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Learn best practices for effective network firewall security management. Enhance your security posture with proper configuration, monitoring, and maintenance. Network firewall security management Network firewalls are the first round of defense against a wide range of external threats. Firewall policies filter incoming traffic to protect the network ecosystem from cyberattacks. Network traffic that doesn’t meet filter criteria gets blocked. Security teams continually optimize their organization’s firewall configuration to address new and emerging threats. What are network firewalls? Network infrastructure is more complex than ever before. In the early days, your network firewall sat at the perimeter of your data center. Today, you may have a variety of firewalls operating on-premises, in public and private clouds, in a software-defined network, or a multi-cloud hybrid environment. Security leaders face four main challenges when implementing, maintaining and improving firewall performance: Complexity – The more individual firewall solutions your network relies on, the harder it is to analyze, configure, and scale firewall-related workflows. Visibility – The traffic flows over your network are complex. Lack of visibility over traffic flows makes managing firewall policies more difficult. 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. 1. Managing firewall configuration in a complex environment Since early networks were mostly on-premises, managing firewall configuration changes in real-time was simple. Once the cybersecurity team identified firewall changes they wanted to make, a single employee could upload those changes to the organization’s Cisco PIX device and call it a day. Today’s networks simply don’t work that way. They are designed to be scalable, supporting a wide range of endpoint devices and cloud-based applications with a much wider attack surface than ever before. Security teams must protect their networks against a more sophisticated set of attacks, including malware that leverages zero-day vulnerabilities and other unknown threats. At the same time, they must accommodate both users and attackers equipped with modern security tools like VPNs. The modern organization must deploy a wide range of firewalls, including hardware devices physically connected to local routers, software firewalls for hybrid cloud environments, and next-generation firewalls equipped with analyzers that can proactively detect unknown threats. Security leaders need to streamline visibility into firewall configuration, orchestration, and management through a single pane of glass. This ensures optimal firewall performance for both on-premises and cloud security solutions, while freeing team members to spend more time on higher impact strategic security goals. 2. Firewall deployments can compromise visibility into security processes Modern organizations with complex network configurations often don’t enjoy deep visibility into their security processes and event outcomes. Many third-party managed security vendors don’t offer in-depth data about their processes at all. Security leaders are often asked to simply trust that vendors provide enough value to justify premium pricing. But losing visibility into security processes makes it extremely challenging to improve those processes. It puts security leaders in the uncomfortable position of defending security outcomes they don’t have adequate data to explain. In the event of a negative outcome, it’s almost impossible to explain exactly what went wrong and why. If a particular firewall policy is ultimately responsible for that outcome, security leaders need to know. Effective firewall security management isn’t possible without deep visibility into firewall policies, and how those rules impact day-to-day business operations in real-time. Obtaining this kind of visibility in a complex network environment is not easy, but it’s vital to long-term success. 3. Manual configuration changes are costly and error-prone Increasing configuration errors are another knock-on consequence of the trend towards bigger and more complex networks. Where early network security professionals only had to update firewall rules for a handful of devices, now they must accommodate an entire stack of solutions made by different manufacturers, with complicated interdependencies between them. Most organizations rely on multiple providers for their full firewall stack. They may use Cisco hardware, Checkpoint next-generation firewalls, Tufin firewall management software, and Firemon asset management all at the same time. Managing and troubleshooting this kind of deployment without comprehensive firewall security management software is difficult and time-consuming. Security misconfigurations as a whole are responsible for more than one-third of all cyberattacks. This demonstrates the urgent need for security leaders to automate the process of configuring, updating, and validating firewall changes on complex networks. AlgoSec provides security leaders with a robust set of tools for automating network security policy updates and firewall changes without requiring organizations to dedicate additional employee-hours to time-consuming manual processes. 