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Security Policy Management with Professor Wool Network Security for VMware NSX Network Security for VMware NSX with Professor Wool is a whiteboard-style series of lessons that examine the some of the challenges of and provide technical tips for managing security policies across the VMware NSX software-defined data center and traditional data center. Lesson 1 VMware’s NSX enables datacenter owners to secure East-West traffic using filtering policies that are enforced by the VMware infrastructure. However, migrating from existing traditional filtering technologies to VMware NSX can be a daunting task. In this lesson Professor will discuss why it’s important to understand the motivations for a migration to NSX in order to successfully plan and implement the actual migration to the VMware NSX platform. Migrating to NSX: Understanding the Why in Order to Figure Out the How Watch Lesson 2 When setting up an NSX data center you need to write filtering policies for any traffic that goes into an NSX data center, exits from it, or moves between different servers inside the NSX data center. In this lesson, Professor Wool recommends a multi-stage process to help users write secure and effective policies for east East-West traffic. Tips on How to Create Filtering Policies for NSX Watch Lesson 3 Once the NSX environment is up and running it needs to be part of the organization’s network security policy change process, and subject to the organization’s governance, audit, and regulatory compliance requirements. In this lesson Professor Wool discusses how to approach managing changes, auditing and compliance when the security team doesn’t ‘own’ the virtual environment. Best Practices for Bringing NSX Security Policy Management into the InfoSec Fold 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

Learn how firewall rules secure your network from cyber threats. Explore types, best practices, and management strategies to optimize your firewall security. Firewall rules & requirements (inbound vs. outbound) How to secure your network from threats? The cybersecurity landscape is increasingly volatile, with a massive rise in cyberattacks. Malicious cyber actors are relentlessly scouring the internet for vulnerable networks. Any company that wants to keep its network secure must implement a network security solution – a firewall. Cyber attackers keep evolving and finding ways to compromise security systems. As a result, companies need to implement and maintain security best practices. Installing a firewall is not enough; you have to take a step further to ensure the firewall rules are up-to-date and properly managed. If you want to learn how firewall rules work and secure your network from threats, keep reading! This article covers everything you need to know, including types of firewall rules, examples of firewall rules, and firewall rule best practices. Schedule a Demo What are firewall rules? Firewall rules are the major components of firewall policies that determine which types of traffic your firewall allows in and out of your network, and which are blocked. They are access control mechanisms that firewalls use to protect your network from being infiltrated by malicious or unauthorized traffic. Firewall rules examine the control information in individual packets, and either block or allow them based on a set of rules or predetermined criteria. These predetermined criteria or rule components include a source IP address, a destination IP address, ports, protocol type (TCP, UDP, or ICMP), and services. Firewall rules control how the firewalls prevent malicious programs and unauthorized traffic from compromising your network. So properly managing your firewall rules across your infrastructures is instrumental to securing your network from threats. Schedule a Demo How do firewall rules work? A firewall examines each incoming and outgoing data packet and matches it against the firewall rules. A packet is allowed to go through to its destination if it matches one of the rules that allow traffic. If a packet matches none of the rulesor hit a rule with deny, it is rejected. The rejection or mismatch is reported if the firewall is configured to do so. Firewalls are programmed to work with access control lists (ACLs). ACLs contain lists of permissions that determine network traffic that is allowed or blocked. An access control list details the conditions a data packet must meet before the ACL action (allow, deny, or reject) can be executed. To help you understand how firewall rules work, here’s a practical example: if a firewall rule states that traffic to destination N should be allowed only if it is from IP address M, the firewall will check the packet source and destination of incoming packets, and allow packets that meet the M & N rule to go through. If its packet’s destination is N but its source is unidentified or different from M, it is blocked. Packets are checked against firewall rules from top to bottom, and the first rule that matches the packet overrides the other rules below. The last rule is Deny Rest. This means that all packets not expressly permitted by the rules are blocked. You can create a firewall rule in pfSense. pfSense is an open-source firewall and router with unified threat management, load balancing, multi-WAN, a DNS Resolver, and a VPN. It supports a wide range of network technologies, including IPv4 & IPv6 addresses and pfBlockerNG. Other firewalls you can use to create firewall rules include Zenarmor, Windows Defender, and iptables. Schedule a Demo Why are firewall rules important? Firewall rules help network administrators to regulate access to networks. With firewall rules, you can determine what is allowed in and out of your network. For example, they