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Before your organization can move business applications to the cloud, it must deploy network security solutions that can reliably block... Network Segmentation Host-based firewalls vs. network-based firewalls for network security? Prof. Avishai Wool 2 min read Prof. Avishai Wool 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 8/28/23 Published Before your organization can move business applications to the cloud, it must deploy network security solutions that can reliably block cybercrime and malware. Firewalls are essential cybersecurity tools that protect network traffic against threat actors. There are many different types of firewalls available, but put the same basic principles in action. Before finding out which types of firewalls offer the best security performance for your cloud implementation, it’s important to cover how firewalls work and what characteristics set them apart. How firewalls work: Different types of firewalls explained Firewalls are best explained through analogy. Think of firewalls as 24/7 security guards with deep knowledge of millions of criminals. Whenever the security guard sees a criminal approaching an access point, they block access and turn the criminal away. This kind of access control is accomplished in a few different ways. Some firewalls inspect packets for suspicious characteristics. Others use stateful inspection to identify malicious traffic. Some incorporate contextual awareness to tell the difference between harmless traffic and cyberattacks . Here are some of the major types of firewalls and how they work: Packet filtering firewalls inspect data traveling through inline junction points like routers and switches. They don’t route data packets themselves, but compare them to a list of firewall rules. For example, they may filter packets that are traveling to untrusted IP addresses and drop them. Circuit-level gateways monitor TCP handshake data and other protocol messages for signs of unauthorized access. These firewalls don’t inspect individual packets or application layer monitoring, though. Proxy firewalls apply application layer filtering that filters data according to a wide range of characteristics. This category includes web application firewalls, which are a type of reverse proxy firewall – they protect the server from malicious traffic by filtering clients before they reach the server. Stateful inspection firewalls examine and compare multiple packets to find out if they are part of an established network session. This offers a high degree of control over incoming and outgoing traffic while providing comprehensive logs on network connections. Next-generation firewalls combine packet inspection, stateful inspection, antivirus, and additional technologies to protect organizations against unknown threats and vulnerabilities. These firewalls are expensive and have high bandwidth requirements, but they also offer a high level of protection. All of these firewalls exist in different forms. Traditional hardware firewalls are physical devices that sit between network devices and the internet. Network-based firewalls are software-defined apps designed to do the same thing. Hardware, software, or cloud? firewall deployment methods compared Organizations have multiple options when deciding to host firewalls on their private networks. The market offers a vast number of security devices and firewall providers, ranging from Cisco hardware to software solutions like Microsoft’s Windows firewall. Large enterprises use a combination of firewall solutions to adopt a multi-layered security posture. This allows them to achieve network scalability and segmentation while offering different levels of protection to data centers, individual devices, and user endpoints. As firewall technology becomes more accessible, smaller organizations are following suit. Here are some of the delivery formats that firewall solutions commonly come in: Network-based Firewalls are self-contained hardware appliances. They typically run custom operating systems using Linux distributions designed for secure computer networking. They can be challenging to configure and deploy, but are appropriate for a wide range of use cases. Host-based Firewalls run as software on a server or other device. You can run host-based firewalls on individual computers, or at the host level of a cloud environment. The firewalls offer granular control over security rules and individual hosts, but consume resources in the process. Cloud Hosted Firewalls are provided by third-party security partners as a service. These firewalls may be entirely managed by a third-party partner, making them ideal for small organizations that can’t afford building their own security infrastructure from the ground up. How to select an optimal firewall solution for your organization Every organization has a unique security risk profile. Finding the right firewall deployment for your organization requires in-depth knowledge of your network’s security vulnerabilities and potential for long-term growth. Some of the issues you have to consider include: Identifying technical objectives for individual firewalls. There are no one-size-fits-all firewall solutions. One solution may match a particular use case that another does not. Both stateless packet inspection firewalls and sophisticated next-generation solutions operate at different levels of the OSI model, which means each device should serve a well-defined purpose. Selecting firewall solutions that match your team’s expertise. Consider your IT team’s technical qualifications. If configuring a sophisticated