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Don't Leave Your Network Vulnerable : Reasons to Switch to a NGFWs

March 10, 2023 , , , , , , , , ,

Don't Leave Your Network Vulnerable
Reasons to Switch to a NGFWs

Stateful firewalls have been a mainstay of network security for years, providing basic packet filtering and tracking of network connections. But, as cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated, basic firewalls may no longer be enough. 

That's where next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) come in. NGFWs offer far greater visibility into network traffic, applications, and users, as well as advanced threat protection capabilities such as intrusion prevention, antivirus, malware detection, and sandboxing.

Next-generation firewalls (NGFWs)
Fig 1.1-Next-generation firewalls (NGFWs)

💻 Table Of Content

1. Why Refresh Your Stateful Firewall with a NGFW?

Lets talk about why a lot of organizations are refreshing from stateful Firewalls to the Next Generations firewall approach. 

It's no secret that cyber threats are on the rise. With the increase in malicious activity, organizations are looking for ways to protect their networks and data. One of the best solutions is a next-generation firewall (NGFW).

2. Greater Visibility in NGFWs

NGFWs offer greater visibility into network traffic, applications, and users, enabling organizations to identify and respond to potential security threats more quickly and effectively.
NGFWs provide greater visibility into network traffic, applications, and users, enabling organizations to better understand what is happening on their networks and identify potential security threats more quickly and effectively.

  • Application Identification: NGFWs can identify and classify applications running on the network, even if the applications are using non-standard ports or encryption. This allows organizations to gain insight into how applications are being used on the network and to control access to them based on policy.
  • User Identification: NGFWs can also identify users based on their credentials, enabling organizations to enforce policies based on the user's identity. This can help to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data and resources.
  • Deep Packet Inspection: NGFWs employ deep packet inspection (DPI) to analyze the contents of network packets, including application and user data. This allows organizations to identify and block potentially malicious traffic, such as command and control traffic used by malware.
  • Network Monitoring: NGFWs can provide real-time monitoring of network traffic, allowing organizations to detect potential security incidents as they occur. This can help organizations to respond more quickly to security incidents and reduce the impact of an attack.

3. Advanced Protection with Next-Generation Firewalls

NGFWs offer a number of advanced protection features to help organizations defend against cyber threats. Here are five key ways that NGFWs provide advanced threat protection:
  • Intrusion Prevention: NGFWs help protect against attacks such as Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, buffer overflow attacks, and SQL injection attacks by analyzing network traffic for known vulnerabilities and attack signatures.
  • Antivirus and Malware Detection: NGFWs scan network traffic for known viruses and malware using signature-based detection. Some NGFWs also feature advanced malware detection capabilities, such as and sandboxing, to detect and unknown threats.
  • SSL Inspection: NGFWs can decrypt and inspect SSL/TLS encrypted traffic to detect and block threats that may be hiding in encrypted traffic. This is an essential feature as many threats today use encryption to evade detection.
  • Application Control: NGFWs help prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data and resources by enforcing application control policies. This helps to protect against attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in specific applications, such as web-based attacks.
  • Threat Intelligence: NGFWs can use threat intelligence feeds to identify and block traffic from known malicious IP addresses, domains, and URLs. This helps to protect against attacks that originate from known bad sources.
By combining all of these features, NGFWs provide comprehensive protection against both known and unknown threats.

4. Secure cloud applications with a NGFWs

Next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) are designed to be cloud-ready, meaning they can be easily deployed and managed in a variety of cloud environments. Here are some ways that NGFWs offer cloud readiness:
  • Support for Virtual Environments: NGFWs are designed to work seamlessly in virtualized environments, such as those found in public and private clouds. This allows organizations to deploy NGFWs in the cloud without any additional hardware requirements.
  • Scalability: NGFWs are designed to be highly scalable, allowing organizations to easily expand their security infrastructure as their cloud environment grows. This makes NGFWs ideal for organizations that are rapidly scaling their cloud infrastructure.
  • Centralized Management: NGFWs offer centralized management, which is essential for managing security policies across a distributed cloud environment. This allows organizations to maintain consistent security policies across their entire cloud infrastructure, regardless of where the NGFWs are deployed.
  • API Integration: NGFWs offer API integration, which allows them to be easily integrated into cloud orchestration tools, such as Kubernetes and OpenShift. This makes it easier to automate security policy management in cloud environments.
  • Multi-Cloud Support: NGFWs are designed to work across multiple cloud environments, such as public, private, and hybrid clouds. This allows organizations to deploy NGFWs in any cloud environment that meets their specific needs.
Overall, NGFWs offer cloud readiness by providing support for virtual environments, scalability, centralized management, API integration, and multi-cloud support. This makes NGFWs ideal for organizations that are deploying applications and infrastructure in the cloud and need a flexible, scalable, and easy-to-manage security solution.

5. Compliance Made Easier With NGFWs

NGFWs can help organizations achieve compliance with various regulatory requirements and industry standards. Here's how:
  • Access Control: NGFWs can enforce access control policies to restrict access to sensitive data and resources. This keeps your organization in line with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
  • Encryption: Secure your data while it's in transit with encryption policies enforced by NGFWs. This helps your organization stay compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
  • Intrusion Detection and Prevention: NGFWs can detect and prevent any attempts to infiltrate your network. This meets the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
  • Logging and Reporting: Keep track of who's accessing what with detailed logging and reporting capabilities. This way, you can stay in compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX).
  • Vulnerability Management: NGFWs can identify and block network traffic associated with known vulnerabilities and exploits. This helps you meet the requirements of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001.
By deploying NGFWs as part of your security infrastructure, you can reduce your risk of non-compliance and protect your sensitive data and resources

6. Conclusion

NGFWs offer a wide range of advanced security features that can help organizations defend against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. With their greater visibility, advanced threat protection, cloud readiness, and compliance capabilities, NGFWs are an ideal security solution for organizations that are deploying applications and infrastructure in the cloud and need a flexible, scalable, and easy-to-manage security solution.

By deploying NGFWs, organizations can improve their security posture, reduce their risk of cyber attacks, and ensure compliance with various regulatory requirements and industry standards. However, it's important to note that NGFWs are just one component of a comprehensive security strategy. Organizations should also implement other security solutions, such as endpoint protection, network segmentation, and security information and event management (SIEM) tools, to provide layered protection against cyber threats.