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Protect your network from cyber attacks with firewall management Configure, monitor, and update firewall policies for effective security Firewall management solution for network policy compliance Select a size Which network Can AlgoSec be used for continuous compliance monitoring? Yes, AlgoSec supports continuous compliance monitoring. As organizations adapt their security policies to meet emerging threats and address new vulnerabilities, they must constantly verify these changes against the compliance frameworks they subscribe to. AlgoSec can generate risk assessment reports and conduct internal audits on-demand, allowing compliance officers to monitor compliance performance in real-time. Security professionals can also use AlgoSec to preview and simulate proposed changes to the organization’s security policies. This gives compliance officers a valuable degree of lead-time before planned changes impact regulatory guidelines and allows for continuous real-time monitoring. Firewall management How do you manage firewall rules? Firewall policy management Firewall configuration monitoring and alerts Firewall vulnerability management Firewall security compliance management Extensive multi-vendor support Distributed firewall management Best 6 Practices for Firewall Management Managing firewalls with AlgoSec Get the latest insights from the experts Use these six best practices to simplify compliance and risk mitigation with the AlgoSec White paper Learn how AlgoSec can help you pass PCI-DSS Audits and ensure Solution overview See how this customer improved compliance readiness and risk Case study Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

Join Algosec and be part of a global team driving innovation in network security. Explore exciting career opportunities and grow with us. Find a job By Job Category By Location By Keyword - Found 31 Positions - Sales Development Representative, Germany Read More Customer Success Manager, India Read More Regional Sales Manager, DACH Read More Channel Manager, West Read More CloudFlow Automation Developer, India Read More Regional Sales Manager, West Read More Regional Sales Engineer, Southeast Read More Regional Sales Manager, Ohio Valley Read More Technical Support Engineer Read More Customer Success Manager (Technical), US Read More Sales Development Representative, EMEA Read More Channel Manager, Central Read More Full Stack Automation Developer, India Read More Technical Support Engineer, Brazil Read More Regional Sales Engineer, Canada Read More Automation TL, India Read More Regional Sales Manager, Canada Read More Cloud Automation Developer, India Read More AlgoNext Automation Developer, India Read More AlgoSec Resident Engineer, Netherlands Read More Suite Software Developer, India Read More Sales Development Representative, West Read More Software Developer, India Read More Professional Services Engineer, India Read More Regional Sales Manager, Pacific NW Rockies Read More AlgoSec Resident Engineer, Germany Read More AlgoSec Resident Engineer, India Read More Customer Marketing Manager, IL Read More Assistant Controller, Israel Read More DevOps Team Leader, Israel Read More Automation Team Lead Read More

In the bustling world of cloud security, where complexity and rapid change are the norms, Ava Chawla, Director of Cloud Security at... Cloud Security Securing the Future: A Candid Chat with Ava Chawla, Director of cloud security at AlgoSec Adel Osta Dadan 2 min read Adel Osta Dadan Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 6/15/24 Published In the bustling world of cloud security, where complexity and rapid change are the norms, Ava Chawla, Director of Cloud Security at AlgoSec, sits down to share her insights and experiences. With a relaxed yet passionate demeanor, Ava discusses how her team is pioneering strategies to keep businesses safe and thriving amidst the digital transformation. Embracing the “100x Revolution” “Look, the landscape has transformed dramatically,” Ava reflects with a thoughtful pause. “We’re not just talking about incremental changes here; it’s about a revolution—a ‘100x revolution.’ It’s where everything is exponentially more complex and moves at breakneck speeds. And at the heart? Applications. They’re no longer just supporting business processes; they’re driving them, creating new opportunities, modernizing how we operate, and pushing boundaries.” The Power of Double-Layered Cloud Security Leaning in, Ava shares the strategic thinking behind their innovative approach to cloud security. “One of the things we’ve pioneered is what we call application-centric double-layered cloud security. This is about proactively stopping attacks, and better managing vulnerabilities to safeguard your most critical business applications and data. Imagine a stormy day, you layer up with raincoat and warm clothes for protection The sturdy raincoat represents the network layer, shielding against initial threats, while the layers of clothing underneath symbolize the configuration layer, providing added insulation. Together, these layers offer double layer protection. For businesses, double-layer cloud security means defense in depth at the network layer, unique to AlgoSec, and continuous monitoring across everything in the cloud. Now combine double-layered security with an application centric approach focused on business continuity and data protection across the applications that run the business. Cloud configurations risks are inevitable. You are responsible for safeguarding the business. Imagine you have a tool where you start with an AI-driven view of all your business applications and the attack surface, in seconds you can spot any vulnerable paths open for exploitation as it relates to your most critical applications. Application centric double layer security – the double layers is that extra layer of protection you need when the environment is unpredictable. Combine this with an app-centric perspective for effective prioritization and better security management. It’s a powerful combination! This approach isn’t just about adding more security; it’s about smart security, designed to tackle the challenges that our IT and security teams face every day across various cloud platforms.” Making Security Predictive, Not Just Reactive Ava’s passion is evident as she discusses the proactive nature of their security measures. “We can’t just be reactive anymore,” she says, emphasizing each word. “Being predictive, anticipating what’s next, that’s where we really add value. It’s about seeing the big picture, understanding the broader implications of connectivity and security. Our tools and solutions are built to be as dynamic and forward-thinking as the businesses we protect.” Aligning Security With Business Goals “There’s a beautiful alignment that happens when security and business goals come together,” Ava explains. “It’s not just about securing things; it’s about enabling business growth, expansion, and innovation. We integrate our security strategies with business objectives to ensure that as companies scale and evolve, their security posture does too.” A Vision for the Future With a reflective tone, Ava looks ahead. “What excites me the most about the future is our commitment to innovation and staying ahead of the curve. We’re not just keeping up; we’re setting the pace. We envision a world where technology empowers, enhances, and expands human potential. That’s the future we’re building towards—a secure, thriving digital landscape.” A Closing Thought As the conversation wraps up, Ava’s enthusiasm is palpable. “Our promise at AlgoSec is simple: we empower businesses without interfering with their productivity. We turn digital challenges into growth opportunities. It’s not just about managing risks—it’s about leveraging them for growth.” In a world driven by rapid technological advancements and significant security risks, Ava Chawla and her team at AlgoSec are crafting solutions that ensure businesses can navigate the complexities of the digital landscape with confidence and creativity. Schedule a demo Related Articles 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

AlgoSec Security Management Solution for Cisco ACI and Cisco Nexus Dashboard Download PDF Schedule time with one of our experts Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

Manage and secure your enterprise's hybrid network with integrated solutions that offer visibility, control, and efficiency across diverse infrastructures. Enterprise hybrid network management solutions Overview In this free ebook, learn how to manage your hybrid network policies on-premises, in the cloud and everywhere in between. Schedule a Demo Introduction In the past, all of your data was secured behind lock and key, guarded by physical firewalls in locations that you could physically access. Now, your network is far more complex. It extends beyond the traditional perimeter, sitting in multiple locations and geographies. The typical medium or large enterprise now manages a dynamic heterogeneous (also known as hybrid) network that includes: On-premise data centers Public clouds – The most popular public clouds, AWS and Microsoft Azure, have become part of the computing fabric of millions of enterprises. Private clouds – Typically an SDN (Software-Defined Network) fabric that allows organizations to securely and efficiently host workloads on-premises. These networks are complex, with multiple layers of security controls. On-premises data centers have network firewalls, routers and load balancers, frequently from a variety of vendors. Public clouds add their own security controls, such as cloud-native security groups, cloud-vendor advanced firewalls, and third-party firewalls by firewall vendors such as Check Point CloudGuard and Palo Alto Networks VM-series. Private clouds have their own security controls, such as Cisco ACI contracts and VMware NSX distributed firewalls. The proliferation of security controls in hybrid environments multiplies policy-management complexity and makes security policy management difficult. Many organizations want to utilize the benefits offered by the public and private cloud, but stumble across migration challenges. They want to properly migrate their workloads to the cloud without compromising their security, while avoiding downtime. Even in the on-premises world, traditional network security policy management within a single environment is challenging. Multiple firewalls from different vendors, thousands of rules and hundreds of weekly or monthly changes, call for their careful management and automation. But as the network estate becomes even wider and more complex, coherent security policy has to extend across the entire heterogeneous network. Did you know? IDC estimates that nearly 90% of IT organizations will rely on a mix of on-premises/dedicated private clouds, several public clouds, and legacy platforms to meet their infrastructure needs. In an AlgoSec/Cloud Security Alliance study , more than 2/3 of respondents also reported using multi-clouds. Schedule a Demo