Security Policy Management with Professor Wool Best Practices: Incorporating Security into DevOps Best Practices for Incorporating Security into DevOps, is a whiteboard-style series of lessons that examine the challenges of and provide technical tips for how to incorporate security throughout the DevOps process. Lesson 1 In this lesson, Professor Wool examines the need for and the process of adjusting application connectivity throughout each stage of the DevOps lifecycle. Best Practices for Incorporating Security Automation into the DevOps Lifecycle Watch Lesson 2 In theory adding capacity should be fairly straightforward, with minimal need for any intervention by the organization’s security team. But in practice it’s a little more complex. In this video Professor Wool provides some tips and best practices to help you add capacity without having to change your security policies, complete a security review or worse still, cause an outage or gap in the security perimeter. Tips for Adding Capacity Without Changing Your Security Policies Watch Lesson 3 In a typical DevOps scenario development team adds new functionality to an existing business application and then rolls it out into production. However, while the new functionality worked as planned in both the test and pre-production environments, the application then fails when moved into the live production environment. In this video, Professor Wool will discuss the reasons why this process went wrong, and how you can fix it. How to Integrate Security into the Test Environment Watch Lesson 4 In previous lessons Professor Wool discussed how building security into DevOps processes at an early stage helps organizations maximize the speed and agility of application development, while minimizing the risks of problems and outages when the applications go live. In this whiteboard video Professor Wool looks at how security automation helps to speed up the practice of Continuous Integration (CI) - a core element of DevOps. How to Integrate Security into the CI Process 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

Palo Alto and AlgoSec Integration Guide Download PDF Download PDF Add a Title Add a Title Add a Title 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

Efficiently improve network security and performance by cleaning up and optimizing your firewall rules Streamline operations and meet compliance requirements with ease Firewall rule cleanup & performance optimization tool 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. Streamlining firewall policies: cleanup & optimization Dangers of outdated firewall rulesets How to audit your existing firewall policy How to properly perform a firewall cleanup Firewall optimization best practices Automate firewall configurations with AlgoSec Get the latest insights from the experts Use these six best practices to simplify compliance and risk mitigation with the AlgoSec Copy White paper Learn how AlgoSec can help you pass PCI-DSS Audits and ensure Copy Solution overview See how this customer improved compliance readiness and risk Copy 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

AlgoSec seamlessly integrates with network security controls in Amazon Web Services AWS as well as other security devices across your hybrid network AWS & AlgoSec Hybrid cloud security policy and configuration management AlgoSec seamlessly integrates with network security controls in Amazon Web Services (AWS), as well as other security devices such as firewalls, whether deployed on-premises or in the cloud, in order to deliver unified security policy management across the hybrid network. AlgoSec also enables effective security management of the various security control layers across the multi-cloud estate. AlgoSec offers instant visibility, risk assessment, and central policy management, enabling a unified and secure security control posture, proactively detecting misconfigurations. Schedule a demo Solution brochure Key benefits Continuous visibility Get a full network map of your entire hybrid network estate – both on-premises and in public and private clouds. Understand your security policy with traffic simulation queries. Central management of security policies Get an aggregated view of similar security groups across accounts, regions, and VPCs. Easy migration By automatically discovering, mapping, and migrating connectivity configurations with firewalls and security groups, AlgoSec simplifies the complex process of migrating business applications to the cloud. Hybrid network change management Leverage a uniform network model and change management framework that covers the hybrid and multi-cloud environment Learn more about network security in AWS See how AWS users benefit from AlgoSec We empower the world’s most complex organizations to gain visibility, reduce risk and process changes at zero-touch across the hybrid network. Protect Outbound Traffic in an AWS Hybrid Environment The Fundamentals of AWS Security Groups New! How to Manage Dynamic Objects in Cloud Environments How to Intelligently Select the Security Groups to Modify When Managing Changes in AWS The Right Way to Audit AWS Policies Combining Security Groups and Network ACLs to Bypass AWS Capacity Limitations Change Management, Auditing and Compliance in an AWS Hybrid Environment Contact sales Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue Explore the AWS & AlgoSec Partnership Security management in the hybrid cloud Solution brief Migrating to AWS in six simple steps Read the blog