4. Don’t forget to document policy changes for compliance Security policy management is an important part of overall security compliance. Adhering to the latest security standards published by reputable organizations allows security leaders to meaningfully reduce cybersecurity risk. Documents like the NIST Cybersecurity Framework provide clear guidance into how organizations should address core functions in their security strategy, which includes deploying and updating firewalls. In particular, NIST Special Publication 800-41 describes the guidelines for firewall policies, requiring that they be based on comprehensive risk assessment for the organization in question. The guidelines also require that organizations with multiple firewalls sharing the same rules (or common subsets of rules) must have those rules synchronized across those firewalls. Importantly, all these changes must be documented. This requirement adds significant risk and complexity to network environments that rely on manual configuration processes. Even if you successfully implement changes the right way, reporting discrepancies can negatively impact your organization’s regulatory position. AlgoSec generates compliance reports for NIST SP 800-53 as a built-in feature, available right out of the box. Organizations that use AlgoSec to automate firewall security management and policy changes can ensure compliance with stringent security standards without having to commit valuable security resources to manually verifying reports. Network firewall security challenges 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-premises, 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. Firewall security management FAQs How AlgoSec Helps with Network Firewall Security: 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. Find unused firewall rules Enabling unused rules to be included in a policy goes against best practices and may pose a risk to the organization. The AlgoSec platform makes it easy to find and identify unused rules within your firewall policy. 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. 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. 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. Additional firewall security features 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. 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. 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. 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 recertification . Network firewall security tips Select a size What are network firewalls? Network firewall security challenges Firewall security management FAQs Additional firewall security features Network firewall security tips Get the latest insights from the experts Firewall rule recertification - An application-centric approach Watch webinar Firewalls ablaze? Put out network security audit & compliance fires Watch webinar Firewall rule recertification Read document Choose a better way to manage your network

Protect and manage hybrid network environments with effective security strategies, ensuring seamless integration, visibility, and compliance across diverse infrastructures. Securing & managing hybrid network security Across cloud, SDN, on-premises and anything in between – one platform to manage it all. Making changes was easy with on-premises data centers. Your applications were secured behind lock and key, guarded by physical firewalls in easily-accessible locations. Today, your network doesn’t just live in one place. There are multiple public clouds and private clouds in addition to on-premises network devices. Security controls are a “black box” and your application connectivity crosses multiple borders. This complexity makes it difficult for organizations to securely accelerate application connectivity across their entire network. Overview IT and Security staff find it difficult to maintain hybrid network security and deliver application connectivity due to: Lack of network and application visibility – Struggling with visibility into their network’s security policies and associated applications. Understanding the network structures and application flow paths is a challenge. Manual and siloed compliance process – The security audit process is manual. Documentation requirements are complex. Getting a complete view of the compliance status of the entire network is difficult. Audits are point-in-time but regulations require continuous compliance. Potential for network risks – Difficulty in identifying risky rules, such as unused, duplicate, overlapping, or expired rules, and understanding which applications may be impacted. Removing the wrong rule may lead to a data breach or outage. Complex manual change processes – Making changes to application connectivity is slow. Assessing the risk of changes is difficult, yet misconfigurations can cause outages and disrupt business. Changes involve teams speaking different languages with different objectives. Main Challenges of Hybrid Cloud Security Securely deliver applications faster. Enhance visibility across your entire hybrid network. Ensure changes adhere to internal and regulatory standards. Manage security posture and reduce configuration risks. Process network security policy changes in minutes not days. Avoid errors, rework, and application outages. Key Business Benefits Visibility into the applications on your network, so you can request changes at the application level. Unified view of the entire on-premises and multi-cloud estate from a single console. Manage multiple layers of security controls and proactively detect misconfigurations. Minimize the attack surface by identifying risks and helping to mitigate them. Match network policy risks to your applications to better understand the impact and prioritize remediation. Identify unused security rules so you have the confidence to remove them. AlgoSec Advantages The AlgoSec platform helps organizations securely accelerate application delivery by automating application connectivity and security policy across the hybrid network estate, including public cloud, private cloud, containers, and on-premises networks. Enable application visibility — Get a full network map of your entire hybrid network security estate. Ensure application discovery across your entire estate and identify your application dependencies. Manage next-generation security policies and cloud security groups alongside traditional firewalls. Get instant visibility of your cloud assets and security controls. Pinpoint and troubleshoot network connectivity issues. Mitigate risks and detect misconfigurations – Easily identify risky security policy rules, the assets and applications they expose, and whether they are in use. Proactively detect misconfigurations to protect cloud assets, including cloud instances, databases, and serverless functions. Achieve continuous compliance – On-going monitoring of multi-cloud and hybrid cloud