Network security challenges and solutions Running applications across the hybrid network can prove eminently useful for business teams but extraordinarily challenging for security teams. The complexity of the heterogeneous environment introduces a new level of security policy management challenges. Visibility The challenge You can’t protect what you can’t see. Visibility is essential to security and rapid incident response. Obtaining full visibility across the entire hybrid network requires a deep understanding of the hybrid network’s topology and its traffic flows. Across your network landscape, security teams find it difficult to obtain a clear picture of your entire network. Enterprises find it difficult to have full policy and network visibility for their hybrid, multi-cloud environment, which is running different security and network elements, such as security groups, VPC routers and cloud firewalls. They don’t know what the entire network topology looks like and how it works together. Tracking the operations, assets, and security controls across the hybrid cloud is challenging. Your security teams and business teams don’t speak the same language, because you may lack visibility into the network connectivity flows associated with each business application. In an AlgoSec/Cloud Security Alliance study , 39% of respondents reported that the lack of visibility into the public cloud environment was a major barrier to cloud migration. The solution With AlgoSec’s security policy management solution, get a full network map of your entire hybrid network estate. AlgoSec delivers visibility and analysis of complex network security policies across your on-premises network as well as your cloud assets and security controls. AlgoSec analyzes and automatically discovers devices on your network and creates a virtual map of your network topology. The information is updated upon any device changes. It enables you to manage next-generation firewall policies and cloud security groups alongside traditional firewalls. In the public cloud, AlgoSec also provides visibility for your cloud assets. Managing application connectivity The challenge The growing body of applications requires a complex, multi-tiered, distributed and interconnected architecture supported by elaborate communication paths that cross other applications, servers, and databases. Trying to manage application connectivity across on-premise, private and public clouds, each with security controls by multiple vendors, is immensely complex and hard to gain control of. Business application owners and IT and security teams frequently don’t speak the same language and so change requests are not fully understood, resulting in missed SLAs, outages, and misconfigurations. The solution With AlgoSec you can discover, migrate, provision, change and securely decommission connectivity for business applications. AlgoSec automatically discovers and maps application connectivity requirements to the network infrastructure, and then translates requests for connectivity changes into networking terms that security and operations teams can understand, approve, and implement. These capabilities allow streamlined and secured migration from on-prem to the cloud (private or public) without the fear of a downtime. By understanding application flows, AlgoSec helps avoid network-related outages throughout data center migration or consolidation projects, and enforces security and compliance across the enterprise. Change management The challenge Making changes to the hybrid network security policy is a manual, complex, and error-prone process that slows down your business. Mistakes are common – and they cause rework, compliance violations, misconfigurations, and application outages. To add to the complexity, the change process involves multiple different devices across the hybrid network, as well as multiple teams, including security, networking and application delivery, who all have different objectives and communicate using different terminology. The solution Using intelligent, highly customizable workflows, AlgoSec streamlines and automates the entire security policy change process — from planning and design to proactive risk analysis, implementation on the device, validation and auditing. As part of the process, AlgoSec provides smart change recommendations for the security controls across the hybrid network, and can even provide zero-touch automation, implementing the changes across your network. Every step of the change process is fully documented to track accountability and SLAs, as well as to provide a complete audit trail for your auditors. With AlgoSec, you will avoid guesswork and errors, reduce risk and complexity, enforce compliance, align teams and foster a collaborative approach to security policy management. Did you know? With AlgoSec you can accurately process security policy changes in minutes or hours, not days or weeks. Maintaining compliance posture management The challenge Preparing your security controls for a regulatory or internal audit is a tedious, time-consuming and error-prone process. Moreover, while an audit is typically a point-in-time exercise, most regulations require you to be in continuous compliance, which can be difficult to achieve since your rule bases are constantly changing. With thousands of rules and ACLs across many different security devices, network environments, and numerous changes every week, it’s no wonder that manually preparing for an audit has become virtually impossible. The solution With AlgoSec, you can simplify security controls audits and ensure continuous compliance. AlgoSec does all the heavy lifting for you. It automatically identifies gaps in compliance, allows you to remediate them and instantly generates compliance reports that you can present to your auditors. Additionally, all firewall rule changes are proactively checked for compliance violations before they are implemented, and the entire change approval process is automatically documented, enabling you to ensure continuous compliance across your organization. Identifying and remediating risks The challenge In hybrid networks, many network changes have taken place over time. These changes will be implemented on all the devices that direct traffic, and are performed by the multiple stakeholders involved. These changes may inadvertently introduce risk. The risks within the complex hybrid-cloud estate are too numerous and complex to be manually identified. There may be risks associated with business applications; or with duplicate, expired, or risky and overly broad rules. The solution AlgoSec allows you to instantly assess, prioritize and mitigate risks in firewall policies, and map them to their respective business applications, to deliver a business-driven view of risk. AlgoSec checks your policy against an extensive database of industry best practices, which can be enhanced and customized with risks specific to your organization. AlgoSec also proactively assesses the risk of every proposed firewall rule change before it is implemented so that you can ensure that your policy remains secure and compliant all the time. In the public cloud, AlgoSec CloudFlow lets organizations proactively detect misconfigurations to protect cloud assets, including cloud instances, databases, and serverless functions. Identify risky rules and their last usage date to gain the confidence to remove them so that you can avoid data breaches and improve your overall security posture. Unwieldy and risky rules The challenge Maintaining a clean set of firewall rules is a critical network-management function. Whether in the on-premises data center or in the cloud, applications are frequently commissioned and decommissioned. As firewall rules and cloud security groups are constantly adjusted, they can rapidly bloat. This makes it difficult to maintain, increasing potential risk. Unwieldy rulesets are not just a technical nuisance. They also introduce business risks, such as open ports, unneeded VPN tunnels and conflicting rules that create the backdoor entry points that hackers love. Bloated rulesets significantly complicate auditing processes that require a careful review of each rule and its related business justification. Some types of problematic firewall rules include: Unused rules Shadowed rules Expired rules Unattached objects (rules that refer to non-existent entities, such as users who have left the company) Rules that are not ordered optimally (e.g., the rule that is “most hit” is near the bottom of the rule list) These problems drive organizations to take on ad-hoc firewall “cleanup” or “recertification” projects. But, lacking visibility into the entire ruleset over the entire network, as well as the ability to connect firewall rules to their associated business applications, these initiatives frequently bog down resources, without improving security and performance. The solution AlgoSec provides rule cleanup across your entire environment. AlgoSec allows you to effortlessly optimize your firewall policy and keep it clean and lean. AlgoSec provides a wide range of actionable recommendations to cleanup, optimize, and tighten the security policy. It can discover and remediate problematic rules, without impacting required traffic flows; reorder rules for optimal performance while retaining policy logic; and automatically trigger change requests. Its actionable reports identify and help you remove the bloat and clutter from your policy, while AlgoSec’s automated change management processes ensure that new rules are optimally designed and implemented so that you don’t generate more clutter over time. Security policy consistency across multiple management consoles The challenge It is difficult to maintain security policy consistency across multi-vendor, multi-topology devices. You may be changing your security policies on some devices, but how can you be certain that your policies are consistent, not conflicting with one another, across your entire network? Each firewall vendor offers its own unique management console, such as FortiManager, Palo Alto Networks’ Panorama, and Juniper Space , to manage all of its devices. Yet, your data center is made up of multiple device vendors, each with their own management console. Cloud vendors also provide their own console that facilitates the day-to-day management of its cloud account. To make network-wide policy changes that span firewalls and clouds, security staff must access multiple consoles forcing enterprises to employ a legion of experts just to implement even a simple change. Changes have to be meticulously coordinated across the many management consoles slowing down progress and introducing the potential for errors. The solution The AlgoSec Security Management Solution eliminates the need for multiple management consoles, providing vendor-agnostic and multi-vendor change management. By utilizing the AlgoSec Security Management solution, security policies can be consistent across your network. The AlgoSec platform takes a holistic view of your entire network and can identify interconnected rules. In