next-generation firewall requires adding talent with specialized certifications to your team, the cost of that deployment will rise considerably. Deploying firewalls in ways that improve security performance while reducing waste. Optimal firewall architecture requires effective network segmentation and good security policies. Deploying a secure local area network (LAN) and using virtual private networks (VPNs) can help optimize firewall placement throughout the organization. Determining which kinds of traffic inspection are necessary. Different types of network connections require different levels of security. For example, a public-facing Wi-Fi router is far more likely to encounter malicious traffic than an internal virtual local area network (VLAN) that only authenticated employees can access. How to choose between host-based firewalls and network-based firewalls when moving to the cloud Organizations that are transitioning to cloud infrastructure need to completely rethink their firewall deployment strategy. Firewalls are the cornerstone of access control, and cloud-hosted infrastructure comes with the shared responsibility model that puts pressure on security leaders to carefully deploy security resources. In many cases, you’ll face tough decisions concerning which type of firewall to deploy at particular points in your network. Building an optimal deployment means working through the pros and cons of each option on a case-by-case basis. Host-based firewalls and network-based firewalls are the two main options you’ll encounter for most use cases. Let’s look at what each of those options look like from a complete network security perspective . 1. Host-based firewalls offer flexibility but may introduce vulnerabilities A cloud-native organization that exclusively uses host-based firewalls will have a cloud environment filled with virtual machines that take the place of servers and individual computers. To protect those devices, the organization will implement host-based firewalls on every virtual machine and configure them accordingly. This provides the organization with a great deal of flexibility. IT team members can clone virtual machines and move them within the cloud on demand. The host-based firewalls that protect these machines can move right alongside them, ensuring consistent security policies are enforced without painstaking manual configuration. It’s even possible to move virtual machines between cloud environments – like moving a virtual server from Amazon AWS to Microsoft Azure – without having to create completely new security policies in the process. This makes it easy for IT teams to work securely without introducing friction. However, if attackers gain privileged access to host-based firewalls, they gain the same level of control. They may switch off the firewall or install malicious code in ways that other security technologies cannot detect. Even highly secure organizations are subject to this kind of risk. Imagine an attacker compromises the credentials of a system administrator with firewall configuration privileges. Very few obstacles stand between an insider threat and the sensitive data they wish to exfiltrate. Network-based firewalls offer independent security Compared to host-based firewall products, it’s much harder for a malicious insider to compromise a network-based firewall solution managed by a cloud provider. That’s because the physical hardware is operating on a completely separate system from the host. In a cloud-native environment, the network-based firewall would be a fully hardened device managed by a third-party provider running their own intrusion detection systems. This makes it much harder for attackers to successfully infiltrate and compromise systems without being noticed. At the same time, independent network-based firewall architecture means that the attacker would have to compromise both your network and the cloud provider’s network without triggering security alerts from either. This adds a great deal of complexity to any attack, and significantly increases the chance it will be detected. However, few organizations can afford to exclusively deploy hardware firewalls at every layer of their network. Even those that can afford it will run into significant challenges when planning for growth and scalability. Segment your network for optimal protection While they offer increased security, hardware firewalls are costly to deploy and maintain. Most organizations segment their networks in ways that offer extensive multi-layered protection to their most sensitive data while allowing more flexible host-based firewalls to protect less critical assets. Every organization has a unique balance between optimal network-based firewall and host-based firewall deployment. This depends heavily on the volume of sensitive data the organization regularly accesses, and the security of its connections with users and third-party service providers. Proper network segmentation helps reduce the organization’s attack surface and decrease the risk of business disruption. 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

Assessing the Value of Network Segmentation from a Business Application Perspective 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

Infrastructure as code: Connectivity risk analysis Datasheet 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

Explore Algosec's customer success stories to see how organizations worldwide improve security, compliance, and efficiency with our solutions. PORSCHE INFORMATIK SIMPLIFIES NETWORK OPERATIONS AND STRENGTHENS SECURITY Organization PORSCHE Industry Retail & Manufacturing Headquarters Austria Download case study Share Customer
