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Security policy automation is the process of automating certain cybersecurity tasks like threat detection (ransomware, malware, security... Firewall Policy Management What is Network Security Policy Automation? Tsippi Dach 2 min read Tsippi Dach 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 8/9/23 Published Security policy automation is the process of automating certain cybersecurity tasks like threat detection (ransomware, malware, security rules, network changes), investigation, and remediation. Automating such practices reflects in the policy that governs them. Thus, security policy automation is the process of automating network security controls using a programmatic solution. In present-day security operation centers (SOCs), NSPM solutions can facilitate automation. These work by identifying vulnerabilities, threats, and attack surfaces in the security posture, assessing them, prioritizing them, responding to them in order through pre-defined actions, and streamlining the process for the security executives. So, automation doesn’t mean everything from end to end is automated. Some human intervention may be necessary, at least at the higher decision-making level. Benefits of network security policy automation Automation in security policy has several benefits for an organization. Thus, it’s not hard to see why companies are pumping money into network security automation solutions . Some of the proven benefits are: Automate manual tasks in cybersecurity The primary benefit of any automation practice is to reduce manual labor. Connectivity security automation frees up resources from many redundant manual tasks, which you can then deploy elsewhere. This automation yields several other benefits that make automation irresistible for companies. Bring down false positive alerts False positive alerts or alarms are those instances where the cloud security system gets triggered because of a false threat, like firewall rules . In other words, the management platform perceives certain actions to be threatening, which actually are harmless. This consumes unnecessary resources. IT teams can prevent such real-time false alerts by making use of regulatory automation. Automation tools can detect and verify such alarms and take pre-defined actions should the alerts be false. Consider it a second check before raising the issue at a higher level. Reduce downtime Downtime is one of the pressing issues in IT departments. A study by Gartner penned the average cost of downtime at $5,600 per minute for certain businesses. When the system detects a threat, it typically shuts down certain network segments (like web services, routers, and so on). This can result in downtime. Some downtimes might be unavoidable, but those arising from false positive alerts certainly are. Thus, network security policy automation helps in that regard too. Reduce headcount There’s a shortage of talent in the cybersecurity And often, competent men and women demand sky-high salaries. So, from an economic standpoint, using automation to counter the lack of talent makes sense. With automation, you can divert human resources to other productive tasks. Make compliance easier Compliance is critical for businesses, especially in critical insurance, medical, and legal sectors. Up-to-date infrastructure comprising of Cisco, AWS, Tufin , and other reputed companies with the latest cybersecurity measures is one of the prerequisites laid out by most regulators. Network security policy automation can help update the infrastructure to the latest standards. This, in turn, helps the business stay compliant. Why is automation still a challenge in network security? Despite all its promises and proven benefits, many companies are reluctant to invest in security automation And the reason is it’s challenging to do so. Automation is hard because management itself is hard. You can’t automate something you can’t fully manage properly. E mployees, teams, and projects change, as do the access control Because of such a dynamic environment, automation is still challenging. Another reason is teams tend to work in silos. Multiple stakeholders are involved, including the customers, who must understand and accept the changes. Automation in such instances, known as Deploy and Configure, remains a challenge. But despite the challenges, there are ways to automate multi-vendor on-premises network security Even if you successfully automate some aspects of the policy, it’d be a huge time and resource saver. How to automate network security policy management? Cloud-based security policy automation has been around for quite some time. It has received upgrades over time and has gotten better. Let’s look at present-day automation practices, change processes, and troubleshooting tips. Review the current policy You can’t start from scratch, especially if you have an existing network security policy . The best approach is to start automation from where you are. This way, your security teams do not need to make drastic changes, which may put your network in a more vulnerable state. So as a first step, review your existing cloud environments policy and establish needs. Post that, formulate a plan on which things you can automate and which require manual intervention. Start with things that can be automated. If starting from starch, you must create a security policy first. So, hire cybersecurity experts from