Search results

Learn practical cloud security tips for identity, network access, application connectivity, monitoring, compliance evidence, and governed policy changes How to enhance cloud security: 10 practical tips for enterprise teams Why cloud security needs operational context, not just controls? A cloud change request lands with a familiar question: the security group is broad, the exception label says "temporary migration," and no one is sure whether the old reporting feed still uses it. The cloud team can see the rule. The application owner remembers part of the project. Compliance wants evidence. Network security is cautious because one cleanup change could touch a service that has not been mapped in months. Effective cloud security starts with clear ownership and least-privilege access, then extends to asset inventory, hardened cloud network access, application-aware change review, data protection, monitoring, incident response, and evidence captured as work happens. Cloud security is the set of controls and operating practices that protect cloud identities, workloads, networks, data, and changes. Cloud security posture is how well those controls hold up across real accounts, subscriptions, projects, applications, and day-to-day decisions. Schedule a Demo Why cloud security gets harder as environments grow In an enterprise environment, cloud security data rarely sits in one place. Identity permissions may live with the cloud platform team. Security groups, network security groups, VPC firewall rules, and firewall policies may be reviewed by network security. Logs may flow into SecOps tools. Application ownership may sit in a CMDB, a ticket queue, or someone's memory from the last migration. That separation creates gaps. A security decision often happens without a shared application context, so reviewers are left trying to answer practical questions such as: · Who owns the service · Which dependency uses the connection · Whether traffic is still observed on the path · What could break if the access changes As hybrid and multi-cloud environments grow, small exceptions can turn into policy drift. Temporary access becomes permanent. Unused resources stay reachable because no one wants to remove them blindly. Schedule a Demo Navigating the shared responsibility model Shared responsibility also matters. Cloud providers secure the underlying services they operate, while customers remain responsible for many decisions about identities, data, workload configuration, logging, and access policies. The exact split changes across infrastructure, platform, and software-as-a-service models, so ownership rules need to match the cloud services your teams actually run. Schedule a Demo 10 practical tips for enhancing cloud security The best cloud security programs do not treat these tips as a once-a-year checklist. They build them into change review, deployment, monitoring, and audit preparation so small exceptions do not quietly become long-term exposure. 1. Define shared responsibility and ownership. Name the owners for cloud accounts, subscriptions, projects, applications, data sets, access policies, and approvals. When ownership is vague, exceptions stay open because no one has the authority or context to close them. 2. Tighten identity and privileged access. Enforce multifactor authentication, least privilege, temporary elevation, and regular access reviews. Pay special attention to service accounts, unused roles, standing administrator access, and permissions granted outside the normal request process. 3. Inventory assets and exposed services. You cannot protect what you cannot see. Maintain an inventory of workloads, storage buckets, databases, Kubernetes clusters, public endpoints, and orphaned resources, with tags that show the owner, environment, business purpose, and sensitivity where possible. 4. Harden cloud network access rules. Review security groups, network security groups, VPC firewall rules, and cloud firewall policies for broad inbound access, unrestricted outbound access, unused rules, and poorly documented exceptions. Treat this work as part of continuous network security management , not as a one-off cloud setting. 5. Map application connectivity before changing access. A cloud rule can look unnecessary until it supports a payroll job, failover path, reporting feed, or maintenance window. Before narrowing access, check application connectivity , the application owner, dependencies, observed traffic, and the rollback plan. 6. Protect data with classification and encryption. Classify data by sensitivity and apply controls that match real business risk. Use encryption in transit and at rest, manage keys carefully, and define retention rules so sensitive data is not kept longer than needed. 7. Monitor logs, traffic, and control-plane activity. Collect the signals teams need to investigate changes and incidents: audit logs, flow logs, identity events, API activity, alert context, and remediation notes. Monitoring is more useful when alerts identify the affected workload, owner, and likely business impact. 8. Review infrastructure-as-code and pipeline changes. Cloud security changes often begin in templates, pull requests, and deployment pipelines. Review infrastructure-as-code for overly permissive access, exposed services, weak defaults, and unapproved policy changes before they reach production. 9. Prepare response and recovery playbooks. Plan how teams will isolate a compromised account, revoke credentials, roll back a risky change, restore backups, and preserve evidence. Tabletop exercises help expose gaps before an incident forces teams to improvise. 