success stories "We quickly saw a clear return on our investment with AlgoSec. It enabled us to significantly increase the efficiency of our firewall operations team without increasing head count. With AlgoSec, We can focus on what is most important to Porsche Informatik: our customers" Leading European Automobile Trading Enterprise Increases Security, Ensures Compliance, Optimizes Firewall Operations and Streamlines Productivity AlgoSec Business Impact • Increase IT productivity without adding headcount• Reduce time and resources required to implement firewall policy changes• Improve IT Governance and accountability over the network security policy• Improve security posture and gain visibility into the impact of proposed changes Background Porsche Informatik GmbH, a subsidiary of Porsche Holding, is one of the biggest private trading enterprises in Austria and the most successful automobile trade companies in Europe. The Company provides integrated software solutions for the automobile sector serving importers, retailers and financial service providers in over 21 countries. With its multi-vendor, multi-firewall infrastructure consisting of various Check Point clusters and firewalls, Porsche Informatik has been supporting some of the most successful automobile brands in the world including Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Seat and Skoda. Challenge As an enterprise serving the leading automobile brands, Porsche Informatik is committed to ensuring the integrity of its network and maintaining compliance with corporate security policies. Optimizing its operations is another top priority. With a large number of firewalls undergoing continuous rule changes, Porsche Informatik’s team had to manually confirm that all of the changes were correctly configured and adhered to corporate policy. To do this, Porsche Informatik needed to keep track of changes: when they were made, who made them and verify that they weren’t introducing clutter and subsequent risk into their environment. “As the rule base continued to grow, it became increasingly complex and harder to keep track of the details,” says Anton Spitzer, Infrastructure Services Manager at Porsche Informatik. “Monitoring and auditing of our firewalls and clusters has become a painstaking manual, time and labor intensive process and we needed to handle it more effectively.” Porsche Informatik looked for a solution that would allow them to automatically and comprehensively manage the entire change lifecycle of their heterogeneous firewall infrastructure to improve and optimize operations, bolster security and comply with the corporate security policy in an easier way. Solution Porsche Informatik selected the AlgoSec Security Management solution to provide automated, comprehensive firewall operations and security risk management.In particular, Porsche Informatik liked AlgoSec’s auditing capability as it tracks changes in real-time as well as provides analysis of the operational and security implications of those changes. Results With AlgoSec, Porsche Informatik can now intelligently automate manual, labor and time intensive tasks, optimize firewall operations and improve network security while enforcing corporate policies to provide improved IT Governance.“AlgoSec allows our team to quickly and easily understand the operational and security impact of rule changes on our corporate policy, while at the same time provides a detailed audit trail, which is crucial for us to maintain compliance,” says Spitzer. From an operations and risk perspective, AlgoSec enables Porsche Informatik to instantly know which rules and objects are obsolete, invalid and duplicate and where potential security holes exist. The ability to clean up the firewall policy has streamlined network operations and given Porsche Informatik better visibility into their firewall infrastructure. “We cleaned up our existing policy base and now utilize the “what if” analysis to prevent the introduction of clutter and risk into our environment,” explains Spitzer.Ultimately, with AlgoSec, Porsche Informatik can now easily determine the necessity of changes and their potential security implications which saves time and effort. As a result productivity has increased without adding headcount. “After several months of use, AlgoSec has made a quantifiable impact on our firewall operations and security risk management. We know exactly what changes are being made, by whom and the implications of those changes on our operations and security posture,” said Spitzer. “We now spend much less time analyzing and auditing our firewalls, allowing our IT personnel to work on additional projects. As a customer-centric company, optimized internal operations directly benefits our clients by allowing Porsche Informatik to focus wholly on their needs instead of on firewall management.” Schedule time with one of our experts

