{"id":52555,"date":"2023-06-29T15:55:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-29T15:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.networkworld.com\/article\/3701388\/cisco-firewall-upgrade-boosts-visibility-into-encrypted-traffic.html#tk.rss_security"},"modified":"2023-06-29T15:55:00","modified_gmt":"2023-06-29T15:55:00","slug":"cisco-firewall-upgrade-boosts-visibility-into-encrypted-traffic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/cisco-firewall-upgrade-boosts-visibility-into-encrypted-traffic\/","title":{"rendered":"Cisco firewall upgrade boosts visibility into encrypted traffic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The software that runs Cisco\u2019s new Firewall 4200 Series now includes the ability to see into encrypted traffic without decrypting it, which the vendor says will allow enterprise customers to better protect hybrid and multicloud applications.<\/p>\n

The enhanced Cisco Encrypted Visibility Engine (EVE) is part of the 7.4 version of the Secure Firewall operating system. Version 7.4 also includes zero-trust capabilities and improved application access control. The 4200 Series\u2019 operating system also helps improve overall firewall performance \u2013 it\u2019s twice as fast as previous high-end Cisco firewalls, the company says.<\/p>\n

EVE, which has been available since version 7.2 of the software, takes things further than traditional firewalls because it now lets customers detect the client application within an encrypted tunnel, according to Rick Miles, vice president of product management, cloud and network security in Cisco\u2019s security business group.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith [EVE], we can tell what kind of client application is running inside, keeping your network from going dark. The firewall administrator can block traffic based on the application the client is using, such as a malicious app or a shadow IT app,\u201d Miles said.<\/p>\n

According to the Google Transparency Report<\/a> from June 2023, almost 95% of Internet traffic is encrypted. When traffic is encrypted, organizations lose visibility, Miles said. \u201cTypically, organizations would decrypt traffic at the firewall, analyze it, then re-encrypt it before allowing it into the network. However, modern encryption protocols such as TLS 1.3 and QUIC [part of the 7.4 release] make it even more difficult to gain visibility,\u201d Miles said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat our competitors are saying is \u2018just decrypt everything.\u2019 But we know in the real world, customers refrain from doing that due to data privacy concerns and to meet legal\/compliance requirements. Furthermore, decrypting and re-encrypting data requires technical prowess not everyone has, increases the attack surface, and also causes severe performance challenges,\u201d Miles said.<\/p>\n