10. Keep compliance-ready evidence as work happens. Do not wait for an audit to reconstruct the story. Keep change tickets, approvals, risk reviews, exception owners, recertification records, and remediation notes tied to the policy decisions they support. Schedule a Demo Cloud security tips at a glance Use this table as a quick operating model for cloud security work. The goal is not only to improve controls, but to preserve the evidence that explains why each decision was made. Cloud security area Operational move Evidence to keep Identity and access Enforce MFA, least privilege, role reviews, and temporary privileged access Access review records, exception owners, approvals Cloud network policies Review security groups, network security groups, VPC firewall rules, and broad inbound or outbound access Rule owner, traffic history, business justification, change ticket Application connectivity Map which applications use each connection before removing or narrowing access Application owner, dependency map, observed flows, rollback plan Monitoring and response Collect audit logs, flow logs, alert context, and response actions across cloud accounts Alert notes, incident timeline, remediation record Compliance and governance Record approvals, exceptions, recertification, and policy changes during normal work Compliance-ready evidence, risk acceptance, control owner signoff Schedule a Demo Common mistakes that weaken cloud security programs Treating cloud security as a tooling problem only: CSPM, CNAPP, SIEM, vulnerability management, and provider-native controls can surface important issues, but tools cannot replace clear ownership, application context, and governed change decisions Assuming the cloud provider handles customer-side configuration: providers operate the cloud infrastructure, but customers still manage permissions, workloads, data settings, logging choices, and access rules for the services they use Cleaning up rules without dependency checks: blind firewall policy cleanup can turn into an outage if a quiet rule supports a seasonal process, maintenance job, or failover route. Move from discovery to validation to approved change, with a rollback plan ready Leaving the evidence trail until the audit: a team can make the right decision and still struggle during an audit if no one captured the owner, justification, risk review, approval record, and remediation note. Strong programs make audit readiness part of daily work, not a separate scramble Schedule a Demo How AlgoSec Horizon supports application-centric cloud security management This is where a platform view matters. In hybrid environments, cloud access policies rarely stand alone. They interact with firewall rules, network paths, application dependencies, security policy change management , exceptions, and compliance requirements. AlgoSec Horizon helps enterprise teams connect application context, security policy visibility, risk analysis, governed change processes, and compliance-ready evidence across hybrid environments. For cloud security teams, that context helps turn a rule review from "is this port open?" into better questions: which application may rely on it, who owns the decision, what risk does it introduce, and what evidence should be preserved before access changes? AlgoSec Horizon is not a substitute for human judgment. It helps security, network, cloud, application, and compliance teams work from a shared application-centric view when they review access, approve changes, and prepare for audits. Schedule a Demo Frequently asked questions What is the most important cloud security tip? Start with ownership and identity. If no one owns the cloud account, application, data, or access path, it is harder to apply least privilege, review exceptions, or show why a control exists during an audit. How often should cloud security groups be reviewed? Review frequency should match risk, change volume, and audit requirements. Internet-facing access, privileged paths, production workloads, and regulated environments usually need more frequent review than low-risk internal resources. How do teams reduce cloud misconfigurations? Use secure baselines, review infrastructure-as-code templates, apply provider-native guardrails where they fit, and route higher-risk changes through governed approvals. Keep remediation evidence with the ticket so the team can show what changed and why. Why does application connectivity matter in cloud security? Cloud access rules are safer to change when teams know which application uses the connection. Application context helps separate stale access from business-critical dependencies, failover paths, and maintenance processes. How does AlgoSec Horizon help with cloud security? AlgoSec Horizon supports application-centric visibility, policy context, risk analysis, governed changes, and compliance-ready evidence across hybrid environments. This helps connect cloud policy decisions to applications, owners, approvals, and audit histories. Schedule a Demo Select a size Why cloud security needs operational context, not just controls? Why cloud security gets harder as environments grow Navigating the shared responsibility model 10 practical tips for enhancing cloud security Cloud security tips at a glance Common mistakes that weaken cloud security programs How AlgoSec Horizon supports application-centric cloud security management Frequently asked questions Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

