Next Generation Firewalls (NGFWs): How Secure Are They?

Discover how Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) are changing how organizations secure critical infrastructures against cyber threats. Learn how NGFWs work, their capabilities, and why they are essential for protecting critical infrastructure systems. Moreover, find out how to ensure their effectiveness and how they fit into the future of cybersecurity, including the role of cloud-based solutions.

Traditional firewalls did not have the SSL Decryption technology to inspect or have a deep look inside the packet for any malicious payloads in the encrypted form. Traffic used to be allowed based on rules and ports, whether denied or allowed in the rule base. This approach caused significant damage to organizations and raised a major security concern among network security researchers.

The next generation of firewalls was created to address rising threats, hidden malicious payloads, and encrypted traffic. These firewalls use advanced technology to overcome the shortcomings of traditional stateless, packet-filtering firewalls.

Let’s get back to the question, how these firewalls can help secure critical infrastructures?

We need to understand that network firewalls act as the perimeter device or gateway for both traditional and modern networks. All network traffic, incoming or outgoing, passes through the firewall. The firewall is the inspection or checkpoint for the network traffic.

The system matches traffic against the rule base. It checks for associated security and software blades, such as IPS, Anti-Bot, Anti-Virus, URL & Application, and HTTPS Inspection. Depending on the rules, the system will then allow or deny traffic.

The Role of NGFWs in Infrastructure Security

Next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) are more advanced than traditional firewalls. They are stateful and use AI/ML characteristics. This allows them to learn network traffic flow quickly. They also use Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) and AI/ML engines to detect malicious behavior.

NGFWs are capable of decrypting the SSL (Secure Socket Layer) connections, also known as HTTPS or encrypted traffic.

These advanced network firewalls are capable of:

·  Detecting and preventing unauthorized access, intrusions, and attacks in real-time

·  Identifying and preventing malware, ransomware

·  Phishing attacks that are often used to compromise critical infrastructure systems

·  Enforcing network segmentation and access control policies to ensure that only authorized personnel and devices can access critical infrastructure systems

·  Providing granular visibility into network traffic and security events, enabling security teams to quickly identify and respond to potential threat vectors

·  Generating detailed reports and alerts that provide insights into network activity, enabling security teams to proactively identify and mitigate potential security risks.

It is safe to say that with the above-mentioned features, NGFWs are essential for securing critical infrastructures. They are an important tool for protecting critical infrastructure systems against cyber attacks. Therefore, organizations that operate critical infrastructures should consider implementing NGFWs as a major component of their cybersecurity strategy.

Ensuring Firewall Effectiveness

The whole idea behind inventing and developing firewalls was to secure the network and system infrastructure. Network firewalls are generally safe and secure to implement, and they are considered fundamental security measures for protecting network infrastructure. However, like any security technology, firewalls are also not infallible and can still be vulnerable to certain types of attacks. This usually happens due to not properly configuring, managing, updating, or maintaining them.

Two possible scenarios are:

·  If a firewall is misconfigured or outdated, it may allow unauthorized access or fail to detect and prevent certain types of attacks.

·  If the firewall rules are not updated or properly enforced, it may allow malicious traffic to pass through undetected.

To avoid similar scenarios, security administrators must regularly update the latest hotfix, software patch, and stable firmware to prevent any zero-day bugs and threats.

Just configuring a firewall is not enough! You should do the configuration in accordance with best industry practices.

Here are a few best practices:

1.  Ensure firewalls are up-to-date with the latest security patches and software updates

2.  Enforcing strict access control policies

3.  Regularly review firewall logs and reports to identify potential security threats

Network firewalls can be a valuable security measure for protecting network infrastructure. However, proper security practices and continuous monitoring and updating must be implemented to ensure their effectiveness. To sum up, firewalls can be an effective security measure but must be managed correctly.

Implementing next-gen firewalls in the infrastructure is considered the best practice for network security. Network firewalls are secure and safe to implement. They help security admins avoid, detect, and prevent sophisticated cyber attacks. They also minimize potential risks, threat vectors, and damage control.

The Future of Firewalls

Firewalls are here to stay and protect critical assets from intruders and attackers. It is difficult to predict whether firewalls will be there in the future. That is a hot topic on which researchers can debate for days. As cloud technology continues to grow in popularity, however, many have speculated that traditional on-premise firewalls will become obsolete.

Cloud-based solutions offer numerous benefits, such as scalability, ease of management, and advanced security features. However, it is important to remember that these solutions still require physical data centers with hardware and software