prevent dangerous files like worms and viruses from accessing your network and consuming bandwidth. When it comes to protecting devices that operate within your network, firewall rules establish an essential line of defense. Firewalls (and other security measures like endpoint protection and security certifications) prevent malicious actors from accessing and compromising devices connected to your network or operating inside your network’s environment. Firewall rules help you comply with regulatory standards. Depending on your industry, relevant regulatory agencies expect your company to maintain a certain level of security. For example, if your business is located in the EU region or collects personal data of EU citizens, it is mandated to comply with GDPR. Schedule a Demo What are the main types of firewall rules? There are various types of firewall rules. They are categorized based on the type of security architecture under consideration. That being said, here are some of the major types of firewall rules: 1. Access rule As the name implies, this firewall rule blocks or grants access to inbound and outbound traffic based on certain conditions. The source address, destination address, port number, and protocol are key information that the access rule evaluates to determine whether access should be given or denied. 2. Network address translation (NAT) rule NAT helps you hide the original IP address of a private network – enabling you to protect your network. It makes traffic routing easier and smoothens the inflow & outflow of traffic to and from your network. 3. Application level gateways This type of firewall rule enables network administrators to implement policies that protect your internal network. Application-level gateways function as shields or gatekeepers between your internal network and the public internet. Administrators use them to regulate access to public networks, block some sites, limit access to certain content, and regulate devices allowed to access your network. 4. Stateful packet filtering This rule evaluates data packets and filters them against preset conditions. The traffic is denied access if it fails to meet the requirements outlined by the predetermined security criteria. 5. Circle-level gateways Circle-level gateways do not filter individual packets but rather monitor TCP handshakes to determine whether a session is legitimate and the remote system is considered trusted. Consequently, these gateways provide anonymity to your internal network. Schedule a Demo What is an example of a firewall rule? Firewall rules frequently consist of a source address, source port, destination address, destination port, and an action that determines whether to Allow or Deny the packet. In the following firewall ruleset example, the firewall is never directly accessed from the public network. This is because hackers who can directly access the firewall, can modify or delete rules and allow unwanted travel. Source addressSource portDestination addressDestination portAction AnyAny10.10.10.1AnyDenyAnyAny10.10.10.2AnyDeny10.10.10.1AnyAnyAnyDeny10.10.10.2AnyAnyAnyDeny In the following firewall ruleset example, all traffic from the trusted network is allowed out. This ruleset should be placed below the ruleset above. Since firewall rules are checked from top to bottom, specific rules should be placed before rules that are more general. Source addressSource portDestination addressDestination portAction 10.10.10.0AnyAnyAnyAllow Schedule a Demo What are the best ways to manage firewall rules? Effective management of firewall rules is necessary to avoid conflicting configurations and ensure your security infrastructure is powerful enough to ward off malicious attacks. To manage firewall rules better, do the following: ● Maintain proper documentation Properly document policies, rules, and workflows. It’s difficult for your network administrators to stay organized and manage firewall rules without proper documentation. Implement a strict documentation policy that mandates administrators to document policies and configuration changes. This improves visibility and ensures seamless continuity even if a key network operator leaves the company. ● Assign tasks with caution Ensure that only well-trained network operators have the privilege to assign and alter firewall rules. Allowing everyone on your security team to assign and change firewall rules increases the chances of misconfiguration. Giving such a privilege to a select few does the opposite and makes containing mismanagement easier. ● Use a standardized naming convention It’s easy to get confused about which configuration does what. This is more likely to happen where there is no naming convention. To avoid conflicting configurations, name each rule to clarify its purpose. By clearly defining the rules, conflicts can be easily resolved. ● Flag temporary rules Some rules are created to function just for a while – temporary rules. To keep things simple and ‘neat,’ flag temporary rules so they can be eliminated when they are no longer required. ● Order your rules Order rules in a specific pattern. For example, begin with global rules and narrow down to user-specific rules. ● Use a firewall management solution Many administrators use a firewall management and orchestration solution to streamline the firewall rule management process. The solution integrates with your firewall and uses built-in automation for managing firewall settings and configurations from a single dashboard. A firewall management tool helps you automate activities, gain visibility on all firewall rules, optimize firewall rules, remove rule anomalies, generate reports, etc. Schedule a Demo What are the best practices for firewall rules? To ensure your firewall works properly and offers the best security