Algosec for Azure automates security policy management, enhances visibility, and ensures compliance across your Azure cloud environment. Microsoft Azure & AlgoSec Visibility, Risk Management and Change Automation for Azure Environments AlgoSec manages security policies across cloud, hybrid and on-prem environments, delivering proactive risk and compliance analysis, end-to-end change management and automation – all in the business application context. AlgoSec supports enterprises in their journey to the cloud by automatically mapping existing application connectivity prior to the migration, determining and facilitating required connectivity changes during the move, and ensuring continuous compliance and automated change management in the newly established hybrid cloud environment. AlgoSec completes the picture, providing clear visibility and effective management of Microsoft Azure’s native security constructs – Network Security Groups (NSGs) and Azure Firewalls – as well as 3rd party virtual firewalls deployed in the Azure cloud. AlgoSec for Microsoft Azure firewall is available now. Sign up here Automated Security Policy Management for Azure Network Security Groups With AlgoSec, you gain visibility into your entire Azure cloud estate, including network topology and connectivity, the effective security enforcement by Azure Network Security Groups, and aggregated risk and compliance analysis across Azure and 3rd party security devices. AlgoSec also provides an end-to-end change management and automation solution, covering security policies in the cloud, as well as on-premises SDN and traditional networks. Central Management for Azure Firewall Azure Firewall is a new managed, cloud-based network security service that protects your Azure Virtual Network resources. With AlgoSec, you can manage multiple instances of the Azure Firewall using a shared policy model, to facilitate and automate security policy management in multi-region cloud environments. In addition, the AlgoSec solution provides end-to-end visibility and management capabilities across the Azure Firewalls, Azure NSGs and 3rd party firewalls, in the cloud and on-prem. Key benefits Unified security Unified security policy management across cloud, SDN and on-premise networks Cloud visibility Visibility into the Azure cloud network, topology and connectivity Securing cloud estate Securing your cloud estate from misconfigurations with risk alerts as well as overall risk visibility Automation Automated Azure NSG and 3rd party firewall changes, eliminating misconfigurations and rework Proactive assessment Proactive assessment the impact of network changes to ensure continuous compliance Simplified and automate Simplified and automate internal and regulatory audits, and reduce time and costs by as much as 80% Cloud and Hybrid Environments Download infographic Schedule time with one of our experts

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

Learn best practices for mastering network object management Webinars From chaos to control - overcoming 5 challenges of network object management Learn how to master network object management Join our free webinar on conquering 5 common network object management obstacles! Learn practical tips and strategies to simplify your network management process and boost efficiency. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to improve your network performance and minimize headaches. May 24, 2023 Kfir Tabak Product Manager Relevant resources Synchronized Object Management in a Multi-Vendor Environment Watch Video How to Structure Network Objects to Plan for Future Policy Growth Watch Video How to Manage Dynamic Objects in Cloud Environments Watch Video Choose a better way to manage your network Choose a better way to manage your network Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

Strategic playbook Download PDF Download PDF Add a Title Add a Title Add a Title 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

