With hacking being so commonplace, how will organizations protect their intellectual property?
A multi-layered approach to security is the default and recommended method taken today. This offers a shell-after-shell approach to security; multiple lines of defenses in the event of an attack. One of the first things we should think about in terms of securing our network is what specific security devices we have to protect it.
Let’s talk about the Firewall.
The firewall’s fundamental objective is to separate trusted and untrusted components of a network. A traditional firewall works by inspecting your network traffic flow and is stateful. It allows or blocks traffic based on pre-defined sets of administrative rules.
It knows who is allowed in your network, and it knows who is behind the firewall.
NGFW - Next Generation Firewall
Next generation firewalls are next-gen for many reasons. Due to being adaptive and self aware, next generation firewalls are able defend and protect against malware and other advanced threats. They are able to do this because they can also function at the application layer of the Open Systems Interconnection model. They are able to determine suspicious activity and implement policy changes automatically.
Next-gen firewalls offer some of the following benefits:
1. Fastest time to detection via threat intelligence
2. Breach prevention and advanced security (IDS/IPS)
3. Application awareness and control to see and block risky apps
Next generation firewalls are therefore able to make more intelligent decisions about the traffic coming into your network.
Next steps:
It is recommended to select a vendor who specializes in security when thinking of who to partner with. Companies that have proven they are able to secure enterprise networks over the course of many years.
By doing so enterprises can ensure they stay competitive and avoid further cloud service provider dependency, while benefiting from the most advanced security features offered.
For next generation firewalls, companies that come to mind are Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, and Cisco.
For these reasons, NGFWs are absolutely essential to include in enterprise network design. So, next time you consider your security standpoint, be sure to add one in.. otherwise you might be NSFW.
Thank you for reading and if you’d like to check out more on the engineering and specifics I’ll leave you with a few links.
https://www.fortinet.com/products/next-generation-firewall
https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security/next-generation-firewall-hardware