possible, there are some key best practices you have to follow when configuring and managing firewall rules: Review the firewall rules regularly The cyber threat landscape is always changing. Therefore, you must regularly review the firewall rules to ensure they provide optimal security against threats. Reviewing firewall rules helps you to be several steps ahead of malicious cyber actors, remove rule anomalies, and maintain compliance. Cyber attackers are relentlessly devising new ways to compromise security systems, infiltrate networks & subnets, and wreak havoc. You need to update the firewall rules regularly to counter new attacks. Obsolete rules can be maneuvered and the firewall compromised. You have to keep evolving the rules to stay ahead of malicious actors. Remove ineffective, redundant firewall rules. Are there rules that are no longer needed? Are there overlapping rules that are taking up space and confusing your network administrators? Look out for unnecessary configurations and remove them to free up the system and avoid confusion. In addition to helping you keep your network safe, reviewing firewall rules regularly also allows you to maintain compliance with regulatory standards such as HIPAA and GDPR. Keep tabs on firewall logs Keeping an eye on the firewall log helps administrators to monitor traffic flow, identify suspicious activities, and proactively fix challenges. Monitoring firewall logs gives you visibility into your infrastructure, enabling you to get to know your network users and the nature of their activities. Reduce complexity by categorizing firewall rules Make firewall rule structure simple and easy to manage by grouping rules with similar characteristics. This approach reduces configuration complexity, improves ease of administration, and optimizes firewall performance. Implement least-privileged access Do not grant users more privileges than necessary to perform their tasks. This ensures that only an authorized user can create a new rule, change a security policy, or gain access to specific resources. Block high-risk ports Blocking some ports can significantly decrease the risk of a network breach. The following table outlines the ports you should block as recommended by the SANS Institute . The table features services, TCP port, UDP port, port number, and port range. ServicePortPort number NetBIOS in Windows NTTCP and UDP135NetBIOS in Windows NTUDP137 and 138TFTP daemonUDP69HTTP (except to external web services)TCP80SSL (except to external web servers)TCP443Lockd (Linux DoS vulnerability)TCP & UDP4045Common high-order HTTP portsTCP8000, 8080, 8888LDAPTCP & UDP389IMAPTCP143SOCKSTCP1080SNMPUDP161 & 162SyslogUDP514Cisco AUX port (binary)TCP6001NFSTCP & UDP2049X WindowsTCP & UDP6000 – 6255 Schedule a Demo How can AlgoSec help you manage your firewall rules better? Managing firewall rules manually can be overwhelming and time-consuming – especially when dealing with multiple firewall solutions. With the help of a firewall management solution, you easily configure firewall rules and manage configurations from a single dashboard. This is where AlgoSec comes in! AlgoSec’s powerful firewall management solution integrates with your firewalls to deliver unified firewall policy management from a single location, thus streamlining the entire process. With AlgoSec, you can maintain clear visibility of your firewall ruleset, automate the management process, assess risk & optimize rulesets, streamline audit preparation & ensure compliance, and use APIs to access many features through web services. Schedule a Demo Select a size How to secure your network from threats? What are firewall rules? How do firewall rules work? Why are firewall rules important? What are the main types of firewall rules? What is an example of a firewall rule? What are the best ways to manage firewall rules? What are the best practices for firewall rules? How can AlgoSec help you manage your firewall rules better? Get the latest insights from the experts Use these six best practices to simplify compliance and risk mitigation with the AlgoSec platform White paper Learn how AlgoSec can help you pass PCI-DSS Audits and ensure continuous compliance Solution overview See how this customer improved compliance readiness and risk management with AlgoSec Case study Choose a better way to manage your network

These award wins follow a year of double-digit year-on-year annual recurring revenue growth and the launch of the AlgoSec Horizon Platform AlgoSec Wins SC Award for Best Security Company, Global InfoSec Award for Best Service Cybersecurity Company These award wins follow a year of double-digit year-on-year annual recurring revenue growth and the launch of the AlgoSec Horizon Platform May 14, 2025 Speak to one of our experts RIDGEFIELD PARK, NJ, May 14, 2025 – Today, global cybersecurity leader AlgoSec announced it has won two prestigious cybersecurity awards, the 2025 SC Award for Best Security Company and the 2025 Global InfoSec Award for Best Service Cybersecurity Company. These accomplishments reinforce AlgoSec’s global leadership and its mission to deliver secure, seamless application connectivity across hybrid enterprise environments. AlgoSec offers a robust number of solutions dependent on customers’ business needs, such as application discovery and connectivity management , security change automation , and application-centric compliance and risk mitigation . Together, AlgoSec enables application owners, information security experts, SecOps and cloud security teams to deploy business applications faster while maintaining security. “We’re thrilled to be recognized as the best security company for our dedication to our customers and our impact on the industry at large,” said Chris Thomas , Chief Revenue Officer at AlgoSec. “These