a single console, users can manage their multi-vendor devices over their entire complex, heterogeneous network topology. There is visibility and automatic change management across the on-premises, public cloud, and private cloud and SDN environment – all within a single management platform. They can even avoid the console altogether. Users can set their change management workflow to run automatically through the entire application lifecycle – from planning through deployment to production – with zero-touch. Recommended policy changes can also be implemented on their device with ActiveChange. Designed to save time and prevent manual errors, changes are implemented directly on the security control, eliminating the need to manually access and implement each individual change on each management console. The AlgoSec Security Management Solution also integrates with popular IT service management solutions such as ServiceNow, so business application owners can stay within the tools that they are most familiar with in order to manage change requests. The cybersecurity skills gap The challenge Effective network security professionals are more important than ever. Yet, as network complexity increases, skills specialization also increases. Frequently, there are different teams managing your on-premises network and your cloud networks, with different knowledge about networking and security. Yet despite the urgent need, there is a severe scarcity in capable and certified personnel. According to a McAfee study , IT leaders need to increase their security staff by 24% to adequately manage the current threat landscape. According to a study by the British government , around 48% of organizations in the UK are unable to carry out basic tasks due to a cybersecurity skills shortage, including setting up firewalls. The absence of adequately trained security professionals leaves gaps. In their report on security deficiencies, ESG found that 33% of responders indicated that their biggest deficiency was cloud security specialists; followed by 28% who pointed to a deficiency with network security specialists; and 27% who suffer a shortage of security analysts. Many security positions remain unfilled, putting organizations at risk. The solution Utilizing the AlgoSec Security Management Solution reduces reliance on multiple specialists and, by enabling security policy automation, reduces the stress on your IT team. Security policy automation reduces the need to have multiple teams managing your network. It provides visibility over the entire network, and, through intelligent automation, saves time and resources spent doing manual, time-consuming tasks that can be better automated. Free your security professionals from doing the manual work and let them focus on security strategy. Schedule a Demo The AlgoSec solution When using the AlgoSec Security Management Solution, users benefit from a hybrid approach, spanning on-premise, SDN and public cloud. This lets them unify security policy management across heterogeneous cloud, software-defined, and on-premise environments. Users get: Continuous Visibility – Get a full network map of your entire network estate – both on-premises and in public and private clouds. Ensure visibility of the applications in your network. Application Connectivity – Quickly and securely provision application connectivity, and avoid network related outages. Hybrid Network Change Management Automation – Leverage a uniform network model and change-management framework that covers the hybrid and multi-cloud environment. Automate firewall change management and eliminate misconfigurations. Compliance – Ensure continuous compliance and drastically reduce firewall audit preparation efforts. Risk Management – Reduce risk through correct security configuration and effective network segmentation. Policy cleanup – As firewall rules and cloud security groups are constantly adjusted, they can rapidly bloat. This makes them difficult to maintain, increasing potential risk. With advanced rule cleanup capabilities, easily identify unused rules and remove them with confidence. Organizational Alignment – Align security, networking and application teams, and foster DevSecOps. Schedule a Demo About AlgoSec AlgoSec enables the world’s largest organizations to align business and security strategies and manage their network security based on what matters most – the applications that power their businesses. Through a single pane of glass, the AlgoSec Security Management Solution provides holistic, business-level visibility across the entire network security infrastructure, including business applications and their connectivity flows – in the cloud and across SDN and on-premise networks. With AlgoSec users can auto-discover and migrate application connectivity, proactively analyze risk from the business perspective, tie cyber-attacks to business processes and intelligently automate time-consuming security changes – all zero-touch, and seamlessly orchestrated across any heterogeneous environment. Over 1,800 leading organizations, including 20 Fortune 50 companies, have relied on AlgoSec to drive business agility, security and compliance. AlgoSec has provided the industry’s only moneyback guarantee since 2005. Let's start your journey to our business-centric network security. Schedule a Demo Select a size Overview Introduction Network security challenges and solutions The AlgoSec solution About AlgoSec Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

What are firewall logs and why they are important Select a size Which network Can AlgoSec be used for continuous compliance monitoring? Yes, AlgoSec supports continuous compliance monitoring. As organizations adapt their security policies to meet emerging threats and address new vulnerabilities, they must constantly verify these changes against the compliance frameworks they subscribe to. AlgoSec can generate risk assessment reports and conduct internal audits on-demand, allowing compliance officers to monitor compliance performance in real-time. Security professionals can also use AlgoSec to preview and simulate proposed changes to the organization’s security policies. This gives compliance officers a valuable degree of lead-time before planned changes impact regulatory guidelines and allows for continuous real-time monitoring. What are firewall logs and why are they important? Network setups of the past consisted solely of servers in a server closet. Today, modern IT infrastructure consists of three main components: on-premises data centers, public clouds, and their connecting infrastructure. This new reality has created complex systems with multiple challenges. Regulations have become stricter, and organizations are under pressure to detect security threats fast. When faced with an issue, network security professionals must pinpoint the root cause, and to do that, they need evidence—which means investigating firewall logs. What is a firewall log? A firewall log is a record of the network connections (allowed and blocked) that a firewall inspects, capturing each event between your systems and the internet. Depending on the configuration, a firewall log may include all inspected traffic or only what the firewall allows to pass into the environment (what “gets past” the firewall). Each entry of a firewall log will specify the following data: Field Description Timestamp Exact date and time traffic was processed Action Decision made by the firewall (Allow, Deny, Drop) Rule ID Specific firewall rule that triggered the action Source IP & Port IP address and port from where traffic originated Destination IP & Port IP address and port that the traffic was trying to reach Protocol Network protocol used (TCP, UDP, ICMP) Bytes/Session Amount of data transferred during a session Zones Source and destination security zones (Trust, Untrust, DMZ) Beyond the question of “What is a firewall log?” there is also the question of where to store them. Organizations have a few options here. Firewall logs can: Stay on the firewall device Go to a basic syslog server for storage Undergo analysis via a security information and event management (SIEM) tool What is a firewall review? The process of reviewing a firewall is akin to a scheduled maintenance procedure that updates the rulebook of your firewall system. Things to be on the lookout for include: Duplicate rules Outdated server rules Overly broad rules that can lead to security vulnerabilities What is a firewall log review? Ready to play detective? Because a firewall log review requires just that. Analyzing firewall data is a continuous process of extracting relevant information from the firewall logs, i.e., the firewall’s own journal of events.. The key is to identify specific patterns that indicate security incidents, performance issues, or non-compliance events. This, in turn, requires centralizing logs with synchronized device clocks so that timelines line up (i.e., NTP across firewalls, servers, and your SIEM) and putting controls in place to preserve log integrity. How to interpret firewall logs in 6 steps So now that it is clear what a firewall log is—as well as how to store these logs and review them—the next step is knowing how to interpret them. Successfully extracting the necessary data from your firewall logs is a six-step process: Collect logs in one place: The central system needs to receive logs from all firewalls that extend from the data center to the cloud. Each entry missing from your logs allows malicious actors to remain unseen, i.e., pose an unknown threat.. Figure out what's normal: To detect abnormal behavior, you must first create a baseline for normal activity, i.e., typical traffic patterns. Hunt for suspicious patterns: The official investigation begins! What to flag? Network scanning activity from a single IP address that attempts to access multiple ports and internal devices and makes scheduled connections to unverified external servers (beaconing). Add context: Context turns raw events into decisions. Enrich IPs and ports from your logs with: Asset inventory: What system and business app is this? User directories: Who owns/uses it? Threat intelligence: Is the source/destination risky? This enrichment helps determine impact and priority—not just “who/what,” but whether the activity is expected, whether the system is critical, and how urgently you need to respond. Investigate and act: Trigger an incident response plan: Validate findings Contain the incident (isolate the host, block indicators at the firewall). Collect forensics (packet captures, memory snapshot, log preservation) Eradicate the threat Recover systems, operations, and data (patches, credential resets, rule updates) Notify stakeholders Document the case for post‑incident review. Measure and improve: Learn from your results. Identify rules that are creating too much noise and clean them up. Most importantly, track how long it takes you to respond to incidents you find in your logs. How does AlgoSec help with firewall logs? Firewall log management across hybrid environments requires more than manual monitoring. It demands contextual understanding, automated processes, and permanent security measures. AlgoSec offers multiple features to combine all these components. It empowers your team to not only fully grasp what firewall logs are and their importance, but also helps you transition from event analysis to evidence-based remediation: AlgoSec Horizon : Security policy management via an approach based on business application, not a specific device. Offers complete monitoring of app connections between data centers and clouds, automated policy updates, and continuous compliance monitoring, connecting log traffic to actual application operations. Firewall Analyzer : Complete visibility into all firewalls to detect dangerous or unneeded rules. Optimizes rule bases by focusing on essential risk-related elements, resulting in less log data, improved signal quality, and faster review processes. FireFlow : Issue detection and response based on log data. Leverages automated workflows to execute risk and compliance assessments pre-deployment, complete with documentation; integrates with current ITSM systems (e.g., ServiceNow, BMC Remedy) so teams can perform change management tasks within a familiar environment. AlgoSec Cloud Enterprise (ACE) : A single policy framework for cloud and hybrid systems. Enables automated security group and cloud firewall rule management; performs 150+ cloud policy risk checks to deliver application-specific insights from cloud logs. Now is the time to convert your firewall logs into valuable business decisions. Request a demo to see AlgoSec in action today. 