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Learn about firewall rule automation and change management to streamline processes, reduce human error, and enhance network security with effective change controls. Firewall rule automation & change management explained ---- ------- Schedule a Demo Select a size ----- Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

Algosec AppViz provides clear visibility into application connectivity, ensuring optimal security and simplifying network management. AppViz: Discover, visualize and secure application connectivity Secure application connectivity across the hybrid network Schedule a demo Securing your application is securing your business Organizations face complex challenges in managing security across hybrid environments, leading to potential vulnerabilities and compliance risks. AlgoSec offers a comprehensive solution that provides deep visibility, automates security changes, and ensures continuous compliance. Our platform integrates seamlessly with your existing infrastructure, enabling you to: Streamline Security Policies Reduce manual interventions and accelerate application delivery Enhance Visibility Gain a unified view of your network's security posture Ensure Compliance Stay ahead of regulatory requirements with automated compliance checks Prioritize risks Prioritizes risks based on application criticality, risk severity, and threat exposure AppViz allows you to scale, secure, and simplify hybrid network security AppViz’s application first approach simplifies hybrid network security with: Visualize application connectivity AppViz automatically identifies application dependencies and traffic flows across hybrid networks. It enables a unified view of business application flows, spanning on-premises data centers and multi-cloud environments. Learn more Prioritize risk on context AppViz doesn’t just show vulnerabilities; it reveals them through a business lens, mapping them directly to the critical applications that underpin a company’s operations. Learn more Ensure Application-centric compliance Real-time visibility into compliance status across hybrid environments helps organizations stay ahead of regulatory demands. AppViz allow application recertification workflows that ensure tracking of compliance expiration dates without manual intervention, reducing audit preparation time by eliminating the need for rule-by-rule recertification. Learn more Automated change management Manual change-management processes can be error-prone and inefficient. To streamline security policy updates, it is essential to analyze the impact of planned network changes before implementation. Automating security policy changes reduces errors and accelerates processes. Integrating security, DevOps, and IT teams into a collaborative workflow enhances efficiency, while proactively addressing security risks helps lower change-request rejection rates. Learn more “The key is understanding your applications; if you don’t understand your applications fully, you can’t manage them, and you can’t reduce the risk around them” “Preparing for audits became 50% faster with AppViz” “We reduced change request rejections from 10% to 0%” Don’t just take our word for it 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

AlgoSec Resident Engineer Services provides a dedicated onsite remote engineer for support, maintenance, management issues to fit your network security needs AlgoSec resident engineer AlgoSec resident engineer service Dedicated onsite/remote engineer The AlgoSec Resident Engineer Service Pack is a comprehensive service with a dedicated technical engineer that acts as a partner and advisor. The AlgoSec Resident Engineer (ARE) typically devotes at least one day a week to helping you accelerate your network security management and achieve immediate success. The AlgoSec Resident Engineer becomes the expert in your organization’s processes and requirements as well as in your network’s specific configurations and challenges – delivering higher business value faster. Even when your organization has staffing changes, the AlgoSec Resident Engineer preserves organizational memory, ensuring a seamless transition and accelerating the onboarding of new employees so you aren’t left behind. View detailed information The business impact: Exclusive access to AlgoSec R&D and product management Consultancy to address your business needs Dedicated technical engineer Expertise, training, and knowledge sharing Accelerate adoption Business continuity during staffing transitions Enhance workforce productivity AlgoSec resident
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Learn how to effectively prevent and block ransomware attacks using your firewall. Discover essential configurations and best practices for enhanced security. Prevent & block ransomware attacks on firewall What is a ransomware attack? Ransomware is a malware attack that locks a victim’s data and demands a ransom, usually in Bitcoin, for its release. It often spreads through disguised executable files or malicious emails but can also exploit software vulnerabilities. A notable instance is the WannaCry attack, which spread without user interaction. Given the increasing sophistication of these attacks, understanding and combating ransomware is crucial for tightened cybersecurity. Schedule a Demo What are the main types of malware and ransomware threats? Understanding the variants of malware and ransomware infections in cybersecurity is critical to effective prevention and response. These threats can range from viruses to sophisticated Ransomware-as-a-Service models. Let’s delve into the main types: Viruses – Malicious software that can spread to other files and operating systems. Worms – Self-replicating malware spreading independently through networks, causing significant damage. Trojans – Disguised as legitimate software or files, Trojans can steal data or exploit permissions to gain unauthorized system access. Adware – This malware displays unwanted ads or pop-ups on a system, often for the attacker’s revenue generation. Fake pop-ups – Messages claiming your system has a virus and demanding payment for its removal, such as FakeAV and System Progressive Protection. Rootkits – Designed to hide their presence, rootkits enable remote access for malware, making it difficult for antivirus software to detect and remove the threats. Botnets – Attackers use these networks of compromised computers, known as botnets, to carry out remote DDoS and other cyber attacks. Spyware – This malware secretly monitors user activity and collects sensitive data. Fileless malware – Operating entirely in a system’s memory, this malware type is hard to detect and remove. Phishing emails – Disguised emails that trick recipients into clicking a malicious link or opening email attachments that appear authentic. Malvertising – Hackers inject malicious code into legitimate online advertising networks, redirecting users to malicious websites. Drive-by attacks – Users visit unsafe, fake web pages, including sites infected unknowingly or fake sites posing as legitimate ones. Self-propagation – Physically infects a system through a network or USB drive. Encryption ransomware – Encrypts your files and demands payment in return for the decryption key. Examples include CryptoLocker and WannaCry. Locker ransomware – A cyber threat restricting access to your system, demanding payment for restoring access. Winlocker and Police-themed ransomware are examples. Mobile ransomware – Targeting mobile devices, this ransomware locks the device or encrypts the files, demanding payment for their release. Android Defender and Simplelocker are examples. RaaS (Ransomware-as-a-Service) – Distributed