Securely accelerate application delivery by automating application connectivity and security policy across the hybrid network estate. Solución de gestión de seguridad Algosec Bienvenue! Gestionar sus políticas de seguridad de redes en todos los cortafuegos de las instalaciones y en controles de seguridad de la nube es un acto que debe llevarse a cabo de manera equilibrada. Por un lado, debe reducir los riesgos y minimizar la superficie de ataque, y por el otro, debe permitir la productividad al brindar conectividad para sus aplicaciones empresariales más importantes. Sin embargo, los procesos de gestión de políticas de seguridad siempre han sido complejos, prolongados y plagados de errores. No debería ser así. Tanto en las instalaciones como en la nube, AlgoSec simplifica y automatiza la gestión de políticas de seguridad en las redes para que su empresa se vuelva más ágil, más segura y más eficiente, ¡todo el tiempo! Un enfoque de la inigualable vida útil para la gestión de políticas de seguridad AlgoSec es inigualable por el hecho de que gestiona toda la vida útil de las políticas de seguridad para garantizar conectividad constante y segura para sus aplicaciones empresariales. Con muchísima claridad podrá descubrir automáticamente los requerimientos de conectividad de la aplicación, analizar los riesgos proactivamente, planificar y ejecutar cambios de seguridad en la red rápidamente, y desactivar reglas del cortafuegos de manera segura, todo en cero toques y dinámicamente orquestado en su entorno heterogéneo. Con AlgoSec usted puede Unificar la gestión de políticas de seguridad de redes en nubes heterogéneas, y en entornos definidos por software o en instalaciones Garantice el cumplimiento continuo y reduzca drásticamente los esfuerzos de preparación para auditorías del cortafuegos Proporcione conectividad a las aplicaciones de manera rápida y segura y evite interrupciones en las redes linee la seguridad, las redes y los equipos de aplicación e impulse las operaciones de seguridad de los programadores Automatice la gestión de cambios en el cortafuegos y elimine las configuraciones incorrectas Reduzca el riesgo a través de la configuración de seguridad correcta y la segmentación de red efectiva La Solución de gestión de seguridad AlgoSec Análisis de red de políticas de seguridad Más información Firewall Analyzer Automatización de cambios en las políticas de seguridad Más información FireFlow Calculadora de Retorno de inversión (ROI) Folleto de la solución AlgoSec Representante local Gil Kremer Phone: +55-11-991068906
Email: [email protected] Relevant links TELEFÓNICA MÉXICO Estudio de caso NATURA Estudio de caso Schedule time with one of our experts

In the previous parts of our blog ( part I and part II ), we have described the most important parts of the Sunburst backdoor... Cloud Security Sunburst Backdoor, Part III: DGA & Security Software Rony Moshkovich 2 min read Rony Moshkovich Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 12/22/20 Published In the previous parts of our blog ( part I and part II ), we have described the most important parts of the Sunburst backdoor functionality and its Domain Generation Algorithm (DGA). This time, let’s have a deeper look into the passive DNS requests reported by Open-Source Context and Zetalytics . The valid DNS requests generated by the malware fall into 2 groups: DNS requests that encode a local domain name DNS requests that encode data The first type of DNS requests allows splitting long domain names into separate requests. These requests are generated by the malware’s functions GetPreviousString() and GetCurrentString() . In general, the format of a DNS request that encodes a domain name may look like: USER_ID.NUM.COMPUTER_DOMAIN[.]appsync-api.us-west-2[.]avsvmcloud[.]com where: USER_ID is an 8-byte user ID that uniquely identifies a compromised host, encoded as a 15-character string NUM is a number of a domain name – either 0 or 1, encoded as a character COMPUTER_DOMAIN is an encoded local computer domain Let’s try decoding the following 3 DNS requests: olc62cocacn7u2q22v02eu.appsync-api.us-west-2.avsvmcloud.com r1qshoj05ji05ac6eoip02jovt6i2v0c.appsync-api.us-west-2.avsvmcloud.com lt5ai41qh5d53qoti3mkmc0.appsync-api.us-west-2.avsvmcloud.com String 1 Let’s start from the 1st string in the list: olc62cocacn7u2q22v02eu.appsync-api.us-west-2.avsvmcloud.com. In this string, the first 15-character string is an encoded USER_ID : “olc62cocacn7u2q” . Once it is base-64 decoded, as explained in the previous post, it becomes a 9-byte byte array: 86 7f 2f be f9 fb a3 ae c4 The first byte in this byte array is a XOR key: 0x86 . Once applied to the 8 bytes that follow it, we get the 8-byte user ID – let’s take a note and write it down, we will need it later: f9 a9 38 7f 7d 25 28 42 Next, let’s take the NUM part of the encoded domain: it’s a character “2” located at the position #15 (starting from 0) of the encrypted domain. In order to decode the NUM number, we have to take the first character of the encrypted domain, take the reminder of its division by 36 , and subtract the NUM ‘s position in the string “0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz” : num = domain[0] % 36 – “0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz”.IndexOf(domain.Substring(15, 1)); The result is 1 . That means the decrypted domain will be the 2nd part of a full domain name. The first part must have its NUM decoded as 0. The COMPUTER_DOMAIN part of the encrypted domain is “2v02eu” . Once decoded, using the previously explained method, the decoded computer domain name becomes “on.ca” . String 2 Let’s decode the second passive DNS request from our list: r1qshoj05ji05ac6eoip02jovt6i2v0c.appsync-api.us-west-2.avsvmcloud.com Just as before, the decoded 8-byte user ID becomes: f9 a9 38 7f 7d 25 28 42 The NUM part of the encoded domain, located at the position #15 (starting from 0), is a character “6” . Let’s decode it, by taking the first character ( “r” = 114 ), take the reminder of its division by 36 ( 114 % 36 = 6 ), and subtracting the position of the character “6” in the “0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz” , which is 6 . The result is 0 . That means the decrypted domain will be the 1st part of the full domain name. The COMPUTER_DOMAIN part of the encrypted domain is “eoip02jovt6i2v0c” . Once decoded, it becomes “city.kingston.” Next, we need to match 2 decrypted domains by the user ID, which is f9 a9 38 7f 7d 25 28 42 in both cases, and concatenate the first and the second parts of the domain. The result will be “city.kingston.on.ca” . String 3 Here comes the most interesting part. Lets try to decrypt the string #3 from our list of passive DNS