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Nick Ellsmore is an Australian cybersecurity professional whose thoughts on the future of cybersecurity are always insightful. Having a... Cloud Security Errare humanum est Rony Moshkovich 2 min read Rony Moshkovich Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 11/25/21 Published Nick Ellsmore is an Australian cybersecurity professional whose thoughts on the future of cybersecurity are always insightful. Having a deep respect for Nick, I really enjoyed listening to his latest podcast “Episode 79 Making the cyber sector redundant with Nick Ellsmore” . As Nick opened the door to debate on “all the mildly controversial views” he has put forward in the podcast, I decided to take a stab at a couple of points made by Nick. For some mysterious reason, these points have touched my nerve. So, here we go. Nick: The cybersecurity industry, we spent so long trying to get people to listen to us and take the issue seriously, you know, we’re now getting that, you know. Are the businesses really responding because we were trying to get people to listen to us? Let me rephrase this question. Are the businesses really spending more on cybersecurity because we were trying to get people to listen to us? The “cynical me” tells me No. Businesses are spending more on cybersecurity because they are losing more due to cyber incidents. It’s not the number of incidents; it’s their impact that is increasingly becoming devastating. Over the last ten years, there were plenty of front-page headliners that shattered even seemingly unshakable businesses and government bodies. Think of Target attack in 2013, the Bank of Bangladesh heist in 2016, Equifax breach in 2017, SolarWinds hack in 2020 .. the list goes on. We all know how Uber tried to bribe attackers to sweep the stolen customer data under the rug. But how many companies have succeeded in doing so without being caught? How many cyber incidents have never been disclosed? These headliners don’t stop. Each of them is another reputational blow, impacted stock options, rolled heads, stressed-out PR teams trying to play down the issue, knee-jerk reaction to acquire snake-oil-selling startups, etc. We’re not even talking about skewed election results (a topic for another discussion). Each one of them comes at a considerable cost. So no wonder many geniuses now realise that spending on cybersecurity can actually mitigate those risks. It’s not our perseverance that finally started paying off. It’s their pockets that started hurting. Nick: I think it’s important that we don’t lose sight of the fact that this is actually a bad thing to have to spend money on. Like, the reason that we’re doing this is not healthy. .. no one gets up in the morning and says, wow, I can’t wait to, you know, put better locks on my doors. It’s not the locks we sell. We sell gym membership. We want people to do something now to stop bad things from happening in the future. It’s a concept of hygiene, insurance, prevention, health checks. People are free not to pursue these steps, and run their business the way they used to .. until they get hacked, get into the front page, wondering first “Why me?” and then appointing a scapegoat. Nick: And so I think we need to remember that, in a sense, our job is to create the entire redundancy of this sector. Like, if we actually do our job, well, then we all have to go and do something else, because security is no longer an issue. It won’t happen due to 2 main reasons. Émile Durkheim believed in a “society of saints”. Unfortunately, it is a utopia. Greed, hunger, jealousy, poverty are the never-ending satellites of the human race that will constantly fuel crime. Some of them are induced by wars, some — by corrupt regimes, some — by sanctions, some — by imperfect laws. But in the end — there will always be Haves and Have Nots, and therefore, fundamental inequality. And that will feed crime. “Errare humanum est” , Seneca. To err is human. Because of human errors, there will always be vulnerabilities in code. Because of human nature (and as its derivative, geopolitical or religious tension, domination, competition, nationalism, fight for resources), there will always be people willing to and capable of exploiting those vulnerabilities. Mix those two ingredients — and you get a perfect recipe for cybercrime. Multiply that with never-ending computerisation, automation, digital transformation, and you get a constantly growing attack surface. No matter how well we do our job, we can only control cybercrime and keep the lid on it, but we can’t eradicate it. Thinking we could would be utopic. Another important consideration here is budget constraints. Building proper security is never fun — it’s a tedious process that burns cash but produces no tangible outcome. Imagine a project with an allocated budget B to build a product P with a feature set F, in a timeframe T. Quite often, such a project will be underfinanced, potentially leading to a poor choice of coders, overcommitted promises, unrealistic expectations. Eventually leading to this (oldie, but goldie): Add cybersecurity to this picture, and you’ll get an extra step that seemingly complicates everything even further: The project investors will undoubtedly question why that extra step was needed. Is there a new feature that no one else has? Is there a unique solution to an old problem? None of that? Then what’s the justification for such over-complication? Planning for proper cybersecurity built-in is often perceived as FUD. If it’s not tangible, why do we need it? Customers won’t see it. No one will see it. Scary stories in the press? Nah, that’ll never happen to us. In some way, extra budgeting for cybersecurity is anti-capitalistic in nature. It increases the product cost and, therefore, its price, making it less competitive. It defeats the purpose of outsourcing product development, often making outsourcing impossible. From the business point of view, putting “Sec” into “DevOps” does not make sense. That’s Ok. No need. .. until it all gloriously hits the fan, and then we go back to STEP 1. Then, maybe, just maybe, the customer will say, “If we have budgeted for that extra step, then maybe we would have been better off”. Schedule a demo Related Articles Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Firewall misconfigurations are one of the most common and preventable security issues that organizations face. Comprehensively managing... Firewall Change Management How to fix misconfigured firewalls (and prevent firewall breaches) Kyle Wickert 2 min read Kyle Wickert Short bio about author here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur. Vitae donec tincidunt elementum quam laoreet duis sit enim. Duis mattis velit sit leo diam. Tags Share this article 8/9/23 Published Firewall misconfigurations are one of the most common and preventable security issues that organizations face. Comprehensively managing access control, addressing vulnerabilities, and detecting configuration mistakes under these conditions is not easy It’s especially challenging for organizations that use the default firewall rules provided by their vendor. Your firewall policies should reflect your organization’s unique cybersecurity risk profile. This requires some degree of customization, and intelligence into kinds of cyber attacks hackers use to target your organization. Understanding security misconfigurations and their impact on network security Security misconfigurations happen when elements of your security tech stack expose preventable vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit. These misconfigurations can take a variety of forms, putting a wide range of security tools and open ports at risk. Network firewall misconfigurations can have a wide-ranging impact on your organization’s overall security posture. Hackers that target vulnerable infrastructure pose a threat to the entire application stack. They may be able to gain access to network services, application servers, and virtual machines. Depending on the specific misconfiguration, they may be able to compromise hardware routers and endpoints as well. In organizations with complex firewall deployments, attackers may be able to exploit misconfigurations, bypass security policies, and escalate their own privileges to make arbitrary changes to firewall security. From this point, attackers can easily modify access control lists (ACLs) to specifically allow the malware they wish to run, compromising the first line of defense against data breaches. This is exactly why Gartner recommends implementing a centralized solution for firewall management . Centralized visibility and control is crucial for maintaining effective firewall configurations and updating them accordingly. Otherwise, ensuring compliance with security best practices like the principle of least privilege becomes difficult or impossible. Routing network traffic through complex cloud-native infrastructure securely requires deep visibility into firewall configuration status, effective authentication processes, and automation-friendly security solutions. How hackers exploit misconfigured firewalls Common misconfigurations include implementing overly permissive rules, disabling critical security features, and neglecting to protect open ports against unauthorized access. This leaves organizations vulnerable to Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, remote control, and data breaches . Here are some of the ways cybercriminals can exploit misconfigured firewalls: 1. Taking advantage of permissions misconfigurations Overly permissive firewall rules are a common problem among organizations with complex cloud-enabled infrastructure. Often, the organization’s demand for productivity and connectivity take precedence over the need to protect sensitive data from unauthorized network traffic. Additionally, IT team members may misunderstand the cloud provider’s shared responsibility model and assume that the provider has already secured the data center from all potential threats. These situations are particularly risky when the organization is undergoing change. For example, many security professionals start with completely open permissions and tighten them as they learn more about the network’s needs. Obvious and highly visible permissions get secured first, while less visible parts of the security framework are deprioritized – or never addressed at all. Hackers can exploit this situation by focusing on less obvious access points first. Instead of sending malicious traffic to IP addresses associated with core business servers, they might infiltrate the network through an unsecured API, or look for an unpatched operating system somewhere in the network. 