5 firewall features IT pros should know about but probably don’t

Firewalls continuously evolve to remain a staple of network security by incorporating functionality of standalone devices, embracing network-architecture changes, and integrating outside data sources to add intelligence to the decisions they make – a daunting wealth of possibilities that is difficult to keep track of.Because of this richness of features, next-generation firewalls are difficult to master fully, and important capabilities sometimes can be, and in practice are, overlooked.Here is a shortlist of new features IT pros should be aware of.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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How to shop for enterprise firewalls

Firewalls have been around for years, but the technology keeps evolving as the threat landscape changes. Here are some tips about what to look for in a next-generation firewall (NGFW) that will satisfy business needs today and into the future.Don’t trust firewall performance stats
Understanding how a NGFW performs requires more than looking at a vendor’s specification or running a bit of traffic through it. Most firewalls will perform well when traffic loads are light. It’s important to see how a firewall responds at scale, particularly when encryption is turned on. Roughly 80% of traffic is encrypted today, and the ability to maintain performance levels with high volumes of encrypted traffic is critical.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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What is a firewall? How they work and how they fit into enterprise security

Firewalls been around for three decades, but they’ve evolved drastically to include features that used to be sold as separate appliances and to pull in externally gathered data to make smarter decisions about what network traffic to allow and what traffic to block.Now just one indespensible element in an ecosystem of network defenses, the latest versions are known as enterprise firewalls or next-generation firewalls (NGFW) to indicate who should use them and that they are continually adding functionality.What is a firewall?
A firewall is a network device that monitors packets going in and out of networks and blocks or allows them according to rules that have been set up to define what traffic is permissible and what traffic isn’t.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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What is a firewall? How they work and all about next-generation firewalls

A firewall is a network device that monitors packets going in and out of networks and blocks or allows them according to rules that have been set up to define what traffic is permissible and what traffic isn’t.There are several types of firewalls that have developed over the years, becoming progressively more complex over time and taking more parameters into consideration when determining whether traffic should or should not be allowed to pass. The most modern are commonly known as next-generation firewalls (NGF) and incorporate many other technologies beyond packet filtering.[ Also see What to consider when deploying a next generation firewall. | Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ]
Initially placed at the boundaries between trusted and untrusted networks, firewalls are now also deployed to protect internal segments of networks, such as data centers, from other segments of organizations’ networks.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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The best enterprise level firewalls: Rating 10 top products

You know you need to protect your company from unauthorized or unwanted access. You need a network-security tool that examines the flow of packets in and out of the enterprise, governed by rules that decide whether that flow is safe, malicious or questionable and in need of inspection. You need a firewall.Recognizing that you need a firewall is the first – and most obvious — step. The next crucial step in the decision-making process is determining which firewall features and policies best-suit your company’s needs.Today’s enterprise firewalls must be able to secure an increasingly complex network that includes traditional on-premises data center deployments, remote offices and a range of cloud environments. Then you have to implement and test the firewall once it’s installed. Perhaps the only element more complex than configuring, testing and managing a next-generation firewall is the decision-making process regarding which product to trust with your enterprise security.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story) READ MORE HERE…

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Automation critical to scalable network security

Securing the business network has been and continues to be one of the top initiatives for engineers. Suffering a breach can have catastrophic consequences to a business, including lawsuits, fines, and brand damage from which some companies never recover.To combat this, security professionals have deployed a number of security tools, including next-generation firewalls (NGFW) such as Cisco’s Firepower, which is one of the most widely deployed in the industry. Managing firewalls becomes increasingly difficult
Managing a product like Firepower has become increasingly difficult, though, because the speed at which changes need to be made has increased. Digital businesses operate at a pace never seen before in the business world, and the infrastructure teams need to keep up. If they can’t operate at this accelerated pace, the business will suffer. And firewall rules continue to grow in number and complexity, making it nearly impossible to update them manually.To read this article in full, please click here READ MORE HERE…

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How to eliminate the default route for greater security

If portions of enterprise data-center networks have no need to communicate directly with the internet, then why do we configure routers so every system on the network winds up with internet access by default?Part of the reason is that many enterprises use an internet perimeter firewall performing port address translation (PAT) with a default policy that allows access the internet, a solution that leaves open a possible path by which attackers can breach security.+Also on Network World: IPv6 deployment guide; What is edge computing and how it’s changing the network?+To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story) READ MORE HERE…

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