network-security configuration changes to avoid compliance violations. Identify which applications introduce compliance risk. Automated and audit-ready compliance reports for major global regulations and internal standards. Automate changes intelligently – Cut application delivery bottlenecks with intelligent application change automation. Using zero-touch automation, security policies can be automated from implementation all the way through validating that the changes work exactly as intended. Migrate applications easily – Simplify the complex process of migrating business applications by automatically discovering, mapping, and migrating connectivity configurations with firewalls and security groups. Identify flows serving your applications and track them to security policy. This makes it possible to enable network provisioning as part of your cloud migration. Manage the Entire Hybrid Security Environment AlgoSec, a global cybersecurity leader, empowers organizations to securely accelerate application delivery by automating application connectivity and security policy, anywhere. The AlgoSec platform enables the world’s most complex organizations to gain visibility, reduce risk, and process changes at zero-touch across the hybrid network. Over 1,800 of the world’s leading organizations trust AlgoSec to help secure their most critical workloads across public cloud, private cloud, containers, and on-premises networks, while taking advantage of almost two decades of leadership in Network Security Policy Management. See what securely accelerating your digital transformation, move-to-cloud, infrastructure modernization, or micro-segmentation initiatives looks like at www.algosec.com . Let's start your journey to our business-centric network security. About AlgoSec Select a size Overview Main Challenges of Hybrid Cloud Security Key Business Benefits AlgoSec Advantages Manage the Entire Hybrid Security Environment About AlgoSec Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

Learn how firewall rules secure your network from cyber threats. Explore types, best practices, and management strategies to optimize your firewall security. Firewall rules & requirements (inbound vs. outbound) The cybersecurity landscape is increasingly volatile, with a massive rise in cyberattacks. Malicious cyber actors are relentlessly scouring the internet for vulnerable networks. Any company that wants to keep its network secure must implement a network security solution – a firewall. Cyber attackers keep evolving and finding ways to compromise security systems. As a result, companies need to implement and maintain security best practices. Installing a firewall is not enough; you have to take a step further to ensure the firewall rules are up-to-date and properly managed. If you want to learn how firewall rules work and secure your network from threats, keep reading! This article covers everything you need to know, including types of firewall rules, examples of firewall rules, and firewall rule best practices. How to secure your network from threats? Firewall rules are the major components of firewall policies that determine which types of traffic your firewall allows in and out of your network, and which are blocked. They are access control mechanisms that firewalls use to protect your network from being infiltrated by malicious or unauthorized traffic. Firewall rules examine the control information in individual packets, and either block or allow them based on a set of rules or predetermined criteria. These predetermined criteria or rule components include a source IP address, a destination IP address, ports, protocol type (TCP, UDP, or ICMP), and services. Firewall rules control how the firewalls prevent malicious programs and unauthorized traffic from compromising your network. So properly managing your firewall rules across your infrastructures is instrumental to securing your network from threats. What are firewall rules? A firewall examines each incoming and outgoing data packet and matches it against the firewall rules. A packet is allowed to go through to its destination if it matches one of the rules that allow traffic. If a packet matches none of the rulesor hit a rule with deny, it is rejected. The rejection or mismatch is reported if the firewall is configured to do so. Firewalls are programmed to work with access control lists (ACLs). ACLs contain lists of permissions that determine network traffic that is allowed or blocked. An access control list details the conditions a data packet must meet before the ACL action (allow, deny, or reject) can be executed. To help you understand how firewall rules work, here’s a practical example: if a firewall rule states that traffic to destination N should be allowed only if it is from IP address M, the firewall will check the packet source and destination of incoming packets, and allow packets that meet the M & N rule to go through. If its packet’s destination is N but its source is unidentified or different from M, it is blocked. Packets are checked against firewall rules from top to bottom, and the first rule that matches the packet overrides the other rules below. The last rule is Deny Rest. This means that all packets not expressly permitted by the rules are blocked. You can create a firewall rule in pfSense. pfSense is an open-source firewall and router with unified threat management, load balancing, multi-WAN, a DNS Resolver, and a VPN. It supports a wide range of network technologies, including IPv4 & IPv6 addresses and pfBlockerNG. Other firewalls you can use to create firewall rules include Zenarmor, Windows Defender, and iptables. How do firewall rules work? Firewall rules help network administrators to regulate access to networks. With firewall rules, you can determine what is allowed in and out of your network. For example, they prevent dangerous files like worms and viruses from accessing your network and consuming bandwidth. When it comes to protecting devices that operate within your network, firewall rules establish an essential line of defense. Firewalls (and other security