as a service, this ransomware model allows anyone to buy or rent ransomware kits or apps for infecting others. Recognizing these threats is the first step toward ransomware prevention . Schedule a Demo Are firewalls able to provide ransomware protection? Yes, firewalls offer a layer of protection against ransomware. They act as a barrier between computers and networks, scanning incoming and outgoing traffic based on defined security parameters to block malicious packets. Firewalls can help thwart ransomware attacks by blocking suspect IP addresses, prohibiting remote access without authorization, and controlling the flow of certain data types that could carry ransomware. Schedule a Demo Which firewall rules can block ransomware? Several firewall rules can help block ransomware: Block known malicious IP addresses – You can configure firewalls to block traffic from IP addresses known to often distribute ransomware. Block all inbound traffic on port 445 – Used for file and printer sharing, port 445 is a common target for ransomware attacks. Restrict outbound traffic – Limiting outbound traffic to necessary ports can prevent a ransomware attack from communicating with its command and control server, thus halting the attack. Implement Geo-IP filtering – Some organizations may find it beneficial to block or limit traffic from specific countries or regions, particularly if they are known sources of ransomware. Disable Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) – Many ransomware attacks exploit RDP to gain remote access to systems. Disabling RDP at the firewall can help prevent these advanced threats. Implement Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS) – These systems can detect unusual traffic patterns or system activities that suggest a ransomware attack, allowing the firewall to respond and block the attack. Application control – Firewalls with application control features can prevent the execution of unrecognized or unauthorized applications, which can stop the delivery or execution of ransomware. Schedule a Demo What are the best practices for ransomware prevention? Clean up and tighten firewall rules Over time, firewall rules can get messy. This mess might let attackers in, just like weak VPNs or vulnerable email security can. Regularly cleaning up firewall and endpoint protection rules can help stop a ransomware attack . When you change a rule, make sure you know why. Misconfigured changes could disrupt apps or expose VPN tunnels. Analyze the risks and vulnerabilities in your network Every network security solution has some risks. These risks come from different providers. It is essential to find these risks and rank them based on how much they can harm your business. Since threats can pop up anytime, endpoint security with anti-malware features is essential. Focus on risks that could hurt critical business apps. Tying vulnerabilities to related firewall rules can make this easier, just like real-time updates in endpoint security can help stay ahead of new threats. Mitigate lateral movement and control east-west traffic with network segmentation Using network segmentation allows you to minimize the impact on your network in case of an attack. This is particularly effective against swift threats such as zero-day attacks, which target a software vulnerability that is unknown to the software vendor or to antivirus vendors. By securing crucial company data in protected segments with strong encryption keys and employing sandboxing, you are well-equipped to manage east-west traffic. East-west traffic refers to the communication or data transfer that happens inside the network, from server to server, or between internal applications. By managing this traffic, you can prevent attackers from moving laterally across your network. Adding multi-factor authentication can make this strategy even more robust. It adds another layer of security to keep attackers under control. For enhanced protection against cyber threats, consider implementing micro-segmentation . This advanced method can provide granular security controls and can further deter lateral movement across your network. Identify where your hybrid network is exposed to public networks In complex network setups with multi-cloud and hybrid systems, it is very important to see everything that is happening. You need to know how your business apps connect, including any vectors that unwanted or harmful traffic, such as bots, could use. To understand where your hybrid network is exposed to public networks, you need a complete map of your network and the ability to simulate traffic. This information can help you find and fix points where your network is exposed. Respond to incidents coming from SIEM/SOAR solutions with rapid isolation SIEM/SOAR systems collect and examine logs from your IT setup, security tools, and business apps. This helps the SOC team find and flag strange activities for further investigation. But with so much data, many alerts are false positives. Still, this does not mean you are lost in a sea of noise. By linking security incidents to network traffic patterns, you can tell if a compromised server is exposed to the internet. This can help you quickly separate an infected server if a Trojan gets past your defenses, which is a crucial strategy in stopping ransomware attacks. Schedule a Demo What steps must you take when a ransomware attack is detected? Step 1: Identify the attack – Act quickly if you think you are under a ransomware attack. Signs of an attack can include files you cannot open, weird computer activity, or a ransom message on your screen. If you see these, confirm it is ransomware and take steps to limit the damage. Step 2: Isolate affected systems – When you know you are under attack, isolate the affected computers from the rest of your network. This can stop the ransomware from spreading. You might need to disconnect from the internet, turn off Wi-Fi, or even shut down the system. Step 3: Secure backup data – Backups can help you recover from ransomware. If you have not already saved backups in a different place or offline, do it immediately to protect data from damage. Step 4: Report the incident – Tell your IT department or security team about the attack. If you do not have an IT team, you might need help from a cybersecurity company. Also, tell the law enforcement agencies and any organizations you are a part of that might need to know. Step 5: Preserve evidence – Keep any evidence related to the ransomware attack. This might include ransom messages, emails, or system logs. This evidence can help the police and cybersecurity experts understand what happened and might help get your data back. Step 6: Remove the ransomware – IT or cybersecurity experts should be the ones to get rid of the ransomware. They have special tools and methods to remove ransomware. Experts will ensure that it does not cause more harm to your files or computers. Step 7: Restore your systems – After the ransomware is gone, you can start fixing your systems. If you had backups that were not affected by the attack, you might be able to restore your systems to their previous state. If not, you might need a professional service to recover your data. Step 8: Post-incident review – Review what happened and how you responded. Find any weak spots in your security that the attack exploited and make a plan to improve your safety. This step can help stop future attacks and strengthen your business’s cybersecurity. Schedule a Demo How does AlgoSec prevent and mitigate ransomware attacks? Manage security policies AlgoSec’s tools help you deal with network security policies. They enable you to fight against ransomware attacks. AlgoSec makes