requests: lt5ai41qh5d53qoti3mkmc0.appsync-api.us-west-2.avsvmcloud.com The decoded user ID is not relevant, as the decoded NUM part is a number -29 . It’s neither 0 nor 1 , so what kind of domain name that is? If we ignore the NUM part and decode the domain name, using the old method, we will get “thx8xb” , which does not look like a valid domain name. Cases like that are not the noise, and are not some artificially encrypted artifacts that showed up among the DNS requests. This is a different type of DNS requests. Instead of encoding local domain names, these types of requests contain data. They are generated by the malware’s function GetNextStringEx() . The encryption method is different as well. Let’s decrypt this request. First, we can decode the encrypted domain, using the same base-64 method, as before . The string will be decoded into 14 bytes: 7c a5 4d 64 9b 21 c1 74 a6 59 e4 5c 7c 7f Let’s decode these bytes, starting from the 2nd byte, and using the first byte as a XOR key. We will get: 7c d9 31 18 e7 5d bd 08 da 25 98 20 00 03 In this array, the bytes marked in yellow are an 8-byte User ID, encoded with a XOR key that is selected from 2 bytes marked in red. Let’s decode User ID: for ( int i = 0 ; i < 8 ; i++) { bytes[i + 1 ] ^= bytes[ 11 - i % 2 ]; } The decoded byte array becomes: 7c f9 a9 38 7f 7d 25 28 42 25 98 20 00 03 The User ID part in marked in yellow. Does it look familiar? Indeed, it’s the same User ID we’ve seen before, when we decoded “city.kingston.on.ca” . The next 3 bytes marked in red are: 25 98 20 . 2 0x59820 The first number 2 stands for the size of data that follows – this data is 00 03 (selected in green). The number 0x59820 , or 366,624 in decimal, is a timestamp. It’s a number of 4-second periods of time since 1 January 2010. To obtain the real time stamp, we need to multiple it by 15 to get minutes, then add those minutes to 1 January 2010: var date = ( new DateTime( 2010 , 1 , 1 , 0 , 0 , 0 , DateTimeKind.Utc)).AddMinutes(timestamp * 15 ); For the number 0x59820 , the time stamp becomes 16 July 2020 12:00:00 AM – that’s the day when the DNS request was made. The remaining 2 bytes, 00 03 , encrypt the state of 8 security products, to indicate whether each one of them is running or whether it is stopped. The 8 security products are: Windows Live OneCare / Windows Defender Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection Microsoft Defender for Identity Carbon Black CrowdStrike FireEye ESET F-Secure 2 states for 8 products require 2 * 8 = 16 bits = 2 bytes. The 2 bytes 00 03 in binary form are: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 11 Here, the least-significant bits 11 identify that the first product in the list, Windows Live OneCare / Windows Defender, is reported as ‘running’ ( 1 ) and as ‘stopped’ ( 1 ). Now we know that apart from the local domain, the trojanised SolarWinds software running on the same compromised host on “city.kingston.on.ca” domain has also reported the status of the Windows Defender software. What Does it Mean? As explained in the first part of our description, the malware is capable of stopping the services of security products, be manipulating registry service keys under Administrator account. It’s likely that the attackers are using DNS queries as a C2 channel to first understand what security products are present. Next, the same channel is used to instruct the malware to stop/deactivate these services, before the 2nd stage payload, TearDrop Backdoor, is deployed. Armed with this knowledge, let’s decode other passive DNS requests, printing the cases when the compromised host reports a running security software. NOTES: As a private case, if the data size field is 0 or 1 , the timestamp field is not followed with any data. Such type of DNS request is generated by the malware’s function GetNextString() . It is called ‘a ping’ in the listing below. If the first part of the domain name is missing, the recovered domain name is pre-pended with ‘*’ . The malware takes the time difference in minutes, then divides it by 30 and then converts the result from double type to int type; as a result of such conversion, the time stamps are truncated to the earliest half hour. 2D82B037C060515C SFBALLET Data: Windows Live OneCare / Windows Defender [running] 11/07/2020 12:00:00 AM Pings: 12/07/2020 12:30:00 AM 70DEE5C062CFEE53 ccscurriculum.c Data: ESET [running] 17/04/2020 4:00:00 PM Pings: 20/04/2020 5:00:00 PM AB902A323B541775 mountsinai.hospital Pings: 4/07/2020 12:30:00 AM 9ACC3A3067DC7FD5 *ripta.com Data: ESET [running] 12/09/2020 6:30:00 AM Pings: 13/09/2020 7:30:00 AM 14/09/2020 9:00:00 AM CB34C4EBCB12AF88 DPCITY.I7a Data: ESET [running] 26/06/2020 5:00:00 PM Pings: 27/06/2020 6:30:00 PM 28/06/2020 7:30:00 PM 29/06/2020 8:30:00 PM 29/06/2020 8:30:00 PM E5FAFE265E86088E *scroot.com Data: CrowdStrike [running] 25/07/2020 2:00:00 PM Pings: 26/07/2020 2:30:00 PM 26/07/2020 2:30:00 PM 27/07/2020 3:00:00 PM 27/07/2020 3:00:00 PM 426030B2ED480DED *kcpl.com Data: Windows Live OneCare / Windows Defender [running] 8/07/2020 12:00:00 AM Carbon Black [running] 8/07/2020 12:00:00 AM Full list of decoded pDNS requests can be found here . An example of a working implementation is available at this repo. Schedule a demo Related Articles Q1 at AlgoSec: What innovations and milestones defined our start to 2026? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Automate network management and policy changes to increase efficiency, reduce errors, and ensure security compliance across your network infrastructure. Network management & policy change automation ---- ------- Schedule a Demo Select a size ----- Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