2. Exploiting disabled security features Many firewalls offer advanced security features to organizations willing to configure them. However, security teams are often strained for time and resources. They may already be flooded with a backlog of high-priority security alerts to address, making it challenging to spend extra time configuring advanced firewall policies or fine-tuning their security posture. Even organizations that can enable advanced features don’t always do it. Features like leak detection and port scan alerts can put additional strain on limited computing resources, impacting performance. Other features may generate false positives, which only add to the security workload. But many of these features offer clear benefits to organizations that use them. Sophisticated technologies like application and identity-based inspection allow organizations to prioritize firewall performance more efficiently throughout the network. If threat actors find out that advanced security features like these are disabled, they are free to deploy the attack techniques these features protect against. For example, in the case of identity-based inspection, a hacker may be able to impersonate an unidentified administrator-level account and gain access to sensitive security controls without additional authentication. 3. Scanning for unsecured open ports Hackers use specialized penetration testing tools to scan for open ports. Tools like Nmap, Unicornscan , and Angry IP Scanner can find open ports and determine the security controls that apply to them. If a hacker finds out that your ACLs neglect to cover a particular port, they will immediately look for ways to exploit that vulnerability and gain access to your network. These tools are the same network discovery tools that system administrators and network engineers use on a routine basis. Tools like Nmap allow IT professionals to run security audits on local and remote networks, identifying hosts responding to network requests, discovering operating system names and versions, and more. Threat actors can even determine what kind of apps are running and find the version number of those apps. They also allow threat actors to collect data on weak points in your organization’s security defenses. For example, they might identify a healthcare organization using an outdated app to store sensitive clinical trial data. From there, it’s easy to look up the latest patch data to find out what exploits the outdated app is vulnerable to. How to optimize firewall configuration Protecting your organization from firewall breaches demands paying close attention to the policies, patch versions, and additional features your firewall provider offers. Here are three steps security leaders can take to address misconfiguration risks and ensure a robust security posture against external threats: 1. Audit your firewall policies regularly This is especially important for organizations undergoing the transition to cloud-native infrastructure. It’s virtually guaranteed that certain rules and permissions will no longer be needed as the organization adjusts to this period of change over time. Make sure that your firewall rules are constantly updated to address these changes and adapt to them accordingly. Auditing should take place under a strict change management framework . Implement a change log and incorporate it into your firewall auditing workflow so that you can easily access information about historical configuration changes. This change log will provide security professionals with readymade data about who implemented configuration changes, what time those changes took place, and why they were made in the first place. This gives you at-a-glance coverage of historical firewall performance, which puts you one step closer to building a unified, centralized solution for handling firewall policies. 2. Update and patch firewall software frequently Like every element in your security tech stack, firewall software needs to be updated promptly when developers release new patches. This applies both to hardware firewalls operating on-premises and software firewalls working throughout your network. These patches address known vulnerabilities, and they are often the first line of defense against rapidly emerging threats. The sooner you can deploy software patches to your firewalls, the more robust your network security posture will be. These changes should also be noted in a change log. This provides valuable evidence for the strength of your security posture against known emerging threats. If hackers start testing your defenses by abusing known post-patch vulnerabilities, you will be prepared for them. 3. Implement an intrusion detection system (IDS) Firewalls form the foundation of good network security, and intrusion detection systems supplement their capabilities by providing an additional line of defense. Organizations with robust IDS capabilities are much harder to compromise without triggering alerts. IDS solutions passively monitor traffic for signs of potential threats. When they detect a threat, they generate an alert, allowing security operations personnel to investigate and respond. This adds additional layers of value to the basic function of the firewall – allowing or denying traffic based on ACLs and network security rules. Many next-generation firewalls include intrusion detection system capabilities as part of an integrated solutions. This simplifies security management considerably and reduces the number of different devices and technologies security teams must gain familiarity with. Pay attention to firewall limitations – and prepare for them Properly configured firewalls offer valuable security performance to organizations with complex network infrastructure. However, they can’t prevent every cyber attack and block every bit of malicious code. Security leaders should be aware of firewall limitations and deploy security measures that compensate appropriately. Even with properly configured firewalls, you’ll have to address some of the following issues: Zero-day attacks Firewalls may not block attacks that exploit new and undiscovered vulnerabilities. Since these are not previously known vulnerabilities, security teams have not yet had time to develop patches or fixes that address them. These types of attacks are generally able to bypass more firewall solutions. However, some next-generation firewalls do offer advanced features capable of addressing zero-day attacks. Identity-based inspection is one example of a firewall technology that can detect these attacks because it enforces security policies based on user identity rather than IP address. Sandboxes are another next-generation firewall technology capable of blocking zero-day attacks. However, no single technology can reliably block 100% of all zero-day attacks. Some solutions are better-equipped to handle these types of attacks than others, but it takes a robust multi-layered security posture to consistently protect against unknown threats. Timely incident response Firewall configuration plays an important role in incident response. Properly configured firewalls help provide visibility into your security posture in real-time, enabling security teams to create high-performance incident response playbooks. Custom playbooks ensure timely incident response by prioritizing the types of threats found in real-world firewall data. If your firewalls are misconfigured, your incident response playbooks may reflect a risk profile that doesn’t match with your real-world security posture. This can lead to security complications that reduce the effectiveness of incident response processes down the line. Planned outages when updating firewalls Updating firewalls is an important part of maintaining an optimal firewall configuration for your organization. However, the update process can be lengthy. At the same time, it usually requires scheduling an outage in advance, which will temporarily expose your organization to the threats your firewall normally protects against. In some cases, there may be compatibility issues with incoming version of the firewall software being updated. This may lengthen the amount of time that the organization has to endure a service outage, which complicates firewall security. This is one reason why many security leaders intentionally delay updating their firewalls. As with many other aspects of running and maintaining good security policies, effective change management is an important aspect of planning firewall updates. Security leaders should stagger their scheduled updates to avoid reducing risk exposure and provide the organization with meaningful security controls during the update process. Automate change management and avoid misconfigurations with algoSec AlgoSec helps organizations deploy security policy changes while maintaining accuracy and control over their security posture. Use automation to update firewall configuration policies, download new security patches, and validate results without spending additional time and energy on manual processes. AlgoSec’s Firewall Analyzer gives you the ability to discover and map business applications throughout your network. Find out how new security policies will impact traffic and perform detailed simulations of potential security scenarios with unlimited visibility. Schedule a demo to see AlgoSec in action for yourself. Schedule a demo Related Articles 2025 in review: What innovations and milestones defined AlgoSec’s transformative year in 2025? AlgoSec Reviews Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Navigating Compliance in the Cloud AlgoSec Cloud Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read 5 Multi-Cloud Environments Cloud Security Mar 19, 2023 · 2 min read Speak to one of our experts Speak to one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Schedule a call