sure your firewall does not have too many rules or unnecessary ones. Removing old or superfluous rules and eliminating duplicates will improve your anti-ransomware policies. Don’t forget to check out AlgoSec’s anti-ransomware resources . Visualize your network AlgoSec lets you see your entire network. It shows you all your business applications and how and where they connect. You can use this network map to find places that might be exposed to public networks and fix any weak spots. Optimize security policies AlgoSec gives you tools to improve your security policies. They help you clean up your firewall rules and remove old, duplicate, and too-permissive rules. AlgoSec’s intelligent change management automation and useful reports help you keep your policies clean. By ensuring new rules are designed and implemented optimally, potential ransomware attacks can be blocked. Assess & mitigate risks AlgoSec helps you find and deal with risks in your firewall policies. It checks your security policies against a list of best practices and known threats. By checking the risk of each new change before it is made, AlgoSec makes sure you do not accidentally add unknown risks to your network. This helps you protect your network from ransomware attacks. Tie security incidents to business processes AlgoSec’s platform smoothly integrates with all the leading SIEM and SOAR solutions. This lets you connect security problems directly to your business processes. If there’s a breach, AlgoSec quickly stops the attack by cutting off any servers at risk. This helps you limit the damage from a ransomware attack. Enforce network segmentation AlgoSec helps enforce network segmentation in your hybrid network. It automatically finds applications and their connections. This creates a real-time map for designing your network divisions. AlgoSec allows you to define which traffic is allowed, making sure your security rules fit your division strategy. It also automates security changes. The platform supports software-defined micro-segmentation control over network traffic, compatible with Cisco ACI and VMWare NSX. Schedule a Demo Select a size What is a ransomware attack? What are the main types of malware and ransomware threats? Are firewalls able to provide ransomware protection? Which firewall rules can block ransomware? What are the best practices for ransomware prevention? What steps must you take when a ransomware attack is detected? How does AlgoSec prevent and mitigate ransomware attacks? Get the latest insights from the experts Use these six best practices to simplify compliance and risk 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 Choose a better way to manage your network

Manage multi-cloud security with effective policy and configuration strategies to ensure compliance, optimize performance, and protect your network infrastructure. Multi-Cloud Security Network Policy and Configuration Management Overview Taking advantage of cost and performance improvements, enterprises are extending their networks far beyond the traditional perimeter to incorporate multiple public and private clouds. Migration of applications to clouds has become an indispensable strategy for enterprises as clouds deliver many financial, performance and other advantages. Public clouds have become part of the computing fabric of millions of enterprises. Schedule a Demo Introduction Digitally transforming their businesses with numerous new applications, mobility and big data, enterprises are rapidly expanding their networks. Taking advantage of cost and performance improvements, enterprise networks extend way beyond the traditional perimeter and now incorporate software-defined networks (SDN), micro-segmentation and multiple clouds. The typical medium or large enterprise now manages a dynamic heterogeneous network that includes: Data centers Public clouds Private clouds Traditional network security policy management within the data center has always been challenging enough. Multiple firewalls from different vendors, thousands of rules and hundreds of weekly or monthly changes call for their own careful management and automation. But as the network estate becomes even wider and more complex, coherent security policy now has to extend across the entire heterogeneous network that includes multiple public clouds (e.g., AWS, MS Azure, Google Cloud Platform), each with its own language and methods. In the world of multi-cloud deployments, the need for cloud vendor-agnostic, holistic security policy automation becomes essential. In this paper, we will discuss the major security policy issues that concern enterprises as they expand their networks across multiple clouds. We will explain how AlgoSec delivers a comprehensive, unified, vendor-agnostic automation solution that enables security managers to reduce risk, improve compliance and boost efficiency across the heterogeneous network including multi-clouds. Schedule a Demo Where the data center meets the cloud In the data center, AlgoSec automates network security policy in device vendor-agnostic fashion—that is, it provides a unified console from which security teams can holistically manage security policy across multiple data centers and network segments that include many firewalls and other network devices. The AlgoSec solution is vendor-agnostic, enabling security teams to use a common security interface to handle policy management regardless of type of network device. The AlgoSec solution is able to tie security-policy management to business processes and applications, proactively assessing risk, and ensuring continuous compliance in addition to quick provisioning, change, migration and decommissioning of network connectivity for business applications. That businesses are migrating applications to private and public clouds doesn’t change anything for AlgoSec. Neither do virtualization nor multi-cloud deployments. In fact, the accelerating deployment of heterogeneous networks greatly increases the need for an automated Network Security Policy Management (NSPM) solution like AlgoSec. Schedule a Demo Migration to the cloud and virtualization – a growing trend The network landscape of today differs radically from what we knew only a few years ago. For a variety of quantifiable reasons that include productivity, agility and costs, enterprises are migrating their applications to public and private clouds. Public clouds Migration of applications to public clouds has become an indispensable strategy for enterprises as public clouds bring a great many advantages. The most popular of the public clouds, AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, have become part of the computing fabric of millions of enterprises. Because of the proliferation of easy-to-use and cost-effective public clouds, enterprises leverage multiple cloud vendors. IDC estimates that nearly 80 percent of IT organizations are currently deploying, or are planning to deploy, multi-cloud environments. A study conducted by Microsoft and 451 Research, The Digital Revolution Powered by Cloud, stated that nearly a third of organizations already work with three or four cloud vendors. The embracing of the multi-cloud environment can be attributed to the advantages each cloud vendor has to offer such as unique functions, proximity and pricing models. Since application requirements can vary greatly and require specific functions and capabilities to operate optimally, matching them to specific cloud vendors is important. Various cloud environments offer the functions and tools that deliver the best capabilities for each application. Some public clouds excel in cost advantages, others in availability, still others in compute power. Businesses evaluate