measures like endpoint protection and security certifications) prevent malicious actors from accessing and compromising devices connected to your network or operating inside your network’s environment. Firewall rules help you comply with regulatory standards. Depending on your industry, relevant regulatory agencies expect your company to maintain a certain level of security. For example, if your business is located in the EU region or collects personal data of EU citizens, it is mandated to comply with GDPR. Why are firewall rules important? There are various types of firewall rules. They are categorized based on the type of security architecture under consideration. That being said, here are some of the major types of firewall rules: 1. Access rule As the name implies, this firewall rule blocks or grants access to inbound and outbound traffic based on certain conditions. The source address, destination address, port number, and protocol are key information that the access rule evaluates to determine whether access should be given or denied. 2. Network address translation (NAT) rule NAT helps you hide the original IP address of a private network – enabling you to protect your network. It makes traffic routing easier and smoothens the inflow & outflow of traffic to and from your network. 3. Application level gateways This type of firewall rule enables network administrators to implement policies that protect your internal network. Application-level gateways function as shields or gatekeepers between your internal network and the public internet. Administrators use them to regulate access to public networks, block some sites, limit access to certain content, and regulate devices allowed to access your network. 4. Stateful packet filtering This rule evaluates data packets and filters them against preset conditions. The traffic is denied access if it fails to meet the requirements outlined by the predetermined security criteria. 5. Circle-level gateways Circle-level gateways do not filter individual packets but rather monitor TCP handshakes to determine whether a session is legitimate and the remote system is considered trusted. Consequently, these gateways provide anonymity to your internal network. What are the main types of firewall rules? Firewall rules frequently consist of a source address, source port, destination address, destination port, and an action that determines whether to Allow or Deny the packet. In the following firewall ruleset example, the firewall is never directly accessed from the public network. This is because hackers who can directly access the firewall, can modify or delete rules and allow unwanted travel. Source addressSource portDestination addressDestination portAction AnyAny10.10.10.1AnyDenyAnyAny10.10.10.2AnyDeny10.10.10.1AnyAnyAnyDeny10.10.10.2AnyAnyAnyDeny In the following firewall ruleset example, all traffic from the trusted network is allowed out. This ruleset should be placed below the ruleset above. Since firewall rules are checked from top to bottom, specific rules should be placed before rules that are more general. Source addressSource portDestination addressDestination portAction 10.10.10.0AnyAnyAnyAllow What is an example of a firewall rule? Effective management of firewall rules is necessary to avoid conflicting configurations and ensure your security infrastructure is powerful enough to ward off malicious attacks. To manage firewall rules better, do the following: ● Maintain proper documentation Properly document policies, rules, and workflows. It’s difficult for your network administrators to stay organized and manage firewall rules without proper documentation. Implement a strict documentation policy that mandates administrators to document policies and configuration changes. This improves visibility and ensures seamless continuity even if a key network operator leaves the company. ● Assign tasks with caution Ensure that only well-trained network operators have the privilege to assign and alter firewall rules. Allowing everyone on your security team to assign and change firewall rules increases the chances of misconfiguration. Giving such a privilege to a select few does the opposite and makes containing mismanagement easier. ● Use a standardized naming convention It’s easy to get confused about which configuration does what. This is more likely to happen where there is no naming convention. To avoid conflicting configurations, name each rule to clarify its purpose. By clearly defining the rules, conflicts can be easily resolved. ● Flag temporary rules Some rules are created to function just for a while – temporary rules. To keep things simple and ‘neat,’ flag temporary rules so they can be eliminated when they are no longer required. ● Order your rules Order rules in a specific pattern. For example, begin with global rules and narrow down to user-specific rules. ● Use a firewall management solution Many administrators use a firewall management and orchestration solution to streamline the firewall rule management process. The solution integrates with your firewall and uses built-in automation for managing firewall settings and configurations from a single dashboard. A firewall management tool helps you automate activities, gain visibility on all firewall rules, optimize firewall rules, remove rule anomalies, generate reports, etc. What are the best ways to manage firewall rules? To ensure your firewall works properly and offers the best security possible, there are some key best practices you have to follow when configuring and managing firewall rules: Review the firewall rules regularly The cyber threat landscape is always changing. Therefore, you must regularly review the firewall rules to ensure they provide optimal security against threats. Reviewing firewall rules helps you to be several steps ahead of malicious cyber actors, remove rule anomalies, and maintain compliance. Cyber attackers are relentlessly devising new ways to compromise security systems, infiltrate networks & subnets, and wreak havoc. You need to update the firewall rules regularly to counter new