Learn how application-centric firewall rule recertification connects rules to applications, owners, business need, and audit evidence before access changes. What is application-centric firewall rule recertification? What is application-centric firewall rule recertification and why is it better than rule-based review? During a recurring firewall review, application owners are often sent a spreadsheet filled with rule IDs, source and destination objects, services, comments, and hit counts. Then they are asked to certify access they cannot easily connect to a business service. A rule may look inactive yet support a disaster-recovery path. It may also be shared by several applications, so one yes-or-no answer can keep obsolete access or remove something another team still needs. Application-centric firewall rule recertification changes the unit of review. Instead of treating firewall rules as isolated technical objects, teams review the applications and connectivity flows those rules support. They combine ownership, business justification, usage, dependencies, risk, exceptions, and change history to decide which flows should be approved, changed, or removed. The decision is then translated into governed policy changes and retained as evidence for audit readiness. Schedule a Demo Why rule-by-rule recertification loses business context Traditional recertification starts with the rule. That makes sense to a firewall administrator, but it is often the wrong starting point for an application owner. A row containing source 10.20.4.0/24, destination db-prod-02, and TCP 1521 does not explain which application needs the connection, whether the traffic is seasonal, or what would break if access were narrowed. Hit counts and comments help, but they do not provide a decision by themselves. A quiet rule may be reserved for failover or month-end processing. A busy rule may still be broader than the application requires. Comments can be outdated, and the listed owner may have moved roles. At enterprise scale, network security management spans multiple devices, records, and teams. These gaps turn a scheduled review into an investigation across tickets, configuration records, and several conversations. Shared rules make the problem harder. One rule might allow flows for a billing application, a reporting service, and a migration tool. If the migration is finished, the right outcome may be to remove only the obsolete source, destination, or service combination. The business decision belongs at the flow level; the rule remains the enforcement object. Schedule a Demo What changes when applications and flows become the unit of review An application-centric approach starts with the service the business still needs. It connects that service to its owner, required connectivity flows, underlying rules, usage evidence, and relevant risk or exception data. This is closely related to application connectivity management : teams need to understand which connections support the application before a reviewer approves a change. That shift gives stakeholders a common language. Application owners confirm business need. Security and network teams assess scope and impact. Compliance teams see who reviewed the access and what evidence supported the decision. Change owners can then convert an approved decision into a controlled policy update. Rule-by-rule review vs. application-centric recertification Review dimension Rule-by-rule review Application-centric recertification Unit of review One firewall rule or policy object The application and its required connectivity flows Primary question Is the rule present, used, and valid? Which application needs each flow, who owns it, and why? Evidence Rule fields, comments, hit counts, and configuration Ownership, business need, traffic, dependencies, risk, exceptions, expiry, and history Decision Reapprove or flag the rule for cleanup Approve, change, or remove flows, then govern the resulting policy change Audit record Rule status and reviewer response Application, owner, flow, reason, decision, exception, change, and evidence A rule-centric campaign can produce a status for each rule while still leaving engineers to reconstruct what the reviewer meant. An application-centric campaign records which flows remain justified and what should happen next. That makes the result more useful for firewall policy cleanup without treating a cleanup candidate as authorized for removal. Schedule a Demo How an application-centric recertification cycle works A practical cycle moves through six connected stages: scope the review, map relationships, enrich the record, route it to accountable reviewers, record flow-level decisions, and implement approved changes while preserving evidence. Automation can support repetitive work, but ownership and impact decisions remain governed. Map applications, connectivity flows, rules, and owners Start by defining the applications, environments, policies, or review period in scope. Map each application to its required source, destination, service, protocol, and access path, then associate those flows with the rules or cloud controls that enforce them. Because one rule may serve several applications, the model needs to support many-to-many relationships rather than assign one rule to one owner. Roles also need context. The application owner explains why a connection exists; the firewall or network team understands how it is implemented. Risk or compliance owners may need to review sensitive zones, privileged services, or exceptions. Clear accountability reduces repeated outreach and exposes ownership gaps early. Review evidence and record flow-level decisions Before asking for a decision, enrich the record with recent and historical traffic, application status, business justification, asset criticality, exposure, exceptions, expiration dates, prior decisions, and pending changes. Usage is evidence, not a verdict. A flow that looks quiet during a short observation window may be needed for quarterly processing or disaster recovery. Reviewers can approve a flow as defined, request that it be narrowed or corrected, remove it because the business need has ended, or document an exception with an owner and review date. Different flows on a shared rule can receive different decisions. Routing, reminders, deadlines, and decision tracking can be automated while accountable people make the business and risk judgment. Govern policy changes and preserve the audit trail A recertification decision is not the same as a deployed firewall change. Approved modifications should move through security policy change management with impact analysis, required approvals, implementation planning, validation, and rollback where appropriate. The final record should connect the application and flow to the reviewer, decision, exception, change ticket, implementation result, and retained evidence. That trail supports continuous compliance for firewall and network security policies because teams can show how access was reviewed and what happened afterward. It also reduces the effort of rebuilding the story during an audit. The evidence supports audit readiness; it does not replace the organization's responsibility to interpret its policies and applicable requirements. Schedule a Demo Where teams need extra care Some access looks unnecessary until the business calendar is considered. A financial-close flow may run only a few times a year, while a disaster-recovery connection may stay quiet until a test or incident. Before narrowing it, reviewers should confirm the scenario, owner, last successful use, and expected test cadence. Decommissioning also requires flow-level precision. If an old reporting application and a current customer portal share one rule, retiring the reporting application does not make the rule obsolete. The approved change may remove one source object or service while preserving the portal's path. Temporary vendor access and migration exceptions need the same discipline: an owner, business reason, expiration date, and governed removal when the work ends. Schedule a Demo How AlgoSec Horizon supports application-centric recertification AlgoSec Horizon helps teams connect firewall rules to the applications, connectivity flows, owners, risk, review decisions, and audit evidence those rules support. This platform view helps security, network, application, compliance, and audit stakeholders move from a rule list to a shared understanding of business access across hybrid environments. Within a recertification cycle, the platform supports the context needed to review whether an application still exists, whether a flow remains required, who owns the decision, and whether access should be approved, changed, or removed. It also helps connect review outcomes to governed change work and retained evidence. In practice, that can reduce manual investigation, support more consistent review campaigns, strengthen audit readiness, and help teams make better risk decisions without handing approval to an automated process. Schedule a Demo Frequently asked questions Is application-centric recertification the same as firewall policy cleanup? No. Recertification produces an accountable decision about whether access is still justified and appropriately scoped. Cleanup implements approved changes, such as removing an obsolete flow, narrowing an object, or retiring a rule through a governed process. Can firewall rule recertification be automated? Parts of it can. Automation can collect evidence, map records, route reviews, send reminders, track deadlines, and create change work. Application owners and security stakeholders still need to validate business need, impact, risk, and exceptions, especially for sensitive or shared access. How often should firewall rules be recertified? Use a cadence based on internal policy, access risk, application criticality, change frequency, and applicable requirements. High-risk or temporary access may need more frequent review than stable, lower-risk connectivity. The schedule should be documented and repeatable. See how AlgoSec Horizon can help your team connect firewall rules to applications, owners, connectivity flows, and audit evidence for governed recertification across hybrid networks. Schedule a Demo Select a size What is application-centric firewall rule recertification and why is it better than rule-based review? Why rule-by-rule recertification loses business context What changes when applications and flows become the unit of review How an application-centric recertification cycle works Where teams need extra care How AlgoSec Horizon supports application-centric recertification Frequently asked questions Get the latest insights from the experts Choose a better way to manage your network