the advantages of each cloud to take advantage of the functions that will best support each application. Enterprises also worry about lock-in—a commitment to a single cloud vendor—that might turn them into a captive customer allowing that vendor to dictate the terms of service and costs. Businesses avoid lock-in by deploying applications across multiple clouds. Private clouds As enterprises transform digitally, their data and applications grow exponentially. Network managers are constantly challenged to re-consider the network infrastructure that will best support business needs now and into the foreseeable future. Today, private cloud is one of their main considerations. Private cloud is a type of cloud computing that delivers advantages similar to public cloud, including scalability and self-service, but through a proprietary architecture that the enterprises maintain themselves. While public clouds deliver services to any number of enterprises, a single enterprise establishes its own private cloud dedicated to its own needs. Therefore, private cloud is the best choice for enterprises who wish to control all the aspects of their computing and where it is easier to manage security and regulatory compliance. According to Market Research Future, the global private cloud market, although not as widely adopted as the public cloud, is still expected to grow explosively at 26% CAGR between 2017 and 2023 and reach a valuation of more than USD 50B by 2023. Get a demo Hybrid networks As a result of the distinct advantages and disadvantages of each type of cloud implementation, most enterprises utilize two or three types of environments: traditional data center processing, private clouds and public clouds; and in many cases, employing multiple vendors for the cloud environments. Taken together, they give rise to the heterogeneous network environment or hybrid network . Schedule a Demo Network security challenges in the hybrid network 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. We identify seven major challenges that must be addressed to ensure security and compliance across hybrid networks. 1. Visibility The more heterogenous the network, the more complex it becomes. Complexity is the enemy of security. Across the vast landscape of physical equipment, virtual firewalls, and public-cloud network security groups, security teams find it difficult to obtain a clear picture of application-connectivity requirements and overall network security. 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 the flows between: On-premise networks and cloud providers Multiple public cloud environments VPCs and v-NETs Regions within the same cloud providers Cloud environments and the internet A study sponsored by Forbes surveyed professionals in enterprise IT departments about their cloud infrastructures. More than one-third said they lack visibility into their application operations in the public cloud. The independent market research company, Vanson Bourne, conducted a survey to investigate the state of network security. In Hide and Seek: Cybersecurity and the Cloud , two-thirds of respondents cited network “blind spots” as a major obstacle to effective data protection. Ixia’s recent survey of senior IT staff in various organizations regarding their cloud security concerns concurred. The top concern with cloud adoption was the ability to achieve full visibility. 2. Maintaining compliance posture Put bluntly, compliance is absolutely necessary for the business but is a nuisance for the IT staff. With the recent introduction of the GDPR and the growing body of legal and industrial regulations, compliance is taking up more and more effort and time from IT departments and especially security staff. Keeping up with the numerous regulations that are found in a growing number of geographies and industries is challenging enough in a single-cloud-provider environment. Compliance challenges multiply rapidly in heterogeneous environments due to: The need to apply compliance processes for each regulation for each network entity Service contract terms and SLAs across the estate Compliance methodologies that work for one cloud vendor don’t necessarily work for another Audits are point-in-time exercises, but most regulations require continuous compliance, tough to achieve in a dynamic environment Compliance needs to be documented for every entity and vendor, very tedious and time-consuming, and a drain on scant resources The essence of information security regulations such as PCI-DSS, GLBA and HIPAA is to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive information. While these regulations are addressed by the best practices that IT departments have continuously implemented for years, the challenges are rapidly expanding in the heterogeneous environment. Due to the chronic lack of IT and security staff, teams are incessantly pulled in different directions. In many cases, it’s gotten to the point where IT staff are busy putting out security and operational fires and have little time to perform critical strategic work such as addressing compliance issues at the network and cloud level. Multiple clouds just make the task that much harder. 3. Identifying and mitigating risks Due to the dynamic nature of the hybrid (on-prem and cloud) network, numerous changes to security policies are likely to ensue. These changes will be implemented on all the devices that direct traffic and will likely be performed by the multiple stakeholders involved in the hybrid network such as application developers and DevOps in addition to cloud and security teams. The ever-transforming environment necessitates close attention as risk may be introduced inadvertently by these changes. The risks within the complex hybrid-cloud estate will likely be too numerous and complex to be identified manually. Therefore, it’s imperative to obtain a dashboard that depicts all risks on a single screen. This dashboard should indicate the severity, the affected devices and rules, and the changes required to remediate each risk. The dashboard also requires the ability to notify pro-actively (via alarm) whenever the network is exposed to new risks. 4. Managing application connectivity 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. A Symantec analysis found that while most CIOs think their organizations use only 30 or 40 cloud applications , in fact, most have adopted an average of 928! Even if they get a grip on their current application volume, network and security teams can’t consider themselves in control. There are constant upgrades and changes, as well as new applications to deploy, connect and secure. Business users demand that they be up and running immediately while security is hard-pressed to keep up. Trying to manage application connectivity across on-premise, private and public clouds, each with multiple vendors, is prohibitively expensive in time and effort. 5. Managing policies Maintaining a clean set of firewall rules is a critical network-management function. Difficult enough in the data center, things really get out of hand when networks cross borders into the cloud. Private clouds add unique security controls such as ACI contracts and distributed firewalls. And each public cloud has its unique security controls such as cloud-native security groups, cloud-vendor firewalls (e.g., Azure firewall and AWS WAF), and 3rd-party cloud firewalls by the traditional firewall vendors (e.g., CloudGuard from Checkpoint and Palo Alto Networks’ VM series). The proliferation of security controls that make up the hybrid, multi-cloud network multiplies policy-management complexity. Maintaining a clean set of firewall rules is a critical firewall management function. Difficult enough in the data center, things really get out of hand when networks cross borders into the cloud. Adding more than one cloud further multiples the policy-management complexity. 