A network security policy is a critical part of your IT cyber policy It helps determine what traffic is allowed on your network, keeping critical assets secure Network security policy examples & procedures What is a network security policy and how is it enforced? A network security policy delineates guidelines for computer network access, determines policy enforcement, and lays out the architecture of the organization’s network security environment and defines how the security policies are implemented throughout the network architecture. Network security policies describes an organization’s security controls. It aims to keep malicious users out while also mitigating risky users within your organization. The initial stage to generate a policy is to understand what information and services are available, and to whom, what the potential is for damage, and what protections are already in place. The security policy should define the policies that will be enforced – this is done by dictating a hierarchy of access permissions – granting users access to only what they need to do their work. These policies need to be implemented in your organization written security policies and also in your IT infrastructure – your firewall and network controls’ security policies. Schedule a Demo What is network security policy management? Network security policy management refers to how your security policy is designed and enforced. It refers to how firewalls and other devices are managed. Schedule a Demo Cyber Security Policies as Part of IT Security Policy A good IT security policy contains the following essentials: Purpose Audience Information security objective Authority and access control policy – This includes your physical security policy Data classification Data support and operations Security awareness and behavior Responsibility, rights, and duties A cyber security policy is part of your overall IT security. A cybersecurity policy defines acceptable cybersecurity procedures. Cybersecurity procedures explain the rules for how anyone with potential network access can access your corporate resources, whether they are in your physical offices, work remotely, or work in another company’s offices (for example, customers and suppliers), send data over networks. They also determine how organization’s manage security patches as part of their patch management policy. A good cybersecurity policy includes the systems that your business is using to protect your critical information and are already in place, including firewalls. It should align with your network segmentation and micro-segmentation initiatives. Schedule a Demo How AlgoSec helps you manage your network security policy? Network policy management tools and solutions, such as the AlgoSec Security Management Solution , are available. Organizations use them to automate tasks, improving accuracy and saving time. The AlgoSec Security Management Solution simplifies and automates network security policy management to make your enterprise more agile, more secure and more compliant – all the time. AlgoSec is unique because it manages the entire lifecycle to ensure ongoing, secure connectivity for your business applications. It automatically builds a network map of your entire hybrid network and can map and intelligently understand your network security policy across your hybrid and multi-vendor network estate. You can auto-discover application connectivity requirements, proactively analyze risk, rapidly plan and execute network security changes and securely decommission firewall rules – all with zero-touch and seamlessly orchestrated across your heterogeneous public or private cloud, and on-premise network environment. Schedule a Demo Select a size What is a network security policy and how is it enforced? What is network security policy management? Cyber Security Policies as Part of IT Security Policy How AlgoSec helps you manage your network security policy? Get the latest insights from the experts Application-aware network security! Securing the business applications on your network Keep Reading Avoiding the Security/Agility Tradeoff with Network Security Policy Automation Keep Reading Examining the Security Policy Management Maturity Model Keep Reading Choose a better way to manage your network

Optimize cloud security and management with AlgoSec Cloud for Microsoft Azure, providing visibility, compliance, and automation for your hybrid cloud environment. AlgoSec Cloud for Microsoft Azure ---- ------- Schedule a Demo Select a size ----- Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

Explore Algosec's customer success stories to see how organizations worldwide improve security, compliance, and efficiency with our solutions. Australia’s Leading Superannuation Provider Organization Retirement fund Industry Financial Services Headquarters Australia Download case study Share Customer
success stories "It’s very easy to let security get left behind. We want to make sure that security is not a roadblock to business performance,” said Bryce. “We need to be agile and we need to make sure we can deploy systems to better support our members. Automation can really help you see that return-on-investment." Network Security Policy Automation helps Superannuation company reduce costs to provide higher returns to members Background The company is one of Australia’s leading superannuation (pension) providers. Their job is to protect their client’s money, information, and offer long-term financial security. Challenges The company’s firewalls were managed by a Managed Service Security Provider (MSSP) and there had not been enough insight and analysis into their network over the years, leading to a bloated and redundant network infrastructure. Firewalls and infrastructure did not get the care and attention they needed. As a result, some of their challenges included: Legacy firewalls that had not been adequately maintained Difficulty identifying and quantifying network risk Lack of oversight and analysis of the changes made by their Managed Services Security Provider (MSSP) Change requests for functionality that was already covered by existing rules The Solution The customer