two awards cement our leadership as the top provider to future-proof complex multi-cloud hybrid networks through our unique application-centric approach.” To meet the complex security needs of its customers, AlgoSec recently launched AlgoSec Horizon Platform , the industry's first application-centric security management platform for the hybrid cloud network environment. With advanced AI nodules, AlgoSec Horizon platform prioritizes security efforts based on the criticality of business applications to ensure the most severe vulnerabilities are addressed first. This reduces operational complexity, simplifies security management, minimizes misconfigurations and enhances operational resilience. In 2024, AlgoSec saw double-digit year-on-year annual recurring revenue growth, gross dollar retention of over 90% and positive cashflow. For more information on AlgoSec, visit www.algosec.com . About AlgoSec AlgoSec, a global cybersecurity leader, empowers organizations to securely accelerate application delivery up to 10 times faster by automating application connectivity and security policy across the hybrid network environment. With two decades of expertise securing hybrid networks, over 2200 of the world's most complex organizations trust AlgoSec to help secure their most critical workloads. AlgoSec Horizon platform utilizes advanced AI capabilities, enabling users to automatically discover and identify their business applications across multi-clouds, and remediate risks more effectively. It serves as a single source for visibility into security and compliance issues across the hybrid network environment, to ensure ongoing adherence to internet security standards, industry, and internal regulations. Additionally, organizations can leverage intelligent change automation to streamline security change processes, thus improving security and agility. Learn how AlgoSec enables application owners, information security experts, SecOps and cloud security teams to deploy business applications faster while maintaining security at www.algosec.com . MEDIA CONTACT: Megan Davis Alloy, on behalf of AlgoSec [email protected]

Explore Algosec's customer success stories to see how organizations worldwide improve security, compliance, and efficiency with our solutions. Energy supplier keeps the lights on with automated network change management Organization Energy Supplier Industry Utilities & Energy Headquarters International Download case study Share Customer
success stories "AlgoSec has saved us a lot of time in managing our rule base.” Large energy supplier empowers internal stakeholders and streamlines network security policy change process Background The company is the provider of electricity and gas for their country. They are responsible for the planning, construction, operation, maintenance and global technical management of both these grids and associated infrastructures. The Challenge In order to provide power to millions of people, the company runs more than twenty IT and OT firewalls from multiple vendors that are hosted in multiple data centers throughout the country. Some of the challenges included: Lack of visibility over a complex architecture – With multiple networks, IT managers needed to know which network is behind which firewall and connect traffic flows to firewall rules. Change management processes were being managed by network diagrams created in Microsoft Visio and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets – tools that were not designed for network security policy management. Thousands of rules – Each firewall may have thousands of rules each. Many of these rules are unneeded and introduce unnecessary risk. Managing the maze of rules was time consuming and took time away from other strategic initiatives. Unnecessary requests – Business stakeholders were requesting status information about network traffic and making duplicate and unnecessary change requests for items covered by existing rules. The Solution The company was searching for a solution that provided: Visibility into their network topology, including traffic flows. Optimization of their firewall rules. Alerts before time-based rules expire. Automatic implementation of their rule base onto their firewall devices. They implemented AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer and AlgoSec FireFlow, as well as AlgoBot, AlgoSec’s ChatOps solution. AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer ensures security and compliance by providing visibility and analysis into complex network security policies. AlgoSec FireFlow improves security and saves security staffs’ time by automating the entire security policy change process, eliminating manual errors, and reducing risk. AlgoBot is an intelligent chatbot that handles network security policy management tasks. AlgoBot answers business user’s questions, submitted in plain English, and automatically assists with security policy change management processes – without requiring manual inputs or additional research. The Results Some of the ways the company benefitted from using AlgoSec include: Visibility and topology mapping – They are able to get a picture of their entire network and view traffic flows to each network device. Optimized firewall rules – They are able to adjust the placement of their rules, placing their most used rules higher in the rule base, improving performance, and also checking for unused objects or rules to clean up, removing unused rules, improving firewall performance. Improved communication and transparency for time-based rules – Before time-based rules expire (rule with an expiration date), the requester is automatically notified and asked if the rule should be extended or removed. Better, more refined rule requests – By first gathering information from AlgoBot, rule