AlgoSec to formulate and optimize a policy for your organization’s hybrid network. You can also use Prevasio CNAPP to manage the multi-cloud security You might also want to conduct a webinar if important stakeholders work remotely. The idea is to bring everyone on the same page. Select the type of security automation tools There are three types of hybrid environment security automation tools to choose from. These are no-code, low-code, and full-code automation. The type of automation you select will impact your security policy changes . Pricing of each tool will also play an important role. No-code security automation is the newest type. As the name suggests, such tools do not require coding to automate network security . There are several use cases and pre-made workflows that you can use right off the bat. These are much easier to manage but don’t grant you complete control over the policy. You can have several automation tools within low-code tools like some-code or more-code. Most businesses prefer these security tools since they offer a balance of user-friendliness and robust coding capabilities. You can change and apply the pre-defined use cases to your company’s security policy. Finally, you have full-code automation AlgoBot , for instance, is an intelligent chatbot for handling network security policy management tasks. These are legacy security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) platforms. A high level of coding work is necessary to work with these full-code firewall management tools, which poses a high barrier to entry. But the upside is you get full control over the policy. Adopt zero-touch change management Truth be told, you can’t automate 100% of the security policy. Skilled personnel will still be needed to look over everything. However, for those manual tasks, you need speed while still upholding the security principles. How do you balance both? With zero-touch change management. Zero-touch orchestration is an alternative to semi-automated security processes. Vulnerability management accelerates change requests, reducing the time it takes to implement requests to minutes. Despite the speed advantage, zero-touch orchestration has flaws. For example, it accepts the requests as-is and doesn’t check their validities. This can result in misconfiguration. For security risk mitigation , you can embed conditional logic into the orchestration and leverage security and speed. This form of automation will ensure none of the process steps are missed in the lifecycle. FireFlow provides automated security policy management, helping you confidently automate security policy change process. Establish priorities Deploying automation tools is one part done. The next part is adopting the best practices and organizing your team. One of the best practices of policy automation is to establish priorities. Finding the DevOps issues that are more critical to your security needs is imperative. Then place them higher for the team to address them. This requires you to look at your overall network posture (which you have done in the first step). Once you’ve established clear priorities, you should define the use cases and implement workflow automation. Train team members Last, to ensure continuous compliance, you must upskill your team members to grasp the implemented changes. The transition from manual to automated will be challenging for employees too. Make them understand why it’s being done and what they’re supposed to do. This is done through a combination of courses and practical knowledge. Besides the knowledge, they should also clarify where the machine’s capabilities end and human responsibility begins. Once automated, it will take some time for the team to get familiarized with it. For the best results, automate the workflow in batches and not the entire network at once. Develop the playbook along the way and get everyone on the same page. Once you get a tempo, invest in third-party tools and vendors to speed up the automation What’s next? Network security policy automation makes compliance easier, reduces downtime, and automates manual tasks in cybersecurity. However, automation still means having the right tools and professionals within reach. If you are looking forward to automating network security policy automation and getting the right guidance, we are here. Contact us today to learn more. Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. 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

Safeguarding the network architecture is the need of the hour. According to a study, the average cost of a data breach is at an all-time... Network Security Policy Management Network segmentation vs. VLAN explained Tsippi Dach 2 min read Tsippi Dach 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 8/9/23 Published Safeguarding the network architecture is the need of the hour. According to a study, the average cost of a data breach is at an all-time high of $4.35 million. And this figure will only increase with governments and regulators becoming ever stricter on data breaches. The go-to method IT administrators adopt to safeguard their networks is network segmentation. By segmenting a larger network into smaller chunks, it becomes much more manageable to secure the entire network. But network segmentation is a broad concept and doesn’t refer to a single procedure. In fact, there are several segmentation processes — one of them being VLAN. Instead of simplifying, this