As 2022 comes to a close, Professor Avishai Wool, AlgoSec Co-Founder and CTO, provides his top 5 issues organizations will need to be... IaC 2023 Cybersecurity Predictions and Best Practices Prof. Avishai Wool 2 min read Prof. Avishai Wool 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 12/6/22 Published As 2022 comes to a close, Professor Avishai Wool, AlgoSec Co-Founder and CTO, provides his top 5 issues organizations will need to be aware in 2023 that will also dominate the cyber community conversation. 1) Application centric approach to network security will supersede basic NSPM I think the market has matured to the point where the NSPM approach has reached a tipping point and I see the shift to an application perspective becoming the de facto approach in network security policy management as there are better and more robust technologies in the market that can help organizations get there faster. I see this shift becoming even more viable in 2023 based on recent market trends in which organizations are opting for downsizing and trying to do more with the smaller staff at the expense of losing tribal knowledge. As a result, I see organizations shifting more towards adopting a holistic approach to network security that are more application centric in which they can retain critical knowledge, such as application traffic intent and application policy rules, so that the new generations can step in and pick up where the previous predecessors left off. 2) Containerization will enhance layered security I expect container security to be increasingly popular in the future, as companies understand that their existing network security mechanisms are not enough for the communication networks of today. Containers are seen as a cost-effective light-weight solution for deployment – and deploying them introduces another inner layer where security policies can be applied: behind the perimeter filters, the internal zoning, and the micro-segmentation, organizations can now also consider nano-segmentation at the container level. Vulnerability testing is another dimension of the container platform especially within cloud applications and SaaS products. The common Kubernetes platform offers both opportunities and challenges for vulnerability scanners. Beyond 2023 , businesses will need to enhance both their visibility and management capabilities of security within their containerized applications 3) Security driven IaaS ecosystems to improve network security I expect the popularity of Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) to continue to soar, making it difficult for security teams to keep up with the associated risks and vulnerabilities. Pre-set security settings may not meet the needs of the organization and customizing these settings can prove to be difficult. The customizability of IaaS offers great potential for productivity, but it also makes it complicated to secure. The bottom line is that companies can no longer depend on their network perimeter to guard sensitive data. In response, I anticipate organizations that begin utilizing an “Always-on Security” approach such as Infrastructure as Code (IaC) which would permit them to construct personalized policies to control the development environments during each phase of the software development life cycle (SDLC) and recognize potential risks, security flaws, and compliance issues on a what-if basis, before deploying flawed settings into production. 4) Cloud-native security tools will reign supreme I expect that cloud-based security systems will become more commonplace: these security solutions offer a wide range of abilities, such as secure access, identity and access management, data loss prevention, application security, automation of security, detection and prevention of intrusions, security information and event management, and encryption. With companies transitioning more workloads to the cloud, they will want to make use of many of these features. These tools make it possible for remote teams to manage a greater public cloud presence: comfortably configuring services and automating processes, to identify and preemptively tackle any kind of threats. To bridge the gap in cloud data security, I anticipate the emergence of data safeguarding systems that are designed specifically for cloud usage and are able to link up with public cloud systems in an advanced, agentless manner. This has been classified in the market as Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) . These platforms must be able to detect where the data is stored and what sorts of data are stored in the cloud, so that corporations can prioritize on what is most important – defending their most sensitive data and cloud-based applications without interfering with their normal operations. 5) Expect ransomware not to go away and get even more sophisticated Organizations in 2022 saw no let-up from ransomware threats, some of whom were attacked multiple times and I do not see any reason why this trend will change in 2023. Cyber criminals are getting more resourceful and savvier in their attempts to stay ahead of law enforcement, and I anticipate these attacks will only become more frequent as their perpetrators are proving more capable of infiltrating many organizations’ cyber defenses. In response, organizations will have to seek more technology solutions to protect data at the source. But that would not suffice. I think organizations will need to look beyond technological solutions and apply better preparedness strategies. Whether it be Zero Trust or something less overarching but more practical for an organization’s business needs, such as Micro-segmentation , it would ensure that threat-actors would not be able to access the data residing inside the security perimeter. 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