was searching for a solution that provided: A strong local presence Repeatable and recordable change management processes As a result, the customer implemented AlgoSec. The client selected AlgoSec’s Security Policy Management Solution, which includes AlgoSec Horizon Security Analyzer and AlgoSec Horizon FireFlow. AlgoSec Horizon Security Analyzer delivers visibility and analysis of complex network security policies across on-premise, cloud, and hybrid networks. It automates and simplifies security operations including troubleshooting, auditing, and risk analysis. Using Horizon Security Analyzer, they can optimize the configuration of firewalls, and network infrastructure to ensure security and compliance. AlgoSec Horizon FireFlow enables security staff to automate the entire security policy change process from design and submission to proactive risk analysis, implementation, validation, and auditing. Its intelligent, automated workflows save time and improve security by eliminating manual errors and reducing risk. The Results “Straight away, we were able to see a return-on-investment,” said Stefan Bryce, Security Manager, a leading Australian superannuation provider. By using the AlgoSec Security Management Solution, the customer gained: Greater insight and oversight into their firewalls and other network devices Identification of risky rules and other holes in their network security policy. Easier cleanup process due to greater visibility Audits and accountability into their network security policy changes. They were able to ensure ongoing compliance and make sure that rules submitted did not introduce additional risk Identification and elimination of duplicate rules Faster implementation of policy changes Business agility and innovation because employees are better motivated to make changes due to seamless policy change process. Consolidation of their virtual firewall internal infrastructure Reduced ongoing costs to their MSSP Schedule time with one of our experts

AlgoBot is an intelligent chatbot that answers your questions, in English Use this personal assistant for security policy change management processes Algo Now AI-powered security assistant for network security policy
management tasks Your AI security policy management assistant. Algo is an AI-powered assistant that connects to the AlgoSec platform to deliver fast, natural-language access to core security policy workflows - so teams can get answers, run analysis, and drive change requests without switching tools. With Algo you can: Accelerate security policy decisions with AI-powered, natural-language guidance Reduce ticket resolution time by giving support teams instant, contextual answers Enable application owners to self-serve connectivity questions with guardrails Streamline change management by creating and tracking requests directly from chat Talk to Algo in natural language from Microsoft Teams (desktop, web, or mobile) so you can stay in your workflow while accessing AlgoSec capabilities Self-service security policy management Algo offloads day-to-day tasks from firewall and network administrators, by automatically answering typical security policy management questions and handling maintenance tasks. Ideal for a wide range of stakeholders including security teams and cyber analysts, application owners and developers, help desk, support, network, server and IT teams, Algo can, for example: Check if traffic is currently allowed between IP addresses, servers and applications Open change requests to allow network connectivity Check on the status of a change request Easy and convenient access to the AlgoSec security management solution Algo gives firewall and network administrators an easy and convenient way to access the AlgoSec Security Management Solution, to quickly take care of security policy management maintenance tasks. Using Algo, firewall and network administrators can, for example: Troubleshoot network connectivity issues and security incidents Check the status of change requests and approve changes Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

Learn how to identify, validate, and remove unused Azure NSG rules while protecting application connectivity and preserving audit evidence. Azure NSG rule cleanup: How to find and remove unused rules ---- ------- Schedule a Demo Select a size ----- Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

Learn hybrid cloud security policy management best practices for governing firewalls, cloud controls, application access, and audit-ready changes Hybrid cloud security policy management: Best practices for enterprise teams What is hybrid cloud security policy management and why does it matter? An application moves to AWS, but the access path still crosses a data center firewall. During migration, a security group is opened for testing. Three months later, an auditor asks why the traffic is allowed, and the service owner is not sure whether the path is still used. That is not an abstract hybrid cloud challenge. It is a policy decision enterprise teams face every week. Hybrid cloud security policy management governs access rules, firewall policies, cloud-native controls, change requests, exceptions, and audit evidence across data centers, private cloud, and public cloud. A useful process ties each allowed path to an application, owner, business need, risk review, and change record before teams approve, narrow, or remove access. Schedule a Demo Why hybrid policy work breaks down Hybrid environments split the access story across teams and tools. A single business service may depend on: Perimeter firewalls and internal segmentation VPN paths and load balancers AWS security groups, Azure network security groups (NSGs), and Google Cloud firewall policies Routing configurations that changed during a migration The real challenge is divided ownership The harder part usually is not the technology itself. It is the ownership split around it. A