adds to the complexity. In this article, we will explain the core difference between network segmentation and VLAN and when you should opt for a particular one over the other. What is network segmentation? Let’s start with the definitions of network segmentation and VLAN. By definition, network segmentation is the practice of compartmentalizing a network according to firewall rules . In other words, it’s about dividing a computer network into subnetworks. The subnetworks, at the IP level, are known as subnets. Each of the subnets then works independently and in isolation. Think of how a nation is split into various states and provinces for better management at the local level. Running an entire nation at the federal level is too much work. In addition to subnetting, there are other segmentation options like firewall segmentation and SDN (Software Defined Network) segmentation. But for this article’s sake, we will focus on subnets since those are the most common. What is VLAN? VLAN or Virtual LAN (Virtual Local Area Network) is also a type of network segmentation approach where the main physical network is divided into multiple smaller virtual networks. The division is done logically or virtually, not requiring buying additional physical resources. The same resource is divided using computer logic. There are several benefits to dividing the parts of the network, either using VLAN segmentation or subnet techniques. Some of them are: Broadcast domain isolation Both subnets and VLAN isolate broadcast domains. This way, broadcasting network traffic is contained in a single segment instead of being exposed to the entire network. This reduces the chance of network congestion during peak hours and unnecessary server overload, thereby maximizing efficiency. Enhanced security The isolation by subnets or VLAN enhances the IT network’s security policies. This is achieved through various factors that are at play. But primarily, the creation of subnetworks makes the flat network more secure. With multiple subnetworks, you can regulate the security parameters. Thus, those subnets containing critical data (like that of healthcare) can have enhanced cybersecurity measures more than others, making them harder to crack. So, from a security perspective, both subnets and VLAN are a must. Better network management With digitization and IT modernization, the IT infrastructure is growing. Concurrently, it’s getting harder to manage them. Microsegmentation is one way of managing the ever-growing infrastructure. By segmenting, you can deploy teams to each segment, thereby strengthening their management and accountability. With the implementation of SDN, you can even configure and automate the management of some of the subnetworks. Flexibility in scalability Many network administrators face network performance and scalability issues expanding resources. The issues are a mix of technical and economical. Network segmentation offers a solution to such issues. By segmenting the entire data center network, you can choose which segments to expand and control the resources granted to each segment. This also makes scalability more economical. While both offer scalability opportunities, VLAN offers superior functionality than subnets. Reduced scope of compliance Compliance is another area that IT execs need to work on. And network segmentation, either via subnets or VLAN, can help in this regard. By having subnets, you don’t have to audit your entire segmented network as required by regulators. Just audit the necessary subnets and submit the reports to the regulators for approval. This takes far less time and costs significantly less than auditing the entire network. Differences between network segmentation and VLAN By definition, network segmentation (subnetting) and VLAN sound pretty similar. After all, there’s a division of the main network into subnetworks or smaller networks. But besides the core similarities mentioned above, there are a few critical differences. Let’s dive into the differences between the two. The primary difference between the two subnets are layer 3 divisions, while VLANs are layer 2 divisions. As you may recall, networks are layer 1 (device), layer 2 (data link), layer 3 (IP, routers), and so on, up to layer 7 (application). TCP/IP is the newer framework with four layers only. So, when you divide a network at a data link, you need to adopt VLAN. With VLAN, several networks exist on the same physical network but may not be connected to the same fiber switch. In subnets, the division occurs at IP level. Thus, the independent subnets are assigned their IP addresses and communicate with others over layer 3. Besides this significant difference, there are other dissimilarities you should know. Here’s a table to help you understand: VLAN Subnet 1 Divides the network within the same physical network using logic. Divides the IP network into multiple IP networks 2 VLANs communicate with other devices within the same LAN The communication between the subnets is carried out over layer 3 3 It is configured at the switch side It is configured at IP level 4 VLAN divisions are software-based terminology since they’re divided logically. Subnets can be both hardware- of software-based 5 VLAN provides better network access and tend to be more stable Subnets offer limited control When to adopt a subnet? There are use cases when subnets are more suited, while there are cases when you’re better off with