packet analyzer and learn a great deal about the network it belongs to. Unencrypted data might tell hackers about devices on your network and the protocols they use to communicate with one another, making the network much easier to infiltrate.

5. Shadow IT

Firewalls can only inspect data that travels through the part of the network they inspect. When people send data through systems, applications, and services that aren’t part of the network, they lose all the security benefits that security policies provide. If the firewall monitoring system does not provide visibility into the entire hybrid network, critical security vulnerabilities may go entirely unnoticed.

How does AlgoSec help with firewall monitoring?

With advanced firewall monitoring services from AlgoSec, you can simplify firewall monitoring/management, and strengthen your enterprise network.

Configure and activate real-time monitoring

AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer supports real-time firewall monitoring. Admins can check for device changes in real time, without having to wait for a full analysis. AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer periodically checks policies for changes and displays detected changes on its web interface.

Monitoring and syslog messages

The AlgoSec Security Management Suite uses the syslog system to send firewall monitoring/log messages to local or remote servers. External systems like SIEM platforms and SOC systems can read these messages and take relevant action.

Interactive traffic simulation queries

With AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer, operations and security teams can run interactive traffic simulation queries to diagnose whether the firewall device is blocking operational traffic, and to identify the policies that need to be tightened.

Risk management module

AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer automatically analyzes every packet a device may encounter, enabling security teams to detect risks and the specific rules that cause them across all devices.

Automated change management

Manual change management is time-consuming and impedes IT agility and security. AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer automates and simplifies change management. It reports device policy changes, analyzes their impact and logs a complete change history so security personnel can verify that all changes are performed correctly.

Policy optimization

AlgoSec enables customers to optimize policies by providing information about unused, disabled, covered, wide, permissive or time-inactive rules. By un-cluttering policies, devices work more efficiently and are easier to manage.

Firewall monitoring best practices and tips

Here are some firewall monitoring best practices to maintain and optimize your firewall’s performance.

Plan the firewall and security policies

Identifying the firewall’s intended purpose and role goes a long way towards optimizing its performance. Consider if it will monitor the entire network, or just its perimeter or specific parts. Also decide if you will have a DMZ or NAT.

Identify, monitor, and document traffic types

Monitor firewall traffic to identify the types of traffic your organization will never need. Hackers may exploit vulnerabilities in this traffic, so filter it out or block it by default. Also document the results to improve visibility into traffic types, patterns, and what kind of resources each type requires.

Map out your entire network

Map your network to create secure zones with your interfaces. Apply the right policies to these zones to control traffic between them, and to ensure proper (and safe) communication.

Enable logging on permit/deny rules

This helps with troubleshooting routing and provides evidence in case of intrusions. It also supports firewall optimization based on historical traffic.

Regularly test the firewall

Regularly test the firewall for traffic flow and effectiveness. Make sure legitimate traffic goes where it’s supposed to, and unwanted traffic is filtered or flagged.

Generate firewall logs

Logs will help you detect security violations or threats, so make sure they’re set up in the firewall monitor. Also set appropriate alert thresholds so the device flags errors but generates too many false positives.

FAQ

Why is a firewall monitor important?

A firewall monitor is the best way to gauge if the firewall is working as well as it should. It provides a proactive means of tracking and controlling the firewall’s performance to ensure that these bad actors are kept out.

What does a firewall monitor actually do?

A firewall monitor monitors firewall traffic to identify anomalous

behaviors. It also monitors logs, rules, configuration, alerts and processing speed to provide deep insights on its performance and health. Finally, it enables administrators to balance firewall speed and security.

How does firewall configuration work?

Firewall configuration is the process of determining what kind of traffic the firewall will allow and what it will deny. Different types of firewalls have different configuration capabilities:

• Packet filtering firewalls inspect traffic based on its IP address and port information.
• Stateful inspection firewalls keep track of the sessions each individual data packet is a part of.

Next-generation firewalls can perform deep packet inspection and conduct identity-based analysis to provide meaningful context into data traffic.

What is firewall log monitoring?

Firewall log monitoring means the checking of the logs produced by a firewall. Both software and hardware firewalls normally produce logs, and these contain a wealth of information about how the firewall is functioning. In firewall monitoring, analyzing such logs is an important step for gaining a deeper view of the implemented firewalls.

How does a firewall detect security threats and vulnerabilities?

Every type of firewall detects unauthorized traffic differently.

• Simple firewalls may detect threats by checking incoming traffic against a list of well-known malicious DNS servers. If a data packet comes from a server known to be compromised, the firewall will drop it.

Next-generation firewalls can inspect and contextualize application data to make sure its content is secure. For example, some NGFWs can prevent phishing attacks by detecting secret login credentials traveling to spoofed websites outside the network.

What are the most important things to check when monitoring a firewall?

• Bad traffic and denied requests. Notify administrators about network devices and applications sending outbound denied requests to the firewall. Try to avoid letting unauthorized outbound traffic hit the firewall and impact its performance.
• Unused and redundant rules. Unused rules may drag down performance without improving security, and overlapping rules can lead to unexpected vulnerabilities. Make sure rules are properly prioritized and running in a logical order.
• Frequently triggered firewall rules. Pay close attention to firewall rules that trigger more frequently than others. These may indicate persistent cyberattacks, but they may also happen due to operating systems like Windows handling traffic inefficiently.

Which metrics are most relevant to a firewall monitor?

A firewall monitor analyzes several key metrics to secure the firewall, and confirm its performance and health status. These include traffic, bandwidth utilization, CPU utilization, and number of active sessions.

It also analyzes other metrics like:

• Disk usage
• Memory utilization
• System low memory usage
• Backplane utilization
• Number of intrusions detected
• Packet size (oversize and undersize)
• VPN tunnel interface status

What tools capture real-time performance data?

Some tools, such as AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer capture real-time performance data so security admins can immediately recognize gaps that need to be further analyzed or closed.

Does a firewall monitor provide notifications?

Yes, firewall monitoring services provide timely notifications via multiple channels which can be prioritized based on the organization’s specific security requirements or business goals.

What is a firewall traffic analyzer?

A firewall analyzer continuously reviews rules, internal users, data passing through interfaces and shadow IT-enabled devices or services. It also shows activity status 24×7, and provides in-depth reports so organizations can proactively manage the network.

What about monitoring generic devices?

With AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer, admins can enable live monitoring for generic devices. AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer provides real-time change monitoring, basic routing simulation based on an SNMP connection, and baseline configuration compliance analysis.

What does a firewall monitoring software do?

Discovery: Find all firewalls and related assets and gather all relevant details.

Monitoring/Data Collection: Define what data you want to gather about these assets and how you want to poll them.

Dashboards: Gain overview of firewall status through built-in general dashboard, then customize for more detailed or specific views.

Alerts: What good is Firewall monitoring if no one knows what was found? Here is where alerts come in, and are sent based on thresholds set by IT. If the firewall is down, obviously an alert should be sent such as through text or email to the appropriate IT professional. When certain firewall performance thresholds are exceeded, such as substandard performance, an alert can likewise be sent.

Actions and Automation: Automated firewall monitoring is about spotting problems before they turn into catastrophes. For example, a firewall can be restarted, or through scripting, even more detailed actions can be taken. This automation is critical to making IT as efficient as possible. Automation can also be applied to the discovery process — where discoveries happen automatically to spot new firewalls and related assets.

Reports: Reports show what happened at a macro right down to micro-level, from current status to deep history.

Audits/Logs: Common consensus among security experts is auditing your firewall event logs periodically to look for changes or anomalies that might suggest modifications to your firewall settings.