attacks. Obsolete rules can be maneuvered and the firewall compromised. You have to keep evolving the rules to stay ahead of malicious actors. Remove ineffective, redundant firewall rules. Are there rules that are no longer needed? Are there overlapping rules that are taking up space and confusing your network administrators? Look out for unnecessary configurations and remove them to free up the system and avoid confusion. In addition to helping you keep your network safe, reviewing firewall rules regularly also allows you to maintain compliance with regulatory standards such as HIPAA and GDPR. Keep tabs on firewall logs Keeping an eye on the firewall log helps administrators to monitor traffic flow, identify suspicious activities, and proactively fix challenges. Monitoring firewall logs gives you visibility into your infrastructure, enabling you to get to know your network users and the nature of their activities. Reduce complexity by categorizing firewall rules Make firewall rule structure simple and easy to manage by grouping rules with similar characteristics. This approach reduces configuration complexity, improves ease of administration, and optimizes firewall performance. Implement least-privileged access Do not grant users more privileges than necessary to perform their tasks. This ensures that only an authorized user can create a new rule, change a security policy, or gain access to specific resources. Block high-risk ports Blocking some ports can significantly decrease the risk of a network breach. The following table outlines the ports you should block as recommended by the SANS Institute . The table features services, TCP port, UDP port, port number, and port range. ServicePortPort number NetBIOS in Windows NTTCP and UDP135NetBIOS in Windows NTUDP137 and 138TFTP daemonUDP69HTTP (except to external web services)TCP80SSL (except to external web servers)TCP443Lockd (Linux DoS vulnerability)TCP & UDP4045Common high-order HTTP portsTCP8000, 8080, 8888LDAPTCP & UDP389IMAPTCP143SOCKSTCP1080SNMPUDP161 & 162SyslogUDP514Cisco AUX port (binary)TCP6001NFSTCP & UDP2049X WindowsTCP & UDP6000 – 6255 What are the best practices for firewall rules? Managing firewall rules manually can be overwhelming and time-consuming – especially when dealing with multiple firewall solutions. With the help of a firewall management solution, you easily configure firewall rules and manage configurations from a single dashboard. This is where AlgoSec comes in! AlgoSec’s powerful firewall management solution integrates with your firewalls to deliver unified firewall policy management from a single location, thus streamlining the entire process. With AlgoSec, you can maintain clear visibility of your firewall ruleset, automate the management process, assess risk & optimize rulesets, streamline audit preparation & ensure compliance, and use APIs to access many features through web services. How can AlgoSec help you manage your firewall rules better? Select a size How to secure your network from threats? What are firewall rules? How do firewall rules work? Why are firewall rules important? What are the main types of firewall rules? What is an example of a firewall rule? What are the best ways to manage firewall rules? What are the best practices for firewall rules? How can AlgoSec help you manage your firewall rules better? Get the latest insights from the experts Use these six best practices to simplify compliance and risk mitigation with the AlgoSec platform White paper Learn how AlgoSec can help you pass PCI-DSS Audits and ensure continuous compliance Solution overview See how this customer improved compliance readiness and risk management with AlgoSec Case study Choose a better way to manage your network

AlgoSec’s latest product release provides application-based identification and risk analysis in multi-cloud environments and on-premises. Gain more insights into multi cloud application connectivity with AlgoSec A32.50 AlgoSec’s latest product release provides application-based identification and risk analysis in multi-cloud environments and on-premises. January 10, 2023 Speak to one of our experts RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J., January 10, 2023 – AlgoSec, a global cybersecurity leader in securing application connectivity, announced today the release of its latest product version A32.50. AlgoSec A32.50 provides a powerful solution for organizations to secure application connectivity in their hybrid and multi-cloud estate. With A32.50, organizations obtain granular visibility and discovery of applications, enabling identification and risk analysis in multi-cloud environments and on-premises. The key benefits that AlgoSec A32.50 delivers to IT, network, and security experts include: Application awareness for Cisco Firepower and Palo Alto’s Panorama as part of the change management cycle Enables SecOps teams to update firewall application information as part of the firewall rules in the workflow automation Extended SASE/SSE management Provides Zscaler users management capabilities focused on risk, regulatory compliance, and policy optimization. As an early availability, A32.50 supports Prisma Access visibility of mobile users. Ensure ongoing regulatory compliance with new and updated out of the box reports Generate full audit report for the ECB security of internet payments and maintain ongoing compliance with the regulatory requirements. Additionally, utilize updated PCI and SWIFT requirement reports. Integrate cloud security into your IaC initiative while streamlining processes Embed cloud security checks into the DevSecOps native tools, allowing them to proactively identify and mitigate risk as part of their ongoing process. About AlgoSec AlgoSec, a global cybersecurity leader, empowers organizations to secure application connectivity by automating connectivity flows and security policy, anywhere. The AlgoSec platform enables the world’s most complex organizations to gain visibility, reduce risk, and process changes at zero-touch across the hybrid network. AlgoSec’s patented application-centric view of the hybrid network enables business owners, application owners, and information security professionals to talk the same language, so organizations can deliver business applications faster while achieving a heightened security posture. Over 1,800 of the world’s leading organizations trust AlgoSec to help secure their most critical workloads across public cloud, private cloud, containers, and on-premises networks while taking advantage of almost two decades of leadership in Network Security Policy Management. See what securely accelerating your digital transformation, move-to-cloud, infrastructure modernization, or micro-segmentation initiatives looks like at www.algosec.com