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 the careful review of each rule and its related business justification. Examples of firewall rules that institute problems 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. The problems are magnified in enterprises with: A large number of traditional physical firewalls Firewalls from multiple vendors (Checkpoint, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks) Different types of platforms (on-prem, private cloud, public cloud) Different types of security controls (traditional firewalls, security groups, etc.) Such complexities contribute to a lack of visibility, poor accountability, and undetected network breaches. They accumulate unnecessary costs for the business and waste precious IT time. Enterprises across the board are well aware of the need to get a handle on security controls. Research by ESG indicates that 70 percent of organizations plan to unify security controls for all server workloads across public clouds and on-premises resources over the next two years. 6. Enforcing security-policy consistency The only constant in today’s IT environment is change. Today, change occurs at a breakneck pace. As business needs transform (due to rapid business growth, mergers and acquisitions, new applications, decommissioning of old applications, new and departing users, evolving networks, new cyber threats), so must security policies—and fast. Managing change can lead to major headaches for IT, security and cloud management teams who try to enforce consistent security policies across the heterogenous network. Maintaining consistency across the hybrid and multi-cloud network meets with many problems such as: Each security entity has a different method of managing policy changes. Lack of intricate understanding of the proper management of changes for each security entity can lead to critical business risks as benign as legitimate traffic blockage all the way to the entire business network going offline. Manual workflows and change management processes that are unique for each security entity can substantially slow down the change process, impeding IT agility. Some enterprises with a very complex heterogeneous network are so concerned about change control and its potential negative impact that they may resort to network freezes during peak business times so as not to suffer inexplicable outages. Changes are slow. It can take several days—sometimes weeks—to process a single change in a complex enterprise environment. Enterprises may implement hundreds of changes each month. It’s difficult to assess the risk of a proposed change. The change process in a hybrid network involves disparate teams (security, networking, cloud, business owners). These teams speak different languages and have different objectives. They lack a unifying factor. 7. Handling multiple management consoles Each cloud vendor provides its own console that facilitates the day-to-day management of its cloud accounts and provides services such as monitoring cloud-resource usage, calculating current costs and managing security credentials. In addition, each firewall vendor offers its own unique management console for managing all of its devices. Each vendor’s console comes with its own language and GUI. 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 potential for errors. 8. Lack of skilled staff with cloud-security knowledge Despite all the advancements we have made in network security in recent years, enterprises still endure regular cyberattacks that continue to cause billions of dollars in damages. Effective network security professionals are now more important than ever. Yet, despite the urgent need (and handsome salaries), the world suffers from a severe scarcity in able and certified personnel. According to a recent McAfee study titled The ramifications of the skills shortage on cloud security, IT leaders need to increase their security staffs by 24% to adequately manage their current threat landscape. But these people are simply not available. The absence of adequately trained security professionals leaves gaps in many aspects of modern-day security infrastructure. 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 in network security specialists and 27% who suffer a shortage of security analysts. A security officer with expertise in any cloud environment needs to be familiar with the best practices of incident response and must also be proficient in cloud security practices such as identity access management (IAM), deployment automation and cloud regulatory compliance. The requisite qualifications are amplified when the same officer needs to manage multiple cloud vendors. As security varies with each vendor, the multi-cloud security officer must know the security nuances of each cloud vendor and stay up to date with the ongoing security advancements of each. It is practically impossible to find such people. Many network and cloud security positions remain unfilled forcing organizations to compromise. Schedule a Demo The AlgoSec solution for heterogeneous environments AlgoSec delivers business-driven security management across on-premise, SDN, hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud environments. With AlgoSec, enterprises maintain a uniform security policy across their entire network estate. From a single console, security teams can see across their on-prem and virtual networks and into all their clouds. They obtain accurate policy change automation across their physical and virtual firewalls as well as into their public cloud deployments. The AlgoSec approach bestows numerous critical benefits on the enterprise: Visibility across the hybrid cloud and multi-cloud from a business-application perspective Uniform security policy across complex hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments Compliance assurance across the hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments Hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud security policy change automation with zero touch Increased agility and responsiveness to business needs Accelerated application delivery Optimal training of security personnel—one console, one language—for the entire heterogeneous network Schedule a Demo Executive summary AlgoSec delivers the acute visibility, automation and unified solution for managing the entire volume of hybrid-cloud security policies, configurations and controls to achieve and maintain security and compliance. Maintaining a robust security posture in such a complex environment that includes on-premise network equipment from multiple vendors, SDN, virtual, private and public cloud infrastructures necessitates automation . AlgoSec is the leading automation solution for network security policy management. Used by 1,800 customers in over 80 countries, AlgoSec delivers end-to-end visibility and analysis of the hybrid network security infrastructure (including real and virtual firewalls, routers and cloud security groups), as well as business applications and their connectivity flows—across cloud, SDN and on-premise enterprise networks. AlgoSec automates time-consuming and error-prone manual security-policy changes with zero touch, proactively assessing risk and ensuring continuous compliance. AlgoSec quickly provisions, modifies, migrates and decommissions network connectivity for business applications. To discover more about AlgoSec’s business-driven security management solution, visit www.algosec.com , or click here to request a demo. Schedule a Demo Select a size Overview Introduction Where the data center meets the cloud Migration to the cloud and virtualization – a growing trend Network security challenges in the hybrid network The AlgoSec solution for heterogeneous environments Executive summary Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

