Managed Firewall
Managed Firewall service Cape Town, provided by a team of security experts, offers solutions that cover the administration, operation, monitoring, and maintenance of your firewall infrastructure. Depending on the offering, managed firewall may involve an assessment of your security threats and monitoring network traffic.
What is a Managed Firewall and Do You Need One?
Qualified managed security service providers (MSSPs) typically provide a “managed firewall service “as a solution for firewall operation, administration, monitoring, and maintenance of firewall infrastructure. The MSSP will help establish, maintain, and modify firewall rules, monitor your network, and provide feedback, reports, and analysis.
Depending on the extent of the service agreement, the MSSP may perform firewall installation, application control and web content filtering, as they assist in determining which applications and web content (URLS) to block. They will also help manage patching and updates.
Do you need a Managed Firewall?
Firewalls are fundamental to protecting network traffic including the flow of sensitive data. They are required for compliance to mandates like PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR or POPIA. Companies that don’t have the personnel resources available to manage their firewall or other security devices can close data security gaps and better prevent data breaches by using a managed firewall service. Most of the companies our auditors work with employ internal IT personnel to manage their firewalls, but many also choose to utilize a reputable managed firewall service so that they can better focus on their core business objectives.
Comprehensive firewall management requires a high degree of expertise and constant vigilance. Firewalls are not a point-and-click or set-it-and-forget-it technology. Purchasing and initially configuring a firewall that is adequate for any given environment is only the beginning.
Whether for compliance or data security alone, a managed firewall service can add significant security to a network.
No firewall auditing
Firewall auditing, where a company checks and audits their firewall rules regularly, is often left undone. One benefit of contracting with an MSSP is that most providers will perform regular firewall audits as a primary element of their core services.
A SecurityMetrics auditor reported that in one instance, no administrative IT personnel at a health organization had logged in to review the firewall configuration for two years. The auditor discovered a VPN connection linking the firewall to the previous IT employee’s home network. This organization was not successfully managing their firewall and as a result, the sensitive data in their network was at significant risk.
Inexperience and lack of oversight
IT personnel are often expected to just “make things work.” There is tremendous pressure to keep systems up and running for day-to-day business operations. This pressure sometimes results in careless or risky configurations like in the case of a merchant where, whenever there was a problem with the firewall, an IT employee would just apply the any/any rule while diagnosing the origin of the issue. Doing so left the merchant’s network extremely vulnerable. And there is always the added risk of failing to disable/remove this rule once the testing process is complete.