Silos hurt security NetworkSecurity is the responsibility of both NetOps SecOps In this panel with Cisco, Conscia AlgoSec security experts, we’ll share how to bring the teams together Webinars Bridging NetOps and SecOps: An Experts’ Panel Silos hurt security. Your network and its security are not managed by just one team. It is the responsibility of both NetOps and SecOps, but these teams don’t always play well together. In this security experts’ panel, Doug Hurd from Cisco, Henrik Skovfoged from Conscia, Oren Amiram and Tsippi Dach from AlgoSec will share how you can bring NetOps and SecOps teams together with Cisco ACI, Cisco Secure Workload (formerly Cisco Tetration) and AlgoSec. Discover how NetOps and SecOps teams can: Bridge the NetOps/SecOps divide, improve communication, and break down the silos between network and security. Align network, security, and business application owners Improve the entire network security with Cisco Secure Workload and firewall management Automate tasks and gain network traffic visibility of networks and security controls for threat detection, analysis and response across Cisco ACI and the entire hybrid and multi-vendor network. March 16, 2021 Alex Hilton Chief Executive at Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) Tsippi Dach Director of marketing communications Relevant resources Cisco & AlgoSec achieving application-driven security across your hybrid network Keep Reading DevSecOps: Putting the Sec into the DevOps Keep Reading 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

Automate network management and policy changes to increase efficiency, reduce errors, and ensure security compliance across your network infrastructure. Network management & policy change automation Overview This eBook provides practical suggestions for implementing a change automation process, lays out the pitfalls, and gives practical tips for choosing a change management solution. Schedule a Demo Cure the network management headache In today’s IT environment, the only constant is change. Business needs change. As your business changes, so must your security policies. The problem Change comes with challenges, leading to major headaches for IT operations and security teams. This develops into huge business problems: Manual workflows and change management processes are time-consuming and hinder business agility. Improper management changes lead to serious business risks – as benign as blocking legitimate traffic all the way to network outages. The solution Automation and actionable intelligence can enhance security and business agility – without the headaches and misconfigurations caused by manual, ad-hoc processes. In this document, you will learn the secrets of how to elevate your firewall change management from manual labor-intensive work to a fully automated zero-touch change management process. Schedule a Demo Why’s it hard to change network policies? Placing a sticky note on your firewall administrator’s desk or sending an email that gets lost in the clutter and expecting the change request to be performed pronto does not constitute a formal policy. Yet, shockingly, this is common. You need a formal change request process. Such a process dictates defined and documented steps about how to handle a change request, by whom, how it is addressed, defines an SLA, and more. Firewall change management requires detailed and concise steps that everyone understands and follows. Exceptions must be approved and documented so stakeholders can understand the risk. Your security policy management solution should seamlessly integrate with the tools you are already using to accelerate its adoption in your organization. AlgoSec enables business agility by integrating with ITSM systems like ServiceNow, BMC Helix ITSM (formerly Remedy), Clarity SM (formerly CA Service Management) and HP Service Management. Communication breakdown Network security and IT operations staff work in separate silos. Their goals, and even their languages, are different. Working in silos is a clear path to trouble. It is a major contributor to out-of-band changes that result in outages and security breaches. In many large companies, routine IT operational and administrative tasks may be handled by a team other than the one that handles security and risk. Although both teams have the same goal, decisions made by one team lead to problems for the other. Network complexity is a security killer Today’s networks exist across complex environments – on-premise data centers, multiple multi-vendor public and private clouds, spanning geographic borders. It’s difficult to keep track of your entire network estate. Security expert Bruce Schneider once stated that “Complexity is the worst enemy of security.” The sheer complexity of any given network can lead to a lot of mistakes. Simplifying and automating the firewall environment and management processes is necessary. Did you know? Up to 30 percent of implemented rule changes in large firewall infrastructures are unnecessary because the firewalls already allow the requested traffic! Under time pressure, firewall administrators often create rules that turn out to be redundant. This wastes valuable time and makes the firewalls even harder to manage. Get a Demo Schedule a Demo Mind the security gap Introducing new things open up security gaps. New hires, software patches, upgrades, server migrations, and network updates increase your exposure to risk. Who can keep track of it all? What about unexpected, quick fixes that enable access to certain resources or capabilities? A fix is made in a rush (after all, who wants a C-level exec breathing down their neck because he wants to access resources RIGHT NOW?) without sufficient consideration of whether that change is allowed under current security policies. Problems abound when speed is mistaken for agility and takes precedence over security. You need to be able to make changes fast and accurately – agility without compromising security. How can you get both agility and security? Network automation. There are solutions that automate firewall management tasks and record them so that they are part of