Proper firewall configuration is essential for a secure network Explore how to overcome challenges and learn tips for effective firewall configuration What is Firewall Monitoring? 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 firewall monitoring? The importance of firewall monitoring for modern network security Key features & capabilities of firewall monitoring tools and solutions What to look for in a firewall monitoring solution? 5 Common firewall monitor challenges FAQ How does AlgoSec help with firewall monitoring? Get the latest insights from the 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

Protect sensitive healthcare data with Algosec’s tailored network security solutions, ensuring compliance and risk reduction. Empowering secure connectivity for healthcare 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. Empowering secure connectivity for healthcare Compliance: Ensuring regulatory adherence Secure connectivity for your patient data & your applications M&A: Streamline integration of complex environments Zero trust: Strengthening security posture  Join our healthcare customers Why healthcare providers and insurers choose AlgoSec Get the latest insights from the experts AlgoSec and Zero-Trust for Healthcare Read more What are HIPAA network compliance requirements, rules, and violations? Read more Checking the cybersecurity pulse of medical devices Read more 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

Enhance your network security with application segmentation solutions from Guardicore and AlgoSec, providing advanced visibility and control to protect critical assets. Application segmentation: Guardicore and AlgoSec Stronger together Guardicore is a security platform that creates human-readable views of your computing infrastructure. Guardicore extends security analytics and policy to multi-cloud apps by using behavior and attribute-driven micro-segmentation policy generation and enforcement. It reduces complexity by working consistently across any environment, reduces risk by enabling granular micro-segmentation policies, and enables innovation by integrating security into the DevOps and IT automation workflows without requiring application changes. Guardicore offers complete workload protection over users and endpoints, networks, including network ADCs, and application workloads, both on-premises and in the cloud. However, relying on Guardicore alone does not enable infrastructure policy enforcement over your firewalls, SDN and cloud security controls. Schedule a Demo Enforcing micro-segmentation throughout your entire network Organizations need consistent segmentation policies, across application workloads and infrastructure. Guardicore enforces micro-segmentation policies over your workloads but not on the rest of your network. AlgoSec extends the segmentation policy originating from Guardicore to the rest of your network — cloud, SDN and on-premises technologies. Get a Demo Schedule a Demo Effectively managing risk, vulnerabilities, and compliance A micro-segmentation project cannot be successful without managing risk, vulnerabilities, and compliance in the context of affected business applications. A successful micro-segmentation strategy requires a clear understanding of what business applications map to which security rules. By integrating Guardicore with AlgoSec, the AlgoSec AppViz addon discovers, identifies, and maps business applications, ensuring visibility of the network connectivity flows associated with each business application. This provides critical information regarding the firewalls and firewall rules supporting each connectivity flow. It is important to understand what business applications are impacted when evaluating the risk and compliance state of an organization’s network segmentation policy. With AlgoSec, you can prioritize vulnerability and patches based on the affected applications. You can view aggregated information about the network security risks and vulnerabilities relevant to each business application. AlgoSec’s AppViz provides a concise, human-readable view into business application connectivity, including: Automated application architecture Security governance zone overlay and diagram Optimized business application flows Automated mapping of business applications to downstream device changes Schedule a Demo Why integrate Guardicore with AlgoSec? Streamlined and consistent network security policy management across your entire hybrid network environment. Visibility into all network security policies across your entire hybrid network environment. Extend implementation of micro-segmentation projects to legacy and appliance-based environments, as well as hybrid networks across the on-premises and public cloud environment. Ensure consistency of segmentation policies and labeling, while avoiding duplication, across your entire network. Optimize and present Guardicore-enforced policies to non-technical business application owners Make changes and secure your entire network environment within minutes. Let's start your journey to our business-centric network security. Schedule a Demo Select a size Stronger together Enforcing micro-segmentation throughout your entire network Effectively managing risk, vulnerabilities, and compliance Why integrate Guardicore with AlgoSec? Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

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

Cisco and AlgoSec Partner solution brief- Better together for risk management and audit 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

Get your application discovery and dependency mapping questions answered. Find clear explanations, best practices, and learn how to improve your understanding of your IT landscape. Application Discovery & Dependency Mapping Explained (FAQs) Introduction A network is the sum of its components, and if you want to ensure its functioning at the highest level, you need to be able to pinpoint every app that exists inside it. However, when the average company has 254 SaaS apps, identifying all the apps and dependencies that exist throughout an on-premise or cloud environment is easier said than done. Organizations cannot afford to rely on manual IP scanning to catalog or inventory each app their employees use every day; they need an AI-powered, automated, and scalable application discovery process. In this post we are going to examine what application discovery is, and how an automated dependency mapping tool can help. Schedule a Demo What is application discovery? Application discovery is the process of identifying and creating an inventory of the apps installed and used throughout an environment. This not only includes apps used within on-premise servers, but also those in the cloud, in containers, and even on employees’ personal devices. Discovering applications is essential for IT administrators because it helps to set out a framework they can use to navigate the network and understand how different elements fit together. It also enables security teams to manage the performance and security of the business apps used by the organization. Schedule a Demo What is a dependency mapping tool? A dependency mapping tool is essentially a tool that automatically maps apps and dependencies. A typical dependency mapping tool automates the discovery of applications within a network and provides a visual map to which an IT administrator can refer. Dependency mapping tools