Overcome hybrid and multi-cloud security challenges with strategies to enhance visibility, enforce policies, and protect data across diverse cloud environments. Hybrid & multi-cloud Security challenges Overview Cloud computing provides improved security, agility, and flexibility. However, integrating this new service into legacy IT environments comes with some great concerns. In a recent survey conducted by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and AlgoSec, security, data loss and compliance were identified as the top 3 concerns when moving to the cloud. Schedule a Demo Survey creation and methodology The Cloud Security Alliance is a not-for-profit organization with a mission to widely promote best practices for ensuring cyber security in cloud computing and IT technologies. CSA is also tasked with educating various stakeholders within these industries about security concerns in all other forms of computing. CSA’s membership is comprised of a broad coalition of industry practitioners, corporations, and professional associations. One of CSA’s primary goals is to conduct surveys that assess information security trends. These surveys help gauge the maturity of information security technology at various points in the industry, as well as the rate of adoption of security best practices. AlgoSec, a leading network security solution provider, commissioned CSA to develop a survey to add to the industry’s knowledge about hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud security, and to prepare this report of the survey’s findings. Algosec financed the project and co-developed the initiative by participating with CSA in the development of survey questions addressing hybrid cloud security. The survey was conducted online by CSA, from December 2018 to February 2019, and was submitted to nearly 700 IT and security professionals from a variety of organization sizes and locations. Approximately 500 organizations answered the majority of the 20-question survey. The data analysis presented here was performed by CSA’s research team. Schedule a Demo Introduction Year after year, the adoption of cloud technologies continues to increase. Companies of all sizes are taking advantage of the value in cloud computing with its improved security, agility, and flexibility all of which are crucial for success in today’s market. However, like any technology, cloud computing comes with particular concerns and complications, especially when integrating multiple different cloud services with legacy IT environments. To complicate things further, cloud platforms include ecosystems of services that aren’t always fully compatible with each other, causing data ownership and interoperability issues. Today’s cloud adoption requires focused attention on data migration, expert levels of knowledge per service, and an understanding of vendor security and responsibility. One of the challenges of this multi-cloud integration is assigning assets to different types of cloud environments, including public and private cloud services, as well as multiple cloud public platforms and services. The various cloud options must also be integrated with on-premise networks and other third-party services. To top it all off, the final computing environment your organization achieves, regardless of its complexity, must be able to remain secure and stay current with regulatory compliance protocols. To gain a better understanding of information security concerns in this complex environment, the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), in cooperation with AlgoSec, surveyed 700 IT professionals on the following topics related to cloud usage within their enterprises: Types of cloud platforms in use Proportion of workloads actively in the cloud New workloads expected to be moved into the cloud Anticipated risks and concerns about potential migrations to the cloud Challenges managing security after adopting cloud technologies Methods for addressing these security challenges Challenges related to network or application outages Methods for and results of addressing outages and security incidents Schedule a Demo Key findings This survey demonstrated the complex nature of today’s cloud computing environment, and its attendant concerns regarding the management of security risks. The survey also identified potential disconnects and misinformation in the industry related to the importance of visibility into critical cloud resources and the professional security expertise necessary when using cloud services. The survey illustrates the need within our industry to better address these issues before adopting cloud technologies in order to create practical and manageable network environments–rather than simply putting out fires as they arise after deploying new technologies. It also highlighted the need to maintain cloud service specific knowledge during the growth of the service in order to stay current with new features and functionality. Lack of visibility into cloud resources Organizations adopting new technologies in the public cloud may not be considering the potential risks related to visibility until they eventually encounter security problems in practice. A third of respondents (39%) identified visibility as a concern that had arisen when their organization considered adopting a public cloud. However, more than three-quarters of respondents rated visibility as a challenge related to managing their security once in the public cloud. When asked about the level of challenge presented by lack of visibility into the entire cloud estate, 44% reported this issue to be a moderate security challenge, and 36% reported it as a maximum challenge. Cloud computing complexity More than half of survey respondents operate within a complex cloud computing environment, including multiple clouds (66% of respondents) and hybrid clouds (55%). Many also rely on a combination of hybrid and multi-cloud technologies (36%). Of the nearly 700 people who were given the survey, less than 10% of the enterprises reported that they do not use any public cloud services. Meanwhile, many respondents expect to increase their use of cloud computing technologies by 2020. The number of enterprises that host more than 40% of their total workloads in a public cloud should double within one year according to their reports. Lack of security expertise While a third of respondents reported lack of expertise as a concern when considering moving to the public cloud, nearly three-quarters of respondents already using the cloud cited this same concern as a challenge for security management. When asked to rate the level of challenge to managing security that is posed by a lack of expertise in cloud-native security constructs, 43% of respondents rated it a moderate challenge, and 30% a maximum challenge. The importance of staff having security expertise is emphasized once again with regards to network and application outages. More than 200 survey respondents indicated their organization had experienced an outage in the previous year. When surveyed about the causes, most respondents reported they did not know its cause (potentially a visibility issue). Another 20% identified the cause as operational human errors and mismanagement of devices. Together, these findings indicate that adequate security expertise may often be an afterthought. Regulatory compliance and legal concerns When enterprises are deciding whether to move their critical resources into a public cloud platform, one of the top three concerns they report is regulatory compliance, with legal concerns following closely behind. More than half of survey respondents (57%) reported these concerns about regulatory compliance, and nearly half indicated a similar unease regarding legal concerns (44%) when adopting public cloud services. These issues remain at the forefront of an organization’s security posture after cloud computing services are adopted. More than three-quarters of respondents found compliance and preparing for audits to be a challenging aspect of managing the security of their public cloud resources (with 45% reporting this to be a moderate challenge and 31% reporting maximum challenge). Schedule a Demo Background on the cloud today In order to reduce costs, increase scalability, and avoid relying on a single provider for all network needs, many organizations use multiple different cloud providers. Most survey respondents (66%) use multiple clouds (defined as a multi-cloud environment). In fact, more than a third (35%) of respondents using cloud leverage 3+ cloud platform vendors*. In addition to this complexity, organizations may use both public and private clouds. More than half (55%) operate in a hybrid-cloud environment (using at a minimum at least one public and at least one private cloud service)**. More than a third (36%) have a combination of multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud environment***. This trend of using both a hybrid cloud and multi-cloud strategy continues to rise and is predicted to increase significantly in the next three years. * Data was obtained by identifying the percentage of respondents who selected more than one provider on either of the questions: Which public cloud platforms does your organization use? or Which private cloud platforms does your organization use? ** Data was obtained by identifying the percentage of respondents who selected at least one public and one private cloud provider from the questions: Which public cloud platforms does your organization use? and Which private cloud platforms does your organization use? *** Data was obtained by identifying the percentage of respondents who selected at least one public and at least one private cloud provider, and also selected more than one public or private cloud provider for the questions: Which public cloud platforms does your organization use? and Which private cloud platforms does your organization use? Over the past decade, enterprises have made plans to move their workloads from data centers to the cloud, and the past two years were no exception. The percentage of enterprises with a majority of their workload in the public cloud (61-100% of workload) has doubled from a survey conducted in 2017 to 14% today. When asked what percentage of workloads an organization is operating in the public cloud, 0- 20% was the most commonly selected response (38% of respondents). About a quarter of respondents (21%) reported hosting between 20 and 40% of their workload in the public cloud, while another quarter (25%) reported already having more than 40% of their total workload in the public cloud. A small sample of highly regulated industries like healthcare and financial services more frequently reported having less of their information (up to 20% of workload) in the cloud, when compared with other industries*. Respondents were also asked to predict the percentage of workload their organization plans to move to the public cloud by the end of 2020. Respondents indicated they expect these workloads to increase, with an approximate doubling of the number of organizations who would likely be hosting more than 40% of