Virtual LANs. As per the definition, you need to adopt a subnet when dividing different networks at IP level. So, if you want to create multiple IP addresses for each partition, implement subnets. The subnets are essentially networks within a network with their own IP addresses. Thus, they divide the broadcast domain and improve speed and efficiency. Subnets are also the go-to segmentation method when you need to make the sub-networks available over layer 3 to the outside world. With appropriate access control lists, anyone with an internet connection would be able to access the subnets But subnetting is also used to prevent access to a particular subnet. For example, you may want to limit access to the company’s software codebase to anyone outside the development department. So, only network devices with approved IP addresses used by the developer network are approved to access the codebase. But there are two downsides to subnets you should know. The first one is increased time complexity. When dealing with a single network, three steps are in place to reach the Process (Source Host, Destination Network, and Process). In subnets, there’s an additional step involved (Source Host, Destination Network, Subnet, Process). This extra step increases time complexity, requiring more time for data transfer and connectivity. It also affects stability. Subnetting also increases the number of IP addresses required since each subnet requires its own IP address. This can become hard to manage over time. When to adopt VLAN? Virtual LANs are internal networks within the same physical network. They interact with one another, not with other devices on the same network or outside the world. Think of VLAN as a private wireless network at home. Your neighbors don’t have access to it, but everyone in your home has. If that sounds like your desired result, you should adopt VLAN. There are three types of VLANs (basic, extended, and tagged). In basic VLAN, you assign IDs to each switch port or PCI . Once assigned, you can’t change them. Extended VLAN has more functionalities like priority-based routing. Lastly, tagged VLAN enables you to create multiple VLANs with IEEE 802.1Q. The main advantages of different VLANs over subnet are speed and stability. Since endpoints do not have to resolve IP addresses every time, they tend to be faster. But there’s a significant disadvantage to VLANs: It’s easier to breach multiple partitions if there’s a malicious injection. Without proper network security controls, it is easier to exploit vulnerabilities using malware and ransomware , putting your entire network at risk. Having ACLs (access control lists) can help in such situations. Furthermore, there are issues arising out of physical store requirements. Connecting two segments in VLAN requires you to use routers and IoT. Routers are physical devices that take up space. The more segments you create, the more routers you need to use. Over time, management can become an issue. The bottom line Both subnets and VLANs are network segmentation approaches that improve security and workload management. It’s not a given that you can’t have both. Some companies benefit from the implementation of VLAN and subnets simultaneously. But there are specific times when IT service providers prefer one over the other. Consider your requirements to select the approach that’s right for you. Schedule a demo Related Articles Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Convergence didn’t fail, compliance did. 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

Securely accelerate application delivery by automating application connectivity and security policy across the hybrid network estate Secure application connectivity.
Anywhere. Automatisieren Sie die Security-Richtlinien in Ihrem hybriden Netzwerk, damit Ihre Applikationen stets die erforderliche Konnektivität aufweisen und Sie schnell und sicher agieren können. Schedule a demo Watch a video Schaffen Sie Transparenz Entdecken, identifizieren und erfassen Sie alle Netzwerkverbindungen und Datenströme Ihrer Business-Applikationen und korrelieren Sie diese mit den Security-Richtlinien Policy Management unter Einhaltung von Compliance-Vorgaben Automatically associate the relevant business applications that each firewall rule supports, enabling you to review the firewall rules quickly and easily. Automatisieren Sie Änderungen - Sicher Vermeiden Sie Fehlkonfigurationen, indem Sie Änderungen für die Konnektivität Ihrer Applikationen und deren Security-Richtlinien automatisieren – von der Planung über die Risikoanalyse bis hin zur Implementierung und Validierung Übernehmen Sie die Kontrolle über Ihre Applikationen und Security-Richtlinien Schnelle, sichere Bereitstellung von Applikationen und effiziente Verwaltung von Security-Richtlinien für Public Clouds, Private Clouds, Container und On-Premises-Netzwerke Mehr als 1.800 Unternehmen vertrauen auf AlgoSec – seit dem Jahr 2004 Vereinbaren Sie Ihren persönlichen Demo-Termin Sichere Konnektivität für alle Business-Applikationen AlgoSec führt Ihre IT-Infrastruktur, Ihre Security-Richtlinien und Ihre Applikationen, die die Grundlage für Ihren Geschäftserfolg bilden, zusammen. So können Sie Veränderungen in Ihrem Unternehmen voranbringen und die Bereitstellung von Applikationen beschleunigen Cloud/SDN Network & Security Micro-segmentation Vulnerability scanners DevOps / Automation ITSM SIEM/SOAR Watch the video "Placeholder Text" What they say about us Placeholder Name Send Michael West Reece Secure application connectivity 