cloud engineer may add a temporary rule for a release. A network team may approve the firewall side. The application owner may know the dependency, but not the enforcement point. Compliance may see the exception later without the traffic history. That fragmentation turns ordinary changes into long investigations. A rule can look too broad and still support a production dependency. A quiet connection may be dead, seasonal, or reserved for failover. A temporary exception can survive the migration window because no one has enough context to own the cleanup. Schedule a Demo What the practice includes (and what it does not) Hybrid cloud security is the broader discipline. It covers identity, data protection, vulnerability management, monitoring, incident response, and cloud posture. Hybrid cloud security policy management is narrower. It focuses on network access decisions: which sources can reach which destinations, through which control, for which application, under whose approval, and with what evidence. How it differs from other controls: Cloud security posture management (CSPM) finds misconfigurations and compliance drift Identity and access management (IAM) governance focuses on users, roles, and permissions Threat detection watches for active, suspicious activity Policy management governs permitted connectivity and the operational process for changing it safely That distinction matters in daily operations. If the process drifts into generic hybrid security advice, the policy question remains unanswered: Is this access still needed, who requested it, what does it touch, and what should happen next? Schedule a Demo The controls are related, but they are not the same Traditional firewall rules, AWS security groups, Azure NSGs, Google Cloud firewall policies, and VPC firewall rules all influence connectivity. They do not behave the same way, so reviews should not treat them as one generic rule type. A traditional firewall rule may depend on zones, interfaces, objects, NAT, routing, service definitions, and vendor order. AWS security groups use allow rules on associated resources, and multiple groups can shape the effective path. Azure NSGs use priority-ordered allow and deny rules at subnet or network-interface level. Google Cloud can apply hierarchical firewall policies at organization or folder level, while VPC firewall rules operate at the network level. These differences show up in tickets. A request for port 443 from one app tier to another might appear as a firewall object group, a security group reference, an NSG rule, or an inherited cloud policy. The same request can look narrow in one console and too broad in another. A reliable policy management approach normalizes enough context for reviewers to compare access decisions without pretending the controls are identical. Schedule a Demo Best practices that keep policy decisions grounded The goal is not to force a universal rule format. It is to build a governed way to connect access, owners, risk, and evidence across enforcement points. Best practice What it helps control Operational check Map access to applications and owners Unclear business need and outage risk Can reviewers see the application, owner, dependency, and observed traffic before changing access? Normalize visibility across environments Provider silos and rule-model mismatch Can teams compare firewalls, security groups, NSGs, and VPC rules in one review path? Use risk-based change approvals Overly broad or sensitive access Are approval tiers based on exposure, environment, data sensitivity, and application impact? Review drift, stale rules, and exceptions Migration leftovers, temporary access, duplicate rules, and unused paths Is there a recertification cycle with owner validation and expiration dates? Preserve audit-ready evidence Audit rework and undocumented changes Does the record retain request, justification, owner, risk review, approval, validation, and history? This framework should not become a paperwork exercise. It is useful when checks are tied directly to the change process. A reviewer should be able to move from a rule or cloud control to the application, owner, ticket, risk, exception, and validation result without rebuilding the story from screenshots. Schedule a Demo Policy drift needs owner validation, not guesswork Policy drift happens when deployed access no longer matches the original business intent. In hybrid environments, it often comes from small, reasonable decisions that accumulate: a migration exception left open, a test security group reused in production, a duplicated firewall rule, a temporary Azure NSG rule with no expiration, or a Google Cloud VPC rule whose owner changed teams. The answer is not to delete anything that looks quiet. Low-use or broad access should become a review candidate, not an automatic removal. Teams still need to check application dependencies , failover paths, maintenance windows, exception records, and rollback plans before narrowing access. Audit-ready evidence acts as the team's memory. Keep the request, business justification, application owner, observed traffic, risk review, approval, exception expiration, validation result, and change history together. Without that evidence, cleanup turns into guesswork. Schedule a Demo What to evaluate in a policy management approach A policy management approach should help people make better decisions, not simply move tickets faster. During evaluation, ask whether the team can: See effective access across firewalls and cloud-native controls Trace a request to an application and owner Understand how the change affects sensitive zones, internet exposure, production services, and compliance scope Workflow matters as much as visibility. Strong processes route higher-risk changes to the right approvers, document exceptions, preserve a change trail, and make cleanup review part of normal operations. Automation should support