the change management plan. Network automation helps bridge the gap between change management processes and reality. A sophisticated firewall and topology-aware system that identifies redundant change requests increases productivity. IT and security teams are responsible for making sure that systems function properly. However, they approach business continuity from different perspectives. The security department’s goal is to protect the business and its data, while the IT operations team focuses on keeping systems up and running. The business has to keep running AND it has to be secure. Alignment is easier said than done. To achieve alignment, organizations must reexamine IT and security processes. Let’s take a look at some examples of what happens when there is no alignment. Schedule a Demo Good changes gone bad Example 1 A classic lack of communication between IT operations and security groups put Corporation XYZ at risk. An IT department administrator, trying to be helpful, took the initiative to set up (with no security involvement or documentation) a file share for a user who needed to upload files in a hurry. By making this off-the-cuff change, the IT admin quickly addressed the client’s request. However, the account lingered unsecured. The security team noticed larger spikes of inbound traffic to the server from this account. Hackers abound. The site had been compromised and was being exploited. Example 2 A core provider of e-commerce services suffered a horrible fate due to a simple, but poorly managed, firewall change. One day, all e-commerce transactions in and out of its network ceased. The entire business was taken offline for several hours. The costs were astronomical. What happened? An out-of-band (and untested) change to a core firewall broke communications between the e-commerce application and the internet. Business activity ground to a halt. Because of this incident, executive management got involved and the responsible IT staff members were reprimanded. Hundreds of thousands of dollars later, the root cause of the outage was uncovered: IT staff chose not to test their firewall changes, bypassing their “burdensome” ITIL-based change management procedures. They failed to consider the consequences. Schedule a Demo Avoiding a firewall fire drill Automation is the key to gaining control. It helps staff disengage from firefighting. It bridges between agility and security to drive business-driven productivity. The right automation solution automates manual, error-prone workflows. It allows changes to be made accurately, with clear visibility across complex network topologies, while focusing on keeping the business running effectively. Automation helps teams track down potential traffic or connectivity issues and highlights risky areas. It can automatically pinpoint devices that require changes and show how to create and implement the changes. To ensure proper balance between business continuity and security, look for a firewall policy management solution that: Provides visibility of network traffic flows and network devices across complex, hybrid and multi-cloud network topologies Intelligently designs firewall rules to eliminate redundant rules and reduce clutter and complexity. Eliminates mistakes and rework. Improves accountability for change requests. Proactively assesses the impact of network changes to ensure security and continuous compliance. Identifies risky security policy rules and offers suggestions to de-risk your network environment Automatically pushes changes to devices Schedule a Demo 10 steps to automate and standardize the firewall change-management process Once a request is made, a change-request process should include these steps: Clarify the change request and determine the dependencies. Obtain all relevant information (i.e., who is requesting the change and why). Validate that the change is necessary. Many requests are unnecessary and already covered by existing rules. Get proper authorization for the change. Make sure you understand the dependencies and the impact on business applications, and other devices and systems. This usually involves multiple stakeholders from different teams. Perform a risk assessment. Before approving the change, thoroughly test it and analyze the results so as not to block desired traffic or violate compliance. Does the proposed change create a new risk in the security policy? Plan the change. Assign resources, create and test your back-out plans, and schedule the change. This is also a good time to ensure that everything is properly documented for troubleshooting or recertification purposes. Execute the change. Backup existing configurations, prepare target device(s) and notify appropriate workgroups of any planned outage, and then perform the actual change. Verify correct execution to avoid outages. Test the change, including affected systems and network traffic patterns. Audit and govern the change process. Review the executed change and any lessons learned. Having a non-operations-related group conduct the audit provides the necessary separation of duties and ensures a documented audit trail for every change. Measure SLAs. Establish new performance metrics and obtain a baseline measurement. Recertify policies. Part of your change management process should include a review and recertification of policies at a regular, defined interval (e.g., once a year). This step forces you to review why policies are in place, enabling you to improve documentation and remove or tweak policy rules. Schedule a Demo What to look for in a change-management solution Your solution must be firewall- and network-aware. This