across your entire application fabric Heading 5 Send Michael West Reece Secure application connectivity 
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Gewinnen Sie neue Einblicke 6 Best Practices für mehr Sicherheit in hybriden Cloud-Umgebungen Nutzen Sie unser eBook Verwalten Sie die Konnektivität Ihres Netzwerks bei Fusionen und Lesen Sie unseren Blog Wirtschaftliche Faktoren für die Auswahl von NSPM-Lösungen Profitieren Sie von unserem Whitepaper Der ultimative Leitfaden für hybrides Netzwerk-Management Nutzen Sie unser eBook 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. 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

With AlgoSec you will manage your network security confidently, no matter where your network lives Gain complete visibility, automate changes, and always be compliant AlgoSec vs. Tufin See how AlgoSec stacks up against Tufin Schedule a demo Micro-segment successfully Master micro-segmentation. Define and enforce network segmentation throughout your entire hybrid network. Be confident that your network security policies won’t violate your network segmentation strategy. Get a demo > Visualize & analyze your application connectivity Micro-segment successfully Master micro-segmentation. Define and enforce network segmentation throughout your entire hybrid network. Be confident that your network security policies won’t violate your network segmentation strategy. Get a demo > Automatically discover applications and services Never misplace an application on your network. Automatically discover and identify your business applications and their network connectivity. Get a demo > Visualize your entire network Instantly visualize your entire hybrid network security topology – in the cloud, on-premises, and everything in between. Understand the impact of network security policies on traffic, quickly troubleshoot connectivity issues Get a demo > Connect applications to security policy rules Firewall rules support applications or processes that require network connectivity to and from specific servers, users, and networks. With AppViz, automatically associate the relevant business applications that each firewall rule supports, enabling you to review the firewall rules quickly and easily Get a demo > Bid Goodbye To Tufin & Get Started With AlgoSec Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue © 2004-2023 All rights reserved by AlgoSec Looking for a Tufin alternative? Easily visualize and manage application connectivity and security policy across your entire hybrid network estate From security policy automation to securely accelerating application delivery Get a personal demo Key Capabilities Automatically discover applications and services Connect application to security policy rule Application based rule cleanup Workflow automation Cisco ACI Firewall object management Network connectivity check Partial Partial Requires add-ons Partial basic See how AlgoSec stacks up against Tufin Bid Goodbye To Tufin & Get Started With AlgoSec Trusted by over 1,800 organizations since 2004 Based on hundreds reviews on G2.com
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Explore Algosec's customer success stories to see how organizations worldwide improve security, compliance, and efficiency with our solutions. Arcon Maintains Security Across Diverse Customer Networks With AlgoSec Organization ARCON Industry Financial Services Headquarters Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Download case study Share Customer
success stories "Using AlgoSec is a double benefit to us because we can reduce the cost and number of errors in our daily operation and also expand our offerings to our customers" Global Managed Services Company Optimizes Firewall Policies and Reduces Risks AlgoSec Business Impact • Improve security and assure compliance of its customers • Deliver comprehensive reports • Reduce costs and misconfiguration errors • Expand offerings to Arcon’s customers Background Founded in 1995, Arcon is the leading MSSP in Brazil. The company operates facilities in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Brasília, Flórida, Salvador and Belém, managing the networks of many of Brazil’s top 100 companies, including banks, retailers, manufacturers and telecom companies. Arcon protectsmore than 600,000 users across five continents and processes more than one billion transactions each day. In addition to strategic management of IT security, Arcon protects data, servers, workstations and mobile devices and helps customers identify and control access to their systems. The company also evaluates risks in applications and provides technology infrastructure to support its customers’ businesses. Challenge Arcon provides security services to hundreds of other companies, including major retailers and banks, which require the tools that enable it to rapidly identify compliance issues and assess risks associated with network configurations. It must also be able to determine how to best optimize customers’ security policies and track changes made to firewall rules. With so many customers and service level agreements that require near immediate responses, Arcon needed visibility across the networks it manages and into reports allowing them to quickly find and fix issues and to counsel customers on changes that would improve their systems’ security. Solution Flavio