discovery, review, routing, and validation, but risky access changes still need governance before approval or implementation. Reporting is part of the same problem. If audit or compliance teams need evidence later, the platform should help show what was requested, approved, implemented, validated, and why the access still exists. Schedule a Demo How AlgoSec Horizon fits into the process This is where a platform view matters. Hybrid policy decisions are rarely isolated. A firewall cleanup candidate may depend on cloud traffic. A cloud security group may support a database path that still crosses the data center. An audit request may depend on ticket history from several teams. AlgoSec Horizon helps enterprise teams connect application context, security policy visibility, risk analysis, governed change processes , and compliance-ready evidence across hybrid networks. For hybrid cloud security policy management, the value is not blind automation. It is giving security, network, cloud, application, and compliance teams the context they need before they approve, change, or remove access. If your team needs to manage firewall and cloud policy changes without losing governance, AlgoSec Horizon can help connect application-centric visibility, risk analysis, controlled change processes, and audit-ready evidence across hybrid environments. Schedule a Demo Frequently asked questions What is hybrid cloud security policy management? It is the practice of governing network access policies across data centers, private cloud, and public cloud. It connects firewall rules, cloud controls, application dependencies, owners, change requests, exceptions, and audit evidence so teams can review access with business and risk context. How is it different from CSPM or IAM governance? CSPM focuses on cloud posture and misconfiguration findings. IAM governance focuses on identities, roles, and permissions. Hybrid cloud security policy management focuses on permitted network connectivity and the process for changing that connectivity safely. Are cloud security groups and firewall rules managed the same way? No. They serve related access-control purposes, but their scope, rule behavior, ownership model, and management boundaries differ by platform. Reviewers need normalized context rather than assumptions that cloud controls and traditional firewalls operate the same way. How can teams reduce policy drift? Start with clear ownership, expiration dates, scheduled recertification, and evidence retention. Stale rules, migration leftovers, temporary exceptions, duplicate access, and unused paths should be reviewed with owners before changes are made. What evidence should teams keep for audits? Keep the original request, business justification, application owner, observed traffic, risk review, approval, exception expiration, validation result, and change history. That record helps explain why access exists and whether it still serves a valid business need. Schedule a Demo Select a size What is hybrid cloud security policy management and why does it matter? Why hybrid policy work breaks down What the practice includes (and what it does not) The controls are related, but they are not the same Best practices that keep policy decisions grounded Policy drift needs owner validation, not guesswork What to evaluate in a policy management approach How AlgoSec Horizon fits into the process Frequently asked questions Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

DevOps security connectivity management allows for better cooperation between security DevOps Use AlgoSec to ensure secure, compliant development environments Click here for more! Optimizing DevOps: Enhanced release quality and faster time-to-market Select a size Which network Can AlgoSec be used for continuous compliance monitoring? Yes, AlgoSec supports continuous compliance monitoring. As organizations adapt their security policies to meet emerging threats and address new vulnerabilities, they must constantly verify these changes against the compliance frameworks they subscribe to. AlgoSec can generate risk assessment reports and conduct internal audits on-demand, allowing compliance officers to monitor compliance performance in real-time. Security professionals can also use AlgoSec to preview and simulate proposed changes to the organization’s security policies. This gives compliance officers a valuable degree of lead-time before planned changes impact regulatory guidelines and allows for continuous real-time monitoring. What is DevOps security management? Key pain points in securing your CI/CD pipeline Streamlined security, compliance, and faster deployments Speeds up application delivery without compromising security Empower your DevOps workflow with seamless connectivity integration Lock down container security with smart threat management Key benefits of using AlgoSec Get the latest insights from the experts DevOpsifying Network Security Watch video Integrate Security Into DevOps for Faster, Safer Application Delivery Into Production Read document Best Practices for Incorporating Security Automation into the DevOps Lifecycle Watch video Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

AlgoSec & Juniper Networks AlgoSec seamlessly integrates with Juniper devices to automate application and user aware security policy management and ensure that Juniper devices are properly configured. AlgoSec supports the entire security policy management lifecycle — from application connectivity discovery, through ongoing management and compliance, to rule recertification and secure decommissioning. How to Juniper Policy Optimization Learn how to achieve a clean and optimized security policy on your Juniper device Juniper Regulatory Compliance Learn how to prepare for a regulatory audit Juniper Risk Assessment Learn how to assess risk on your Juniper devices with AlgoSec See how Juniper Users Can Benefit from AlgoSec Schedule time with one of our experts