requests are better focused. Internal customers are able to check if rules are already in place before making requests, therefore avoiding requests that are already covered by existing rules. Empower internal stakeholders – Able to save the IT team’s time by empowering internal stakeholders to use AlgoBot to get the answers themselves to traffic queries. Met change implementation SLAs – By implementing their rules with AlgoSec, the company meets their internal SLAs for change implementation. Streamlined auditing processes – By documenting the changes they made in the firewalls, who made them, and when, their audit processes are streamlined. Zero-touch automation – Automatically implementing rules in multiple firewalls simultaneously ensures policy consistency across multiple devices, while preserving staff resources. This also eliminates the need to use the management consoles from individual vendors, saving time and reducing misconfigurations. Staff efficiencies – Hundreds of monthly change requests are able to be managed by a single staff member. He would not be able to do it without AlgoSec. The company switched from a competing solution because it was more user-friendly and provided greater visibility than the competing solution they were previously using. They are also impressed with AlgoSec’s scalability. “The initial setup is really easy. It has been running flawlessly since installation. Even upgrades are pretty straightforward and have never given us problems,” they noted. Schedule time with one of our experts

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Automate and secure network policy changes with AlgoSec FireFlow. Streamline workflows, ensure compliance, and reduce risks in your security environment. AlgoSec FireFlow – Automate and secure policy changes Overview Leverage intelligent automation to confidently automate your security policy change process — from planning through risk analysis, implementation and validation Process security policy changes in a fraction of the time so you can respond to business requirements with the agility they demand. Using its unique vendor-agnostic deep algorithm for change management intelligent automation, AlgoSec FireFlow enforces firewall policies and application connectivity, eliminating guesswork, preventing human errors, and substantially reducing exposure to security risks to adapt quickly before an attack happens. Schedule a Demo Zero-touch change management Accelerate security policy changes while maintaining control, ensuring accuracy, saving time, and preventing errors — with zero-touch. Speed up and secure application deployment Make changes securely with AppChange, an add-on for AlgoSec FireFlow. With AppChange, changes are made at the business application level, including during application migrations , server deployment, and decommissioning projects. Save time by identifying devices that are in the way Automatically identify devices that are blocking connectivity flow, so you know what rules need to change. Design smart security policies Intelligently design existing rules and objects to reduce clutter and complexity. Mitigate risk Make sure your changes don’t introduce risk or compliance violations. Automatically analyze every proposed change before it’s implemented to identify risks and make sure they are compliant. Make changes exactly as intended Detect unauthorized change requests before implementation. Validate that changes were successfully applied and tickets not prematurely closed. Integrate with your existing processes Don’t change the way you work – use the tools you already know. Seamlessly integrate with your favorite IT Service Management solution. Schedule a Demo About AlgoSec AlgoSec, a global cybersecurity leader, empowers organizations to securely accelerate application delivery by automating application connectivity and security policy, anywhere. The AlgoSec platform enables the world’s most complex organizations to gain visibility, reduce risk, and process changes at zero-touch across the hybrid network. Over 1,800 of the world’s leading organizations trust AlgoSec to help secure their most critical workloads across public cloud, private cloud, containers, and on-premises networks, while taking advantage of almost two decades of leadership in Network Security Policy Management. See what securely accelerating your digital transformation, move-to-cloud, infrastructure modernization, or micro-segmentation initiatives looks like at www.algosec.com . Schedule a Demo Select a size Overview Zero-touch change management About AlgoSec Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

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Learn best practices for mastering compliance automation for network security Webinars 5 Keys to Success: Automating compliance for network security In a landscape where technological progression is rapidly advancing every day, network security has become a crucial factor in the success of businesses. Keeping sensitive data secure is no longer just an option, it’s a necessity. But, with security issues constantly on the rise, maintaining compliance can be an overwhelming and time-consuming task for IT professionals. In this webinar, we cover automating compliance for network security as a key component for ensuring business. Join us to see why this is a crucial aspect of ensuring business success in today’s digital landscape. June 13, 2023 Tsippi Dach Director of marketing communications Asher Benbenisty Director of product marketing Relevant resources Cisco Regulatory Compliance Watch Video Automated Security Policy Changes for Speed and Compliance Keep Reading [Panel] How financial institutions can achieve network security and compliance 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