Carvalho, the Security Management Services Director at Arcon, was charged with maintaining security across its own network, as well as diverse customers’ networks. Carvalho and his team selected the AlgoSec Security Management solution. “The combination of ease-of-use and the value add of AlgoSec’s reports, the ability to manage different technologies from multiple vendors, the cost per device managed, and the visibility across customer’s networks were key for us,” comments Carvalho.The quality of the AlgoSec’s reports clinched the deal. “With AlgoSec, we can quickly and easily provide PCI compliance reports to our customers, including banks and large retail stores. The excellent quality of the reports adds value to the services we manage for them,” says Carvalho. Results Arcon’s clients expect regular updates on the security of their networks — including recommendations for policy optimization, risk mitigation strategies, compliance verification and the impact of rule changes. “It would be impossible for us to deliver all of these in monthly reports without AlgoSec,” Carvalho notes. We have a big retail customer with SLAs of just one hour. “With AlgoSec we have been able to meet these SLAs much more easily than before. A report that previously took a day to generate can now be completed in a few minutes at the click of a button,” Carvalho notes.Shortly after implementation, Arcon’s experience with one large bank customer validated their decision to use AlgoSec — and made their customer very happy. “Our customer was under pressure because of high CPU utilization in their main firewall cluster,” explains Carvalho. “They needed us to investigate what was going on and to solve the issue as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. Using AlgoSec, we were able to easily identify a series of duplicate and poorly-written rules that were causing the trouble, and we solved the problem at no cost to the customer.”“Using AlgoSec is a double benefit to us because we can reduce the cost and number of errors in our daily operations and also expand our offerings to our customers,” adds Carvalho. “It’s easy to work with AlgoSec, as we have a direct contact and an excellent AlgoSec support team, which is always available to help us when necessary” concludes Carvalho. 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. Leading Life Insurance Company Ensures Security and Compliance Organization Life Insurance Industry Financial Services Headquarters Texas, USA Download case study Share Customer
success stories "AlgoSec worked right out of the box. We got started quickly and never looked back.” A leading insurance provider of life, disability and other benefits for individuals increases efficiency and ensures continuous compliance on their networks. Background This life insurance company provides insurance and wealth-management products and services to millions of Americans. The company employs thousands of people and maintains a network of several thousand financial representatives. They offer a wide range of insurance products and services that include life insurance, disability income insurance, annuities, investments, dental and vision. Challenges For decades, the company operated a large and growing data center in Bethlehem, PA which they recently transferred to Dallas, TX. During and since the transfer, the company has been replacing much of its multi-vendor network infrastructure, consolidating on Cisco Firepower technology, but still maintaining vestiges of other routers, firewalls and network equipment. At the new data center, the company’s IT staff maintains more than 100 firewalls that host some 10,000 rules. The company’s network security engineer described the considerable pressure on the security staff: “Change requests are frequent, 25-30 per week, demanding considerable time and effort by the security team.” Due to the presence of firewalls from multiple vendors, change requests were analyzed manually and pushed to devices with great care so as not to interrupt the operation of a rapidly growing body of applications. “The change–request process was tedious and very time consuming,” declared the engineer. “as was the pressure to maintain a strong compliance posture at all times.” The company is subject to a litany of demanding insurance-industry regulations that concern the care of personal information and processes. Managing risk is critical to the success of the business and being able to ascertain compliance with regulations is always vital. Solution The security team turned to AlgoSec to help them manage network security policy across the large data center that includes firewalls from multiple vendors. After a careful review, the security team acquired AlgoSec’s Firewall Analyzer to speed up the process of firewall change management as well as to continuously quantify the degree of compliance and level of risk. Vendor-agnostic AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer delivers visibility and analysis of complex network security policies across on–premise and cloud networks. It automates and simplifies security operations including troubleshooting, auditing and risk analysis. Firewall Analyzer optimizes the configuration of firewalls, routers, web proxies and related network infrastructure to ensure security and compliance. Results After a very short installation and learning period, the security staff became proficient at operating Firewall Analyzer’s