allows the system to pull information from the firewalls and understand the current policies. Your solution must support the firewalls, routers, security controls, load balancers, and other devices across your hybrid network. Your solution must be topology-aware. It must understand how the network is laid out, comprehend how the devices fit and interact, and provide the necessary visibility of how traffic is flowing through the network. Your solution must integrate with the existing general change management systems. You don’t want to undergo massive retraining of processes and systems simply because you have introduced a new solution. Your solution must provide out-of-the-box change workflows to streamline change-management processes and be highly customizable. No two organizations’ network and change processes are exactly the same. Schedule a Demo Summary While change management is complex stuff, the decision for your business is simple. You can continue to slowly chug along with manual change management processes or you can accelerate those processes with an automated network change management workflow solution that aligns stakeholders and helps your business run more smoothly. Think of your change process as a key component of the engine of an expensive car (in this case, your organization). Would you drive your car at high speed if you didn’t have tested, dependable brakes or a steering wheel? Hopefully, the answer is no! The brakes and steering wheel are analogous to change controls and processes. Rather than slowing you down, they actually make you go faster, securely! “Accelerate your business with security policy change automation” Power steering and power brakes (in this case firewall-aware integration and automation) help you zoom to success. 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 money-back guarantee since 2005. Did you know? AlgoSec integrates with your existing business processes and multi-vendor security controls to keep your business safe and agile nomatter where your network resides. Let's start your journey to our business-centric network security. Schedule a Demo Select a size Overview Cure the network management headache Why’s it hard to change network policies? Mind the security gap Good changes gone bad Avoiding a firewall fire drill 10 steps to automate and standardize the firewall change-management process What to look for in a change-management solution Summary About AlgoSec Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

The Network Security Policy Management Lifecycle 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

Webinars Panel: 5 ways to Better Manage your Network Security in 2020 Is your network ready for 2020? What practical steps are you taking to prepare for even more demanding security management in the new year? In this live panel discussion, Yitzy Tannenbaum, Product Marketing Manager and Avishai Wool, AlgoSec’s co-founder and CTO, will cover 5 practicalsteps to help you better manage your network security in the new year. Address these pressing network security challenges: Preventing breaches due to network misconfigurations Managing complex compliance requirements Determine the intention of your security controls and embracing intent-based network security Implementing datacenter micro-segmentation Understanding the shared responsibility model and effectively managing cloud security Kick off the new year better prepared to face the network security management challenges – don’t miss this important discussion. January 9, 2020 Prof. Avishai Wool CTO & Co Founder AlgoSec Yitzy Tannenbaum Product Marketing Manager Relevant resources Network security management: Components & features Keep Reading 5 Network Security Management Predictions for 2020 Watch Video 2020 vision predictions for the year ahead in network security Keep Reading 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

Securely accelerate digital transformation – A joint VMware AlgoSec webinar VMware AlgoSec Webinar Webinars Securely Accelerate Digital Transformation – A Joint VMware & AlgoSec Webinar This past year was an earthquake. The global pandemic amplified the urgent need for businesses to accelerate digital transformation, at the same time that concerns about security achieved heightened levels of urgency. Digital transformation offers the ability to turn these challenges into opportunities. In this joint session by VMware and AlgoSec, you’ll find out how you can maintain both security and agility throughout your digital business transformation project though the AlgoSec integration with VMware NSX-T. Our experts, Brian Heili from VMware and Jeremiah Cornelius from AlgoSec will show you: How VMware simplifies security deployments with NSX Service-defined Firewall by delivering a fundamentally different, “intrinsic” approach to securing east-west traffic at scale — one that’s built into the hypervisor and available at every host. How to gain complete visibility in NSX and across your entire hybrid network with AlgoSec. How to automatically discover, map and manage application connectivity in VMware NSX. How to assess risk in configuration of all network security policy changes and eliminate error with zero-touch automation. How to ensure continuous compliance, by having AlgoSec monitor and track changes to network security policies, whether on VMware NSX firewalls, traditional firewalls or cloud security control February 17, 2021 Brian Heili Network Security Solution Engineer Jeremiah Cornelius Technical Leader for Alliances and Partners at AlgoSec Relevant resources Tips on How to Create Filtering Policies for VMware NSX Keep Reading Partner Solution Brief: AlgoSec and VMware Read Document Network Security for VMware NSX Watch Video 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