AWS best practices WhitePaper Download PDF Download PDF Add a Title Add a Title Add a Title 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

AlgoSec Horizon AppViz Application visibility for AlgoSec Horizon Security Analyzer Download PDF Download PDF Add a Title Add a Title Add a Title Schedule time with one of our experts Work email* First name* Last name* Company* country* Select country... Short answer* By submitting this form, I accept AlgoSec's privacy policy Continue

Explore Algosec's customer success stories to see how organizations worldwide improve security, compliance, and efficiency with our solutions. Australia’s Leading Superannuation Provider Organization Retirement fund Industry Financial Services Headquarters Australia Download case study Share Customer
success stories "It’s very easy to let security get left behind. We want to make sure that security is not a roadblock to business performance,” said Bryce. “We need to be agile and we need to make sure we can deploy systems to better support our members. Automation can really help you see that return-on-investment." Network Security Policy Automation helps Superannuation company reduce costs to provide higher returns to members Background The company is one of Australia’s leading superannuation (pension) providers. Their job is to protect their client’s money, information, and offer long-term financial security. Challenges The company’s firewalls were managed by a Managed Service Security Provider (MSSP) and there had not been enough insight and analysis into their network over the years, leading to a bloated and redundant network infrastructure. Firewalls and infrastructure did not get the care and attention they needed. As a result, some of their challenges included: Legacy firewalls that had not been adequately maintained Difficulty identifying and quantifying network risk Lack of oversight and analysis of the changes made by their Managed Services Security Provider (MSSP) Change requests for functionality that was already covered by existing rules The Solution The customer was searching for a solution that provided: A strong local presence Repeatable and recordable change management processes As a result, the customer implemented AlgoSec. The client selected AlgoSec’s Security Policy Management Solution, which includes AlgoSec Horizon Security Analyzer and AlgoSec Horizon FireFlow. AlgoSec Horizon Security Analyzer delivers visibility and analysis of complex network security policies across on-premise, cloud, and hybrid networks. It automates and simplifies security operations including troubleshooting, auditing, and risk analysis. Using Horizon Security Analyzer, they can optimize the configuration of firewalls, and network infrastructure to ensure security and compliance. AlgoSec Horizon FireFlow enables security staff to automate the entire security policy change process from design and submission to proactive risk analysis, implementation, validation, and auditing. Its intelligent, automated workflows save time and improve security by eliminating manual errors and reducing risk. The Results “Straight away, we were able to see a return-on-investment,” said Stefan Bryce, Security Manager, a leading Australian superannuation provider. By using the AlgoSec Security Management Solution, the customer gained: Greater insight and oversight into their firewalls and other network devices Identification of risky rules and other holes in their network security policy. Easier cleanup process due to greater visibility Audits and accountability into their network security policy changes. They were able to ensure ongoing compliance and make sure that rules submitted did not introduce additional risk Identification and elimination of duplicate rules Faster implementation of policy changes Business agility and innovation because employees are better motivated to make changes due to seamless policy change process. Consolidation of their virtual firewall internal infrastructure Reduced ongoing costs to their MSSP Schedule time with one of our experts