Explore Algosec's customer success stories to see how organizations worldwide improve security, compliance, and efficiency with our solutions. State of Utah Network Security Management Breaks the Service Bottleneck Organization State of Utah Industry Government Headquarters Salt Lake City, Utah, United States Download case study Share Customer
success stories "With AlgoSec, I am able to get requests completed within minutes." State government rapidly accelerates security policy changes while increasing security and compliance Background Utah is home to over three million people. It is one of America’s fastest-growing states and the fastest-growing economy by job growth in the nation. The Department of Technology Services (DTS) is the technology service provider for the executive branch of the State of Utah, providing services to Utah’s citizens. DTS supports the computing infrastructure for the state government, including 22,000 telephones, 20,000 desktop computers, 2,400 servers, 1,300 online services, monitors over 4 million visits to Utah.gov per month, and secures against more than 500 million daily IT intrusion attempts. Challenge Over forty firewall pairs and hundreds of other devices help the Department of Technology Services serve and secure the Utah government.“Before AlgoSec, it was very challenging for us to manage firewalls,” stated the department’s Director of Information Technology. Some of the challenges included: Firewall rule requests took up 70% of employees’ daily time. Agencies and staff frequently complained about slow response times, impacting their productivity while staff worked through a lengthy manual process to fulfill requests. Human errors slowed down the processes, requiring extra layers of quality assurance. Large rule request projects took several months to complete. Employee onboarding took several months. New employees could not independently support firewall request changes for the first few months after joining the team. Solutions The State of Utah was searching for a solution that provided: Automation of firewall management Actionable reports to ease compliance requirements Ease of deployment Following an in-depth evaluation, the State of Utah selected AlgoSec’s security policy management solution.“We evaluated several other products but none of them really automated at the level that we wanted,” said the director of IT. “AlgoSec’s automation really stood out.” The State of Utah chose to start with AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer (AFA) and AlgoSec FireFlow (AFF), two of the flagship products in the AlgoSec suite.AlgoSec Firewall 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 Firewall Analyzer, the State of Utah can optimize the configuration of firewalls, and network infrastructure to ensure security and compliance. AlgoSec 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. Results By using the AlgoSec Security Management solution, the State of Utah was able to accelerate their security policy management, provide better and faster service to state agencies, accelerate employee onboarding, and enhance network segmentation.Some of the benefits gained include: Fast and easy deployment – they were up and running within a few weeks. Faster turnaround to firewall requests from staff supporting agencies and priority initiatives. Reduced time to implement large rule request for projects, such as deployments, migrations, and decommissions — from months to minutes. Better knowledge sharing – hosting staff and extended staff outside of network operations get more accurate insights into firewalls and infrastructure topologies and traffic flows. This sped up troubleshooting and reduced superfluous requests covered by existing rules. Elimination of human error and rework thanks to policy automation. Accelerated employee onboarding – employees joining our network operations team are now able to fulfill firewall change requests within two weeks of starting work – down from 3 months – an 80% reduction. “I’ve been able to jump in and use AlgoSec. It’s been really intuitive” , concluded the IT director. “I am very pleased with this product! ” Schedule time with one of our experts

State of cloud security: Concerns, challenges, and incidents Download PDF Schedule time with one of our experts 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

Explore Algosec's customer success stories to see how organizations worldwide improve security, compliance, and efficiency with our solutions. Orange Cyberdefense Furnishes Application Delivery and Network Automation Organization Orange Cyberdefense Industry Retail & Manufacturing Headquarters Multinational Download case study Share Customer