their total workloads in the public cloud. While 9% of respondents reported currently not using the cloud for any workload at all, that percentage dropped to 4% in their projections for 2020. Those in the IT industry were more likely to select 81-100% of workload in the cloud (20%) than those in regulated industries like healthcare (7%) and financial services (8%). * The sample size for healthcare was 35 respondents, and finance was 74 respondents Schedule a Demo Concerns and challenges: ensuring security and compliance With easy accessibility to cloud services, each separate business department in an organization has more control and ownership over the services they use. With this increased use, organizations must identify which department(s) will be responsible for security. Most survey respondents (79%) indicated that their IT department held this jurisdiction. Of those responses, just 15% had nominated a dedicated cloud security team within their IT department. Meanwhile, the remaining respondents relied on other security services, such as DevOps or a managed service provider. As easily available as cloud services are and the speed in which they are being adopted, responsibility for security should be considered shared throughout the organization with each business unit understanding the security issues around each service they are using. The vast majority of respondents (81%) expressed concerns about security when considering moving data to the cloud. Respondents’ concerns about data loss and leakage risks were also high (62% of respondents) when considering moving to the public cloud. Companies already face security issues with on-premise solutions. Moving to the cloud can further expose these vulnerabilities, making the need to protect data before migration an important task. The majority of respondents had high levels of concern for security when adopting public cloud platforms, however, more research needs to be conducted to better understand how these concerned users are using their cloud platforms. Using cloud platforms as a hosted service can amplify existing vulnerabilities when directly migrating enterprise applications. Building or re-building within the cloud platform allows enterprise applications to take advantage of cloud native features including security. In addition to common compliance frameworks (e.g. ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOX, NIST 800-53), cloud providers are continuously upgrading services and platforms to be compliant with new regulatory policies and industry standards, such as the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and CSA Security, Trust, Assurance, Risk (STAR). In recent years, we have seen increased enforcement and greater penalties for security violations. Meanwhile, customers using cloud services may be uncertain about who is liable for any such security violations. More than half of survey respondents (57%) reported concerns about regulatory compliance, and nearly half indicated unease over legal concerns (44%) when adopting public cloud services. There is still ambiguity on how customers leverage these platforms for compliance and who is liable for regulatory violations. Many respondents (39%) indicated that one of the items of concern when moving towards public cloud adoption is visibility into resources in the cloud environment. In a 2017 survey , this concern was significant enough to keep organizations from adopting the public cloud. The need for cloud visibility has given rise to new security tools and vendor solutions to add to the cloud platforms and services that are already being utilized. Leveraging existing standards and open tools can guide organizations in measuring the security, transparency, assurance, and risk of each service. Even with the rise in available security tools, consumers will likely need to push their cloud service providers (CSPs) for higher transparency and accountability. Organizations may also be scrambling to train and acquire talent to manage security skills gaps related to the use of public clouds. These concerns need to be addressed by customers and cloud service providers equally, if the industry hopes to achieve robust security and transparency as a whole. About a third of respondents reported a lack of expertise and a quarter reported lack of staff to manage their cloud environments. Half of this survey’s respondents expressed concern about integrating the public cloud with their current IT infrastructure. Additionally, the above-mentioned 2017 survey found that 61% of respondents already using a hybrid cloud reported that consistent management of security across the hybrid environment is one of their organization’s greatest challenges. With the apparent rise in multi-cloud platform usage and the move to public cloud environments, the skills gap concern will need to address management guidelines for their programs, which includes proper use of provider security tools and default configurations. Less than 2% of respondents mentioned vendor lock-in as a major concern. This correlates to the rise and practice of hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments, as indicated from earlier analysis. Other interesting findings: Respondents who reported experiencing a cloud-related security incident in the past 12 months were more likely to report lack of staff to manage the cloud environment as a concern (44%) when compared with those who had not experienced a security incident (17%). Of the 58 respondents that recorded experiencing a cloud-related security incident in the past 12 months, 25 reported lack of staff to manage the cloud environment as a concern. Of the 461 respondents that did not record having experiencing a security incident in the past 12 months, 56 reported lack of staff to manage the cloud environment as a concern. Respondents were asked to rate the level of challenge several different issues posed to managing security in the public cloud (no challenge, minimum challenge, moderate challenge, maximum challenge). The issue found most frequently to be a maximum challenge was proactively detecting misconfigurations and security risks, and was followed by a lack of visibility into the entire cloud estate. These challenges, if not managed correctly, can lead to many important security problems. When asked to rate security concerns related to running applications in the public cloud, the highest rated concerns were sensitive customer/personal data leakage, unauthorized access, and infiltration in more sensitive areas in the network (in the cloud or on-prem). Security in the public cloud remains a shared responsibility of providers and end users. To ensure adequate management of security, providers must continue to implement secure default configurations for their customers and alert customers systematically and reliably when these configurations are altered. Meanwhile, when organizations adopt cloud services, it will likely be necessary to acquire tools and staff to manage security properly in these new environments. Schedule a Demo Security management: tools and countermeasues While the use of multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments can provide many benefits, it also increases the complexity of securing these environments. To better understand how organizations are navigating these complexities, survey respondents were asked what network security controls they use to secure their public cloud deployments. The majority of the respondents reported using more than one security control to manage their public cloud deployments, with the most popular choice being cloud-native security controls (70%). In a similar study performed in 2017, only about a quarter of respondents were using their cloud providers’ native security tools. This indicates a significant increase in the use of CSP native security controls. There was also a significant number of respondents who reported using cloud providers’ additional security controls (58%) and virtual editions of traditional firewalls (45%). Far fewer, reported the utilization of host based enforcement (32%). Security management can take many forms within security application orchestration. Respondents were asked whether they currently manage security as part of their application orchestration process, and the majority (59%) reported yes. To follow up, respondents were then asked what they use to manage security as part of their application orchestration process in public cloud. The responses were mixed. The most common response was orchestration and configuration management tools (33%). Other common responses included cloud native tools (29%). Less common was the use of home-grown scripts leveraging cloud vendors’ APIs (13%). Early detection of potential security risks continues to be an important aspect of security management. The tools utilized to detect and manage these risks or vulnerabilities are vital to early detection. In this survey, about a third of respondents use their cloud providers’ risk assessment service to detect and manage vulnerabilities, while close to a quarter use designated third-party security tools. Another fifth of respondents use generic risk or vulnerability assessment tools. This indicates that less than half are utilizing tools above and beyond what is provided by the CSP. By doing this, organizations’ trust is heavily placed in CSPs’ assessment services without validation and could leave the organization vulnerable. Schedule a Demo Security incidents and cloud outages: preparation and recovery When asked about security concerns related to applications in the public cloud, nearly 90% of this survey’s participants reported moderate or high concern regarding data leakage; unauthorized access; and infiltration of sensitive network areas. About two-thirds reported the same levels of concern about outages due to DoS attacks; data corruption; and resource abuse. Many enterprises are ill-prepared for security incidents, such as breaches and outages. When asked whether their organization had experienced a cloud-related security incident in the last 12 months, 11% reported definitively having had a security incident, and another 30% were either unsure or could not disclose. In the last year, 43% of respondents’ organizations have experienced a network or application outage. Other interesting findings: Respondents from Asia were more likely to report experiencing a cloud-related security incident in the past year (17%) than were respondents from the EU (5%) or the US (8%). Other interesting findings: Respondents in a small sample of regulated industries like healthcare (53%) and financial services (52%) were more likely to report having experienced a network or application outage than those in other industries (33%). The contributors to these outages included both human error and numerous technical problems, such as power outages and hardware failures. When asked to identify the primary contributor to one recent outage, most respondents were unsure of its cause (which may indicate a problem related to visibility). The next most popular answers