are a popular choice among IT teams because manually identifying and inventorying apps is a time-consuming process. Schedule a Demo Key benefits of application dependency mapping Taking the time to map application dependencies, or investing in a tool that automates the process, pays dividends because it provides administrators with a heightened understanding of their organization’s IT environment. Greater visibility over how apps connect to each other reduces the amount of time it takes to conduct troubleshooting and root cause analysis, which means that disruptions can be resolved faster, limiting the overall operational impact of downtime. Dependency mapping also enhances change management, giving administrators the ability to identify the impact that changing the topology or composition of the network will have on critical services. At the same time, better knowledge of the IT environment makes it easier to spot inefficiencies and redundancies, giving insights into more cost-effective ways of structuring the network and decreasing resource consumption. As an added bonus, having a complete understanding of application topology decreases the risk of vulnerabilities in the network, and reduces the likelihood of data leakage and intrusions from unauthorized third parties. Organizations interested in mapping application dependencies at scale would be well-advised to incorporate an application dependency mapping tool so they do not have to manually poll apps from scratch. Schedule a Demo Application discovery in cloud environments AlgoSec AlgoSec is the industry-leading AI-powered application and connectivity management solution for mapping apps, security policies, and connectivity flows across on-premise, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. As a solution, it is designed to enable network security operations teams to map and understand app and connectivity flows through their organization. This top-down, topological perspective allows users to identify business risks and remediate them ASAP. For example, an administrator can use the platform to identify obsolete traffic that could serve as a potential entry point for malicious traffic. At a high level, application discovery not only helps administrators keep up with topology changes in the network and reduce the risk of downtime, it also provides the visibility needed to simplify the management of firewall and SSL configurations. Features Discovery of applications and connectivity flows Real-time map of app connectivity requirements Impact assessment of topology changes on application connectivity , security and compliance Complete easy-to-use workflows for streamlining migration to a new data center or cloud environment Zero-touch change management and access rule recertification Use cases Create a real-time map of applications and connectivity flows to outline network topology. Use workflows to support users who migrate apps as part of the data center migration process. Before migration, assess and predict the impact of topology changes on application connectivity, performance and security. Automatically configure application security policies post-migration. Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the AWS application discovery service AWS application discovery service is a common choice for migrating apps to an AWS environment. The AWS discovery service can automatically discover on-premise applications, and integrates with AWS Migration Hub to help migrate multiple applications at the same time. While this approach is useful for identifying applications in on-premise environments, unlike AlgoSec, it does not offer deep visibility into connectivity flows. It also offers limited support for cloud migration, lacking automated change management capabilities and migration workflows. Features The AWS application discovery service is designed to enable organizations to identify applications across AWS-powered cloud environments. The service includes the following features: Encrypt data in transit and at rest Create a snapshot of your on-premise application inventory Integrate discovery data with other AWS services, such as AWS Migration Hub and SMS Plan migrations for servers that share applications Connect applications to servers Group servers to migrate Mix agentless and agent-based approaches Use cases The main use case for AWS Application Discovery is discovering and creating an inventory of on-premise Information you can gather includes hostnames, IP addresses, MAC addresses and more. Map connections between applications and servers to create a visual representation of your network environment. Ingest utilization data to plan for your migration to the AWS Migration Hub. Microsoft Azure Migrate: Discovery and assessment tool One of the next biggest alternatives to the AWS application discovery service is the Microsoft Azure Migrate: Discovery and assessment tool. This solution enables users to automatically create an inventory of on-premise databases software, web apps, and SQL or AWS server instances. The Microsoft Azure Migrate: Discovery and assessment tool also integrates with Azure Monitor ’s Application Insight, an application monitoring solution. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Oracle Cloud also offers its own migration tool designed to migrate on-premise applications and virtual machines from on-premise environments to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure using automated migration and provisioning. Oracle Cloud’s migration tool also offers templates, workflow automation and connectors for popular workloads including SQL Server, MySQL, Java, etc. Like Azure, Oracle Cloud also offers Application performance Monitoring integration. Schedule a Demo Other cloud providers and SaaS solutions Besides the top three cloud vendors, there are a number of other cloud security and SaaS-vendors offering application discovery capabilities. Some of these are listed below: Datadog Feature summary: Automated application and dependency mapping in real-time, alerts, latency graphs, and performance anomaly detection. Pros and cons: Rapid app and dependency mapping but beyond that lacks functionality for supporting cloud migrations. ManageEngine applications manager Feature summary: Application Discovery and Dependency Mapping (ADDM) with IP range application discovery, scheduled discoveries, scan summary reports, and a dependency map view. Pros and cons: IP range based discovery offers a broad view of apps and dependencies but does not offer migration workflows and change management capabilities. SolarWinds server & application monitor Feature summary: Polling to create application and dependency maps, tracking the response time of services, creating custom alerts for network latency, packet loss, and uptime monitoring. Pros and cons: Designed for monitoring application performance in on-premise environments, but it too lacks migration support. Schedule a Demo Application discovery in on-premises environments One of the main challenges that organizations face when trying to discover applications in on-premise environments is reliance on outdated legacy monitoring tools. Manually discovering and mapping applications is inefficient, and offers limited visibility over configuration data and metrics across the environment. Application discovery tools such as AlgoSec’s tools enable security teams to discover application dependencies and connections throughout the environment that could easily be overlooked by relying on manual approaches alone. Automation also opens the door for an organization to leverage virtualization technologies from providers like VMware and Hyper-V, which unlock new cloud-native capabilities