Network security management is crucial for safeguarding physical and virtual networks, reducing risks, and ensuring compliance Discover the essential practices and strategies to protect your network Network security management: Components & features 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 is network security management and why do we need it? Who owns network security management and why does it matter? What are the high-stakes tasks in network security management? What are the toughest challenges of network security management? Which approaches do network security management pros use? Which network security management tools are IT pros’ secret weapons? Where do network security management tools make the biggest difference? Network security management FAQs 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

Explore Algosec's customer success stories to see how organizations worldwide improve security, compliance, and efficiency with our solutions. State of Utah Network Security Management Breaks the Service Bottleneck Organization State of Utah Industry Government Headquarters Salt Lake City, Utah, United States Download case study Share Customer
success stories "With AlgoSec, I am able to get requests completed within minutes." State government rapidly accelerates security policy changes while increasing security and compliance Background Utah is home to over three million people. It is one of America’s fastest-growing states and the fastest-growing economy by job growth in the nation. The Department of Technology Services (DTS) is the technology service provider for the executive branch of the State of Utah, providing services to Utah’s citizens. DTS supports the computing infrastructure for the state government, including 22,000 telephones, 20,000 desktop computers, 2,400 servers, 1,300 online services, monitors over 4 million visits to Utah.gov per month, and secures against more than 500 million daily IT intrusion attempts. Challenge Over forty firewall pairs and hundreds of other devices help the Department of Technology Services serve and secure the Utah government.“Before AlgoSec, it was very challenging for us to manage firewalls,” stated the department’s Director of Information Technology. Some of the challenges included: Firewall rule requests took up 70% of employees’ daily time. Agencies and staff frequently complained about slow response times, impacting their productivity while staff worked through a lengthy manual process to fulfill requests. Human errors slowed down the processes, requiring extra layers of quality assurance. Large rule request projects took several months to complete. Employee onboarding took several months. New employees could not independently support firewall request changes for the first few months after joining the team. Solutions The State of Utah was searching for a solution that provided: Automation of firewall management Actionable reports to ease compliance requirements Ease of deployment Following an in-depth evaluation, the State of Utah selected AlgoSec’s security policy management solution.“We evaluated several other products but none of them really automated at the level that we wanted,” said the director of IT. “AlgoSec’s automation really stood out.” The State of Utah chose to start with AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer (AFA) and AlgoSec FireFlow (AFF), two of the flagship products in the AlgoSec suite.AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer delivers visibility and analysis of complex network security policies across on-premise, cloud, and hybrid networks. It automates and simplifies security operations including troubleshooting, auditing, and risk analysis. Using Firewall Analyzer, the State of Utah can optimize the configuration of firewalls, and network infrastructure to ensure security and compliance. AlgoSec FireFlow enables security staff to automate the entire security policy change process from design and submission to proactive risk analysis, implementation, validation, and auditing. Its intelligent, automated workflows save time and improve security by eliminating manual errors and reducing risk. Results By using the AlgoSec Security Management solution, the State of Utah was able to accelerate their security policy management, provide better and faster service to state agencies, accelerate employee onboarding, and enhance network segmentation.Some of the benefits gained include: Fast and easy deployment – they were up and running within a few weeks. Faster turnaround to firewall requests from staff supporting agencies and priority initiatives. Reduced time to implement large rule request for projects, such as deployments, migrations, and decommissions — from months to minutes. Better knowledge sharing – hosting staff and extended staff outside of network operations get more accurate insights into firewalls and infrastructure topologies and traffic flows. This sped up troubleshooting and reduced superfluous requests covered by existing rules. Elimination of human error and rework thanks to policy automation. Accelerated employee onboarding – employees joining our network operations team are now able to fulfill firewall change requests within two weeks of starting work – down from 3 months – an 80% reduction. “I’ve been able to jump in and use AlgoSec. It’s been really intuitive” , concluded the IT director. “I am very pleased with this product! ” Schedule time with one of our experts