helpful capabilities. Soon thereafter, staff members undertook AlgoSec certification courses to become experts in using the solution for firewall analysis. “AlgoSec worked right out of the box,” said the engineer. “We got started quickly and never looked back.” The AlgoSec solution has significantly improved processes, delivering significantly improved results for their security team: Reduced time to analyze and optimize firewall rules, automatically checking for shadow rules and discovering other rules eligible for consolidation or deletion. Continual optimization of firewall rules across their entire network estate. Increased efficiency of security staff, enabling them to keep up with the volume of change requests. Accelerated and more accurate change verification. Audit-readiness, generating scheduled and on-demand compliance reports. The security staff looks forward to implementing AlgoSec FireFlow (AFF), that will enable them to push changes automatically to their population of firewalls, eliminating errors and further reducing risk. With AFF, the staff will be able to respond to changing business requirements with increased speed and agility. They added: “We are also checking out AlgoSec’s new cloud-security solution since we are migrating a growing number of applications to AWS.” Schedule time with one of our experts

Ensure your network security is up to par with a comprehensive firewall audit checklist. Review and optimize security policy rules to prevent vulnerabilities. Firewall audit checklist for security policy rules review ------- ---- 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. PORSCHE INFORMATIK SIMPLIFIES NETWORK OPERATIONS AND STRENGTHENS SECURITY Organization PORSCHE Industry Retail & Manufacturing Headquarters Austria Download case study Share Customer
success stories "We quickly saw a clear return on our investment with AlgoSec. It enabled us to significantly increase the efficiency of our firewall operations team without increasing head count. With AlgoSec, We can focus on what is most important to Porsche Informatik: our customers" Leading European Automobile Trading Enterprise Increases Security, Ensures Compliance, Optimizes Firewall Operations and Streamlines Productivity AlgoSec Business Impact • Increase IT productivity without adding headcount• Reduce time and resources required to implement firewall policy changes• Improve IT Governance and accountability over the network security policy• Improve security posture and gain visibility into the impact of proposed changes Background Porsche Informatik GmbH, a subsidiary of Porsche Holding, is one of the biggest private trading enterprises in Austria and the most successful automobile trade companies in Europe. The Company provides integrated software solutions for the automobile sector serving importers, retailers and financial service providers in over 21 countries. With its multi-vendor, multi-firewall infrastructure consisting of various Check Point clusters and firewalls, Porsche Informatik has been supporting some of the most successful automobile brands in the world including Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Seat and Skoda. Challenge As an enterprise serving the leading automobile brands, Porsche Informatik is committed to ensuring the integrity of its network and maintaining compliance with corporate security policies. Optimizing its operations is another top priority. With a large number of firewalls undergoing continuous rule changes, Porsche Informatik’s team had to manually confirm that all of the changes were correctly configured and adhered to corporate policy. To do this, Porsche Informatik needed to keep track of changes: when they were made, who made them and verify that they weren’t introducing clutter and subsequent risk into their environment. “As the rule base continued to grow, it became increasingly complex and harder to keep track of the details,” says Anton Spitzer, Infrastructure Services Manager at Porsche Informatik. “Monitoring and auditing of our firewalls and clusters has become a painstaking manual, time and labor intensive process and we needed to handle it more effectively.” Porsche Informatik looked for a solution that would allow them to automatically and comprehensively manage the entire change lifecycle of their heterogeneous firewall infrastructure to improve and optimize operations, bolster security and comply with the corporate security policy in an easier way. Solution Porsche Informatik selected the AlgoSec Security Management solution to provide automated, comprehensive firewall operations and security risk management.In particular, Porsche Informatik liked AlgoSec’s auditing capability as it tracks changes in real-time as well as provides analysis of the operational and security implications of those changes. Results With AlgoSec, Porsche Informatik can now intelligently automate manual, labor and time intensive tasks, optimize firewall operations and improve network security while enforcing corporate policies to provide improved IT Governance.