that cannot necessarily be replicated on-premises. Schedule a Demo FAQs How does AlgoSec help with application discovery and asset management? AlgoSec can help you to discover, identify, and map applications across your on-premise and cloud environments in real-time using AI, so you can keep an up-to-date perspective of your entire network. How does AlgoSec help optimize traffic flows and improve firewall performance? Deploying AlgoSec enables an organization to scan traffic flows and match them to applications within the environment. Once you discovered traffic flows, you can start to automatically optimize application flows and the maximum number of flows per application in order to optimize your firewall throughput and performance for end users. How does AlgoSec help enforce security and compliance across the data center? Increased transparency of application, traffic and firewall flows makes it easier for IT security teams to assess the effectiveness of security policies in the environment, and creates an audit trail that can be used to manage potential compliance violations. Enhanced visibility makes it easier to maintain compliance and to ensure that security controls are effective at protecting your critical data assets from compromise or misuse. For example, administrators can automatically identify compliance gaps and generate compliance reports to document the state of firewalls and surrounding infrastructure to comply with PCI, HIPAA, SOX, and NERC. How does AlgoSec help with business continuity and disaster recovery? AlgoSec helps your organization to maintain business continuity not only through proactive network security policy management, but also by simplifying the process of migrating application connectivity flows and firewall policies to the cloud and ensuring compliance. Migrating your apps and data to a secondary site ensures that if your primary site is affected by a power outage or natural disaster, you will still be able to access critical information. Furthermore, according to an EMA survey, network security policy management also enhances business continuity by helping organizations to enforce more consistent security policies, conduct more proactive disaster recovery testing, and limit the number of change-related outages. How does AlgoSec help with data center migration? AlgoSec can help you to migrate your data center by discovering and mapping applications and connectivity flows, and connecting them to the relevant policies. Once these are discovered, the solution can migrate them to a new on-premise installation or cloud platform, while automatically identifying and removing obsolete and redundant firewall rules. This reduces the amount of overall manual processes associated with the migration. How does AlgoSec help with cloud cost optimization? AlgoSec’s application discovery and mapping capabilities help your organization to optimize costs in the cloud by giving you a reference point to conduct application performance monitoring and ensure that your cloud bandwidth is used efficiently. This ensures that you are getting the maximum throughput from your network infrastructure and are not being held back by outages or other application performance issues. What are ADDM solutions and their advantages? Application Discovery and Dependency Mapping (ADDM) is a category of software solutions that can map applications and dependencies to help human users understand how they connect together and interact. ADDM solutions are a popular choice for IT administrators because they enable users to identify and map dependencies automatically rather than spending a substantial amount of time locating them manually. How does application performance monitoring work? Application performance monitoring is where an organization monitors performance metrics from applications located throughout their environment. Monitoring application performance helps to generate insights into how to optimize system availability, performance and response time. It also helps to ensure that end users enjoy a solid user experience with minimal downtime. What are some common application discovery methods? There are a number of common application discovery methods that organizations can deploy. These include: Sweep and poll – A technique for discovering IT assets whereby a system pings IP addresses and identifies the devices that issue a response. Network monitoring – Monitoring real-time packet information to generate data on application dependencies. This can be done at the packet level by capturing packets or at the flow level with NetFlow. Agent on Server – A process for identifying applications that uses a software agent deployed to a server to conduct real-time monitoring of incoming and outgoing traffic in order to map dependencies. Orchestration-Level Discovery – Where an organization uses an orchestration platform like AlgoSec to discover applications and dependencies automatically without having to deploy agents to servers. What is the role of DevOps in application discovery? Application discovery plays an important role in the DevOps process because it enables development teams to work toward automated app deployment. Automating the discovery of apps and connectivity flows means that users do not need coding knowledge to understand the environment. Increased visibility also supports a DevSecOps strategy, offering security teams greater transparency over application components. For example, a security analyst can view apps and connected dependencies and get a clear perspective of the entire attack surface and potential vulnerabilities a hacker could exploit. What is the role of application discovery in cloud migration? Discovering applications and dependencies helps you to fast-track your cloud migration by identifying what components you need to move and allowing you to phase the deployment in steps. Schedule a Demo Take control of your network Gaining visibility over applications in your environment is a critical step on your journey toward enhancing your business agility and continuity and minimizing downtime. A better understanding of app topology helps administrators find risks and remediate them quickly to ensure ongoing compliance. If you cannot see how effectively your applications are being delivered, or how they perform, then there is no way to consistently optimize performance or enforce security policies. While manually developing an inventory of apps and dependencies is a time-consuming process, the AlgoSec platform can completely eliminate the need for this by discovering apps in real-time so you can see how these components connect to each other on-premise, and across the private or public cloud. Real-time visibility over apps gives you everything you need to manage performance, risk, and compliance challenges at enterprise pace. Schedule a Demo Select a size Introduction What is application discovery? What is a dependency mapping tool? Key benefits of application dependency mapping Application discovery in cloud environments Other cloud providers and SaaS solutions Application discovery in on-premises environments FAQs Take control of your network 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 Solution overview Learn how AlgoSec can help you pass PCI-DSS Audits and ensure Solution overview Choose a better way to manage your network

Gain in-depth application visibility with AlgoSec AppViz for Firewall Analyzer. Optimize security policies and uncover application risks across your network. AlgoSec AppViz – Application visibility for AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer ---- ------- Schedule a Demo Select a size ----- Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network