A new study has found that next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) are approaching mass adoption, yet configuration auditing solutions are less prevalent. Use of those tools is translating into significant benefits, however.
According to Forrester Research, users of firewall auditing solutions are three to four times likelier than nonusers to address and implement firewall change requests within 24 hours; and, firms that manually audit their firewalls face more challenges than those that use a solution. To boot, solution users show a marked increase in the number of organizations who say they can respond to a data breach in under an hour as a result of using firewall management tools.
According to the report, in the age of cybercriminals, hacktivists, state-sponsored agents and internal security threats, a zero-trust (ZT) network that assumes neither internal nor external networks can be trusted is the best approach to security. This makes firewalls and next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) critical to architecting a ZT network.
“While NGFWs play a crucial role in creating zero-trust networks, the inherent complexity means that if they are not configured properly or managed effectively, they will not be used to their full potential,” said Paul Calatayud, CTO for FireMon, which sponsored the study. “This study has shown that firewall management tools… help IT departments create more secure environments and save organizations a lot of time.”
He added, “The study shows as enterprises upgrade their firewalls to defend their network perimeters, many fail to modernize how they manage complex firewall rule bases. Nearly half of enterprises that use a next-generation firewall do not use firewall management or configuration auditing tools and that exposes the organization to more risk as well as increases the time it takes to respond to a potentially business-crippling data breach.”