“AlgoSec allows our team to quickly and easily understand the operational and security impact of rule changes on our corporate policy, while at the same time provides a detailed audit trail, which is crucial for us to maintain compliance,” says Spitzer. From an operations and risk perspective, AlgoSec enables Porsche Informatik to instantly know which rules and objects are obsolete, invalid and duplicate and where potential security holes exist. The ability to clean up the firewall policy has streamlined network operations and given Porsche Informatik better visibility into their firewall infrastructure. “We cleaned up our existing policy base and now utilize the “what if” analysis to prevent the introduction of clutter and risk into our environment,” explains Spitzer.Ultimately, with AlgoSec, Porsche Informatik can now easily determine the necessity of changes and their potential security implications which saves time and effort. As a result productivity has increased without adding headcount. “After several months of use, AlgoSec has made a quantifiable impact on our firewall operations and security risk management. We know exactly what changes are being made, by whom and the implications of those changes on our operations and security posture,” said Spitzer. “We now spend much less time analyzing and auditing our firewalls, allowing our IT personnel to work on additional projects. As a customer-centric company, optimized internal operations directly benefits our clients by allowing Porsche Informatik to focus wholly on their needs instead of on firewall management.” Schedule time with one of our experts

Learn why network security policy management is crucial for insurance companies to safeguard sensitive data, ensure compliance, and mitigate cyber risks effectively. Why Insurance Companies Need Network Security Policy Management ------- ---- Select a size ----- Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

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AlgoSec simplifies, automates, and orchestrates security policy management for Cisco devices and platforms to accelerate application delivery while ensuring security and continuous compliance across the enterprise Secure application
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on your Cisco environment AlgoSec simplifies, automates, and orchestrates security policy management for Cisco devices and platforms to accelerate application delivery while ensuring security and continuous compliance across the enterprise. Schedule a demo Features of our Cisco integrations Provision application connectivity Securely provision, manage, and decommission application connectivity. AlgoSec maps application requirements to the underlying network/cloud, speeding up delivery, reducing outages, and ensuring security and compliance across hybrid environments. See and understand complex network security policies AlgoSec simplifies security operations by providing visibility and analysis across virtual, cloud, and physical environments. Teams can optimize Cisco firewalls, routers, and SDN solutions for security, compliance, and operational efficiency. Automate security policy changes AlgoSec automates security policy changes and delivers hands-free policy push for Cisco devices. Intelligent workflows save time, reduce manual errors, and minimize risk for operations and security teams. Get the most out of your ACI investment AlgoSec provides unified security policy management across legacy, cloud, WAN, and ACI fabric, with full visibility and automation. It enables zero-touch changes by automating ACI contracts and firewall policies for seamless, end-to-end security management. Micro-segmentation and policy enforcement AlgoSec leverages Cisco Secure Workload and other data sources to discover application flows, generate whitelist policies, and enforce east-west filtering. It ensures consistent end-to-end implementation of micro-segmentation policy across the network for enhanced security. Ease the migration to firepower AlgoSec simplifies firewall migration to Cisco Firepower by automatically mapping, cleaning, and translating rulesets for zero-touch deployment. It also provides what-if risk analysis and detailed documentation of changes to ensure a smooth and secure migration. Cisco and AlgoSec partnership highlights AlgoSec is a Solutions Plus Partner with Cisco Cisco’s Co-Sell Partner of the Year EMEA-2024 Cisco Meraki Marketplace Tech Partner of the Month- November 2024 AlgoSec products can be purchased directly from the Cisco GPL AlgoSec has developed integrations across many Cisco Products including: Watch the latest Cisco and AlgoSec webinar Key Cisco use cases Risk management and audit Cisco ACI Customers can quickly identify and mitigate policy risks while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements Download > Network segmentation Customers achieve successful network segmentation within Cisco ACI and network security devices with AlgoSec Download > Intelligent automation With AlgoSec, customers achieve 80% reduction in time spent handling policy changes, and 100% reduction with zero-touch automation Download > See how Cisco ACl users benefit from AlgoSec Intelligent Automation for Cisco ACI contracts Policy migration example from VMWare NSX-T distributed firewall policies to Cisco ACI contracts Modernize your network and harness the power of nexus & Cisco ACI with AlgoSec Cisco baseline compliance AlgoSec's optimization of cisco firewall policies Cisco regulatory compliance Resource AlgoSec Security Management Solution for Cisco ACI and Cisco Nexus Dashboard Download the Cisco Solution Overview > Case Study-NCR Download it now > Product video- Policy portability with AlgoSec – enabling migration into CISCO ACI Watch it now > 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 Schedule a call