success stories "We cut the time it takes to implement firewall rules by at least 50%" Application owners for global retail chain get faster response times with application visibility and automated deployment. Orange Cyberdefense is the expert cybersecurity business unit of the Orange Group, providing managed security, managed threat detection & response services to organizations around the globe. They embed security into Orange Business Services solutions with more than 250 security researchers and analysts and 16 SOCs distributed around the world supporting customers in over 160 countries. The Challenge Orange Cyberdefense is an on-site consultant for a large retail chain with hundreds of stores and hundreds of thousands of employees spread out across the world.The client has over 2,500 multi-vendor firewalls and Layer 3 devices in their global data centers. They also run hundreds of mission-critical business services. Business services include supply chain management and ERP systems, global eCommerce operations, financial management systems, and much more. As a result, they had to cope with hundreds of change requests daily.Some of the challenges included: Lack of centralized management – Multiple vendors’ firewalls are deployed, which were implemented by multiple third-party vendors. There was no validation that rules were consistently applied across multiple vendor’s management consoles. Commissioning and decommissioning devices – A mix of multi-vendor new and legacy devices run in the data center and maintaining consistency across multiple vendors and multiple versions of devices was difficult. Lack of automation – Firewall communication and traffic flows were described in Excel sheets and needed to be manually updated whenever there was a change. Slow execution of change requests – Implementing firewall changes took over a week. Poorly implemented rules – The rules did not reflect what the requester asked for. They either allowed too much traffic in or were too narrow, not allowing the required traffic and thus needed to be re-implemented. The Solution The client searched for a solution that provided: Faster implementation of firewall changes. Comprehensive firewall support for a globally dispersed multi-vendor, hybrid estate. Automation of security policy change management and documentation of security policy changes. Visibility into their business applications and traffic flows. They implemented the AlgoSec Security Policy Management Solution, made up of AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer, AlgoSec FireFlow, and AlgoSec AppViz and AppChange (formerly AlgoSec BusinessFlow). AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer analyzes complex network security policies across on-premise, cloud, and hybrid networks. It automates and simplifies security operations, including troubleshooting, auditing and risk analysis. Using Firewall Analyzer, the client can optimize the configuration of firewalls, and network infrastructure to ensure security and compliance. AlgoSec 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. AlgoSec AppViz and AppChange (formerly AlgoSec BusinessFlow) discover, identify, and map business applications, providing critical security information regarding the firewalls and firewall rules supporting each connectivity flow. With AlgoSec AppChange, changes can be made at the business application level, including application migrations, server deployment, and decommissioning projects. The Results Some of the ways the client benefits from using AlgoSec include: Greater transparency by providing a single source of truth that took into consideration the entire network estate. 50% reduction in the time needed to implement firewall rules. More communication between network security/IT staff and business application owners who are now able to submit change requests in business language and easily describe their needs, thus reducing misconfigurations and potential breaches. Better compliance reporting – with both an easy API integration and also audit-ready compliance reports. Automated change management – network changes are now recorded while being made – not managed with Excel. By using AlgoSec, application owners have more visibility into the network and are better able to trace what has changed within their business applications. “Documentation is several hundred percent better this way,” said Hans Broomé, Network and Security Consultant at Orange Cyberdefense. “With many different versions of the services, by using AlgoSec the IT team is confident that they are making changes to the correct version.” There were even unexpected gains, such as improved security management procedures. Change requests became more accurate as they gained visibility into the network and made the change request process more systematic and transparent. Requesters, as well as stakeholders such as their managers, have full visibility of their change request’s status and can verify that the request works as intended. Orange Cyberdefense is also impressed with the dedicated attention they receive from AlgoSec. AlgoSec’s support team is familiar with the global organization and provides dedicated attention tailored to their exact needs. They stay up to date with the AlgoSec solution’s latest capabilities, and the technical team maximizes their use of it thanks to an extensive training library. “The best is yet to come,” concluded Broomé. Schedule time with one of our experts

Streamline network management with AlgoSec Application Discovery. Gain visibility into application connectivity to optimize performance and enhance security policies. AlgoSec application discovery Enhance the discovery of your network applications ------- ---- 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. MIND Automates Firewall Management Operations and Improves The Quality of Service Organization MIND Industry Technology Headquarters Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India Download case study Share Customer