were operational human errors and mismanagement of devices (20%) and device configuration changes (15%). For over 25% of respondents, it took over 3 hours to restore normal operation. Significant delays could lead to significant revenue loss for an organization through operational inefficiency, lack of productivity, and leaving the organization vulnerable. Other interesting findings: Those who reported having experienced a network or application outage were less likely to have had their outage resolved within an hour (10%), when compared with those who reported having an application outage but no security incidents (42%). Ninety-seven percent of respondents reported their outages were resolved within one working day. Schedule a Demo Conclusions and recommendations Many organizations are migrating more and more of their workloads to cloud-based resources, including hybrid environments, multi-cloud environments, and combinations of the two. These organizations also are working to integrate various applications from public and private cloud providers with their own on-premise resources. As cloud computing environments become even more complex, it is critical for IT professionals to have visibility into their cloud-based resources and to be able to trust the expertise of their own security staff and their cloud provider’s staff. These concerns are underscored by the many new regulatory compliance and legal obligations, making it absolutely necessary for these responsibilities and liabilities to be clearly designated. Build in security and compliance The use of multiple cloud platforms and services offers best in breed capabilities and reduces the reliance on a single vendor. The added need for visibility of data across multiple services has given rise to even more security tools and vendor solutions. This increased adoption of services, combining traditional on-prem and multiple cloud offerings, adds to an already complex environment. This complexity in a cloud environment increases the level of expertise needed to manage and secure these services. Organizations will need to understand how to leverage cloud platforms and use provider tools in order to maximize the full benefits of the cloud. Cloud providers continue to offer native tooling with added visibility and security, often meeting or exceeding other traditional (on-premise and third-party) security controls. Cloud provider platforms and services meet some of the more strict compliance requirements for industry and government regulations. Architecting your IT environment to the services and platforms that are being used allows cloud customers to use cloud native tools for improved security and built-in compliance across complex environments. “ Take responsibility for security internally The cloud service provider and customer IT management teams should be able to articulate their security objectives and establish a baseline level of security requirements that can be measured and shared by both. This shared responsibility approach can go a long way in bolstering transparency and assisting with additional adherence to security regulations and best practices. It is essential for customers to build trust with cloud service providers before migrating any of your organization’s vital resources to the provider’s cloud. Today’s cloud adoption model doesn’t always allow a procurement team to stand between the company data and cloud services being used. The easy adoption and accessibility to cloud services leads to business units throughout organizations using services that are unknown and often undiscovered by IT management and cloud procurement teams. In addition to establishing shared security responsibility with cloud providers, each separate business unit should have a level of awareness of the security objectives established by their organization. Identifying a department responsible for cloud security, establishing cloud security policies across business units, and raising the level of education and awareness for all employees completes the modernized shared responsibility model. The data owner can take responsibility for data security that includes external business partners and internal business units. “ While many capabilities expand in the cloud, existing and future security risks and vulnerabilities unfortunately may also expand. Cloud providers continue to offer more security features and end users are working to increase staff and expertise to manage these tools. Detecting misconfigurations and security risks Training and acquiring staff to manage security remains a challenge for properly implementing cloud services. In addition to staying up-to-date on security best practices, cloud customers struggle to keep up with the rapid advancement of features constantly being added to the cloud services. The cloud providers need to play a role in both securing the cloud services and ensuring that customers are using the services securely. As cloud services evolve, new features are added to improve functionality and security of cloud services. Customer awareness of these features and the training of secure operation should be a priority for the cloud provider upon releasing updates to their services. Additionally, safe and secure default configurations should be implemented to ensure exposed features aren’t turned on without the acknowledgement or understanding of the customers. Finally, customer notification of misconfigurations of publicly exposed services, insufficient credentials, and misuse of any features should be a built-in part of the service. Cloud customers and providers need to work together to improve the overall operation, management, and security of cloud services.“ When to automate The increased adoption of cloud services and features must be met with a skill set that matches the complex cloud environment. The skills to increase visibility and security in cloud service operations involves the training of people toward the management of each service and the ability to automate features when possible. Automating components of your security aids in the lack of expertise and staff to manage a complex cloud environment. Log activity, data aggregation, threat detection, and security policy management are just a few pieces of where automation can help more quickly and accurately identify security gaps, compliance violations, service misconfigurations, service outages, and other anomalous behaviors. As we look to accelerate the use of new technologies, devices, and users in the cloud environment, automation promises to help organizations and their staff keep up with the security and operational demands of tomorrow’s cloud.” Organizations are continuing to migrate more of their workload into complex cloud environments such as hybrid, multi-cloud, and a combination of the two. These environments are the new reality for organizations and addressing security concerns and challenges, discovered through this survey, is of the utmost importance. Security challenges arise in these complex environments due to several factors including lack of visibility, regulatory compliance and legal concerns, and lack of staff expertise. Organizations are able to remedy the situation by building in security and compliance, proactively taking responsibility of security, establishing safe and secure default configurations, and utilizing automation. Schedule a Demo Survey participant demographics This survey was conducted from December 2018 to February 2019 and gathered 700 responses from IT and security professionals from a variety of organization sizes, industries, locations, and roles. Let's start your journey to our business-centric network security. Schedule a Demo Select a size Overview Survey creation and methodology Introduction Key findings Background on the cloud today Concerns and challenges: ensuring security and compliance Security management: tools and countermeasues Security incidents and cloud outages: preparation and recovery Conclusions and recommendations Survey participant demographics Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

Security Policy Management with Professor Wool Network Segmentation Course Network Segmentation with Professor Wool is a whiteboard-style series of lessons that examine the challenges of and provide technical tips for segmenting networks for security across in evolving enterprise networks and data centers. Lesson 1 In this lesson, Professor Wool presents a simple yet highly effective strategy to help you future proof your network segmentation policy against future changes. Using the concept of a diamond, Professor Wool shows how you can define very specific rules at each end point of the diamond and broader policies in the middle. This will significantly reduce the time and effort needed to work on change requests—without compromising on security in any way. How to Structure Your Security Policy in a Segmented Network Watch Lesson 2 In this lesson, Professor Wool recommends a simple matrix to define network segments and security zones, and the traffic allowed to and from each zone. This matrix can then be used to immediately assess a firewall change requests as well as validate that existing security policies have been implemented correctly. How to Define, Simplify and Enforce Network Segmentation and Security Zoning Watch Lesson 3 In this lesson, Professor Wool examines common missteps when organizations create security zones and best practices to consider for an improved defense. Common Mistakes and Best Practices for Designing Network Security Zones Watch Lesson 4 In this lesson, Professor Wool provides recommendations for how to design your network for optimal segmentation in two typical scenarios: Allowing traffic from an external partner application into the corporate data center, and structuring network traffic flows within the data center to force specific flows with more check points for better security. Data Center Segmentation Best Practices Watch Lesson 5 In this lesson, Professor Wool presents some of the challenges of setting up security policies for East-West traffic. On the one hand these policies need to allow all legitimate business traffic to flow through the data center, yet on the other hand they need to be very specific so as to block everything else. Watch this video to find out more. The Challenges of East West Traffic Discovery for Network Segmentation Watch Lesson 6 Following on from Professor Wool’s previous lesson, this lesson presents a step-by-step process for writing firewall policies for East-West traffic. This involves an iterative process of discovering, identifying and then writing explicit ‘allow’ rules for all valid business traffic that goes through the network segment. Watch this video to find out more. How to Build Firewall Policies for East West Traffic Watch Lesson 7 How to Prepare for Network Segmentation by Identifying the Segment Borders Watch Have a Question for Professor Wool? Ask him now Choose a better way to manage your network Choose a better way to manage your network Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue