Next-generation firewalls are the only firewalls that can provide adequate protection in today’s ever-evolving threat landscape. Most companies use Firewalls as a standard security tool, but in today’s ever-changing threat landscape, firewalls are the only firewalls that can provide adequate protection.
The term “next-generation firewall” (NGFW) refers to a network security device that extends beyond the capabilities of a stateful firewall in the classic sense. Next-generation Firewalls include features such as application awareness and control, integrated intrusion prevention, and cloud-delivered threat intelligence, in addition to the stateful inspection of incoming and outgoing network traffic typically provided by traditional firewalls. Traditional Firewalls are used in most cases.
Traditional Firewalls Vs. Next-Generation Firewalls
Next-Generation Firewalls, as their name suggests, are a more advanced version of the classic firewall and give the same benefits as the old one. In the same way, as
traditional Firewalls do, next-generation Firewalls allow virtual private networks (VPNs) and use static and dynamic packet filtering to ensure that all connections between a
network and the internet are legitimate and safe. To map IP addresses, both types of Firewalls need to have the ability to translate network and port addresses.
The conventional Firewall and the Firewalls of the next generation both have significant characteristics that set them apart from one another. The capacity of an NGFW to filter packets according to the applications they originate from is the feature that most starkly differentiates the two.
These Firewalls offer a high level of control and visibility over programs, which they can recognize through analysis and signature matching. They can differentiate between safe and undesired applications by using whitelists or a signature-based intrusion prevention system (IPS). Unwanted programs are discovered through SSL decryption. Unlike the majority of conventional firewalls, next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) provide a channel through which new software upgrades can be downloaded in the future.
What Should One Look For In A Firewall Designed For The Future Generation?
The most effective Firewalls of the next generation offer five primary advantages to businesses of all sizes, from SMBs to corporations. Make sure your NGFW delivers:
1. Advanced security measures and the avoidance of breaches
It should be a priority for a Firewall to stop breaches and maintain the integrity of an organization’s security. However, preventative measures can never be effective one hundred percent of the time, so your firewall should also have an enhanced ability to detect complex malware quickly if it gets past your front-line defenses.
Invest in a Firewall that comes equipped with the following features:
- Preventative measures to thwart assaults before they can gain in.
- Built-in intrusion prevention system of the next generation that is capable of identifying sneaky attacks and putting an immediate halt to them
- Filtering of hundreds of millions of URLs to ensure compliance with established policies
- Sandboxing and powerful malware protection is both built-in and continuously evaluate file behavior to discover and eradicate threats as early as possible.
- A threat intelligence agency of world-class caliber that updates the firewall with the most recent intelligence in order to combat newly emerging threats.
iSync.io offers Kerio Control, a next-generation firewall by GFI Software, prioritizes your safety and security, which is why it offers you secure and redundant access with File Server Enablement to sync on-premise file servers to the cloud, all while safeguarding employee network share drives. This is among the many ways that it looks out for you.
2. Complete and all-encompassing visibility of the network
You can’t defend yourself against something you can’t see coming. You must always keep an eye on what is taking place on your network to identify malicious activity and immediately halt it.
Your Firewall ought to offer a comprehensive perspective of the activity and a complete understanding of the context in order to see:
- Activity that constitutes a threat across all users, hosts, networks, and devices
- When and where a threat first appeared, where else it has been throughout your extended network, and what it is doing right now are all things that can be determined.
- Applications and websites that are currently active
- Communications between different virtual computers, file transfers, and other features
3. Flexible management and deployment options
Whether it is a small or a huge enterprise, the Firewall protecting your network should accommodate your organization’s specific needs.
- Management options for every use case, including management local to the device or centralized across all appliances.
- Deployment options include options of on-premises and in the cloud using a virtual Firewall.
- Personalize it with features that are tailored to your need, and activate subscriptions to unlock more advanced capabilities.
- You have your choice among many different throughput speeds.
- 4. The quickest possible time to detection
It takes between 100 and 200 days, which is far too long to detect a threat according to the current industry norm, which is between 100 and 200 days. A Firewall designed for the next generation should be able to do the following:
- Find dangers in a few seconds.
- Identify the presence of a successful breach within a few minutes or hours at the most.
- Put alerts in order of priority so that you may respond to potential dangers in a timely and accurate manner.
Ease your burden by implementing a consistent policy that is simple to manage and comes with automatic enforcement across all of the various elements of your firm. This will make your life much simpler.
5. The integration of automated systems and products
Your next-generation firewall absolutely must not be a standalone piece of software. It should interact and cooperate with the rest of your security architecture in order to provide optimal protection. Choose a wall of protection that:
- Integrates without any hitches with other tools made by the same manufacturer
- Automatically communicates threat intelligence, event data, policy, and contextual information with email, websites, endpoints, and network security tools.
- Automates processes associated with security, such as impact assessment, policy management, and tuning, and user identification
Every company needs to put in place a firewall as a precautionary measure. In the context of the modern world, having a firewall for the future generation is virtually indispensable. Each new day is a new set of challenges for individual devices and bigger networks. It protects devices and businesses from a significantly wider variety of incursions thanks to the adaptability of a Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW).
