Tuning firewalls can be overwhelming. The increased complexity of the solutions and the growing number of threats are often too much even for the mid-sized and large SOCs to handle. As a result, the business case for managed firewall services grows more compelling.
To be clear, managed firewall services are an alternative to on-premise deployment, setup, and monitoring of a firewall solution. In a managed services relationship, an organization contracts with a third-party service provider to deploy and tune the firewall solution while monitoring the organization’s network for potential security threats. Organizations choose managed firewall services for their corporate security needs to deploy faster, reduce setup and training costs, and leverage the expertise of cybersecurity specialists.
Companies understand how important firewall solutions are to an organization’s cybersecurity defenses. However, just purchasing and deploying these systems is not enough. Organizations commonly make simple mistakes and face challenges in managing these systems that degrade or negate their effectiveness at protecting against cyber threats.
In this blog, we’ll explore the advantages, challenges, and considerations you should make in managing your firewall solutions.
Network firewalls are security devices that inspect network traffic, blocking the traffic considered suspicious or unwanted. A strong firewall is a vital component of any organization’s cybersecurity strategy. It serves as the first line of defense and is capable of filtering out a large amount of potential attack traffic before it can impact internal systems. Firewalls developed by industry leaders like Cisco, Palo Alto, and Fortinet have been trusted tools in network security for over 25 years.
Firewalls filter data packets by examining the IP address of the source or destination. If the IP address fails to follow the established security rules, the data packet is rejected, and the network is protected from a potential malicious attack.
Modern firewalls are more advanced (and complicated). They can filter the traffic based on various criteria, such as:
Firewalls are available as hardware or software, and they can have specialties like Packet filters, Stateful firewalls, Application layer firewalls, and Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW). However, a firewall is only effective if it is configured and managed correctly. A misused firewall can be worse than no firewall at all, because it provides a false sense of security.
An optimized firewall can be a powerful tool for protecting against cybersecurity threats. However, they need to have properly designed and implemented firewall rules to be effective. Frequent mistakes when creating firewall rule sets include:
No cybersecurity solution should be “fire and forget”, and a firewall is no exception. If a firewall is set up and then left to do its own thing, it provides little or no benefit to the organization. Mismanaged firewalls can also be a major liability. An unpatched or unmonitored firewall could be the target of an attack or allow malicious traffic to enter the network undetected.
Firewalls should be monitored, frequently updated, and reconfigured as part of an organization’s security posture. Some common issues that occur due to a failure to properly monitor and manage a firewall include:
In many cases, organizations do not have all of the specialized resources and cybersecurity expertise in-house to effectively configure, use, and maintain their firewall solution. While the firewall can be a major asset for protecting the organization against cyber threats, it is only effective if properly configured, monitored, and maintained.
Managed firewall services enable an organization to achieve the benefits of first-class cybersecurity protections without the need to fully manage the solutions in-house. A managed firewall provider will have both the expertise necessary to properly configure and maintain these tools to ensure that they provide maximum value.
There’s a reason why firewalls have become foundational elements of mature cybersecurity operations but, a firewall is only as impactful as the cybersecurity team wielding it. If you are uncertain about the internal team’s capabilities, leverage the deep expertise of an MSSP for centralized firewall management to ensure that your network functions at its best.