success stories "With AlgoSec, we can analyze the firewall policies more efficiently and spend less time on repetitive and error-prone manual tasks. This automation saves time and man hours by at least five hours per change" Global IT Consulting Company Improves Security and Increases Efficiency by Eliminating Error-prone Manual Firewall Management AlgoSec Business Impact Cut time to plan and implement firewall changes by 50% Network security reporting and audits available at the click of a button Improved risk assessment as part of firewall change process to ensure accuracy Enable existing team to spend more time on other security tasks Background MothersonSumi INfotech and Designs Limited (MIND) is a global provider of end-to-end IT solutions, serving organizations in 24 nations. MIND is certified for ISO 9001:2008, ISO/IEC 27001:2005 and CMM Level 5, and provides consultancy services and solutions for Application Development and Maintenance, IT Infrastructure Management Services, Product Development and Engineering Solutions and helps customers achieve their desired ISO level. Challenge MIND’s complex network consists of many remote locations and is secured with more than 40 firewalls from multiple vendors, including Check Point, Fortinet and Juniper as well as Blue Coat proxies. With hundreds of unnecessary rules in each of the firewalls under management, MIND’s Network Support team members were spending too much time cleaning up the policy rule base. “Cleaning up the policy rule base is a tedious, risky manually-intensive job,” said Santosh Sahoo, Assistant Project Manager at MIND. “Furthermore, we had to evaluate the risks based on best practices or our experience, which was time consuming. We also had to collect and organize this information into the proper reporting format for ISO 27001 requirements.” Additionally, manually planning and implementing firewall changes was a time-consuming and complex process, as was keeping track of all of the changes and updating records for auditing and/or rollback purposes. With all of these challenges, plus increasing network complexity, MIND realized they needed a more efficient method for centrally monitoring and managing all of their security devices and policies. Solution MIND selected the AlgoSec Security Management solution to automate firewall operations across the entire multivendor estate and reduce the resource strain. “There were many reasons why we chose AlgoSec over alternative options. It met all of our requirements by supporting a wider range of devices, providing a dashboard with immediate visibility and more robust policy analysis,” said Harvansh Sagar, GM of IT Infrastructure. Results Since implementing AlgoSec, the MIND team has significantly improved its firewall policy management change processes — from identifying any pre-existing rules in place, to risk assessment, to simulating the change. “AlgoSec has helped us make our our network more secure and has improved our ability to efficiency to manage more client devices with the same resources,” said Sagar. “We are now able to more efficiently analyze the firewall policies, spend less time on repetitive and error-prone manual tasks and perform a risk assessment before approving firewall changes. This automation saves time and man hours by at least five hours per change,” said Santosh. “AlgoSec’s firewall policy analysis has also improved the performance of the firewalls with features like policy tuning, identifying un-used policies and reordering policies.” With AlgoSec, MIND has a complete understanding of what is occurring with the policy across all of their firewalls. “We have a virtual server dedicated to AlgoSec as our management server for all of the firewalls in our environment. It monitors our security policy 24×7 and provides us with real-time alerting for details like ‘who added/modified/removed the rule, what time the policy was pushed,’ etc. Now we have full visibility of what’s going on with these devices,” said Santosh. Using AlgoSec, MIND has also been able to significantly reduce the time to perform audits and ensure compliance. “We can now run an audit report for ISO 27001 out-of-the-box and get a view of the network security policy status in just a click of button.” Schedule time with one of our experts

Explore Algosec's customer success stories to see how organizations worldwide improve security, compliance, and efficiency with our solutions. International Components Company Strengthens Network Security & Reduces Risks Organization Components Company Industry Retail & Manufacturing Headquarters International Download case study Share Customer
success stories "We quickly identified some unused rules, which we were able to safely remove. We're confident in the fact that we’re closing paths and we’ve also quickly managed to get compliance going,” says the company’s Head of Security Architecture." A leading international components company automates security policy change management and eliminates duplicate rules. BACKGROUND The company is a leading company specializing in high–performance components and sub-systems for the aerospace, defense, and energy markets. Backed by over a century of expertise, the company deliver solutions for the most challenging environments, enabling safe, cost-effective flight, power, and defense systems. CHALLENGE The company’s firewalls were growing consistently. 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. Some of their challenges included: Legacy firewalls that had not been adequately maintained. Unused or overly permissive rules, which left open many security holes. Difficulty identifying and quantifying network risk. Change requests for functionality already covered by existing rules. SOLUTION The client searched for a vendor that understood their environment and challenges and could integrate into their existing solutions. They would need to offer: Faster implementation of firewall changes. Comprehensive firewall support. Automation of security policy change management. Visibility into their business applications and traffic flows. They implemented the AlgoSec Security Policy Management Solution, made up of AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer and AlgoSec FireFlow. AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer ensures security and compliance by providing visibility and analysis into complex network security policies. AlgoSec FireFlow improves security and saves security staffs’ time by automating the entire security policy change process, eliminating manual errors, and reducing risk. RESULTS 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. 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. The customer is also impressed with the dedicated attention they receive from AlgoSec. AlgoSec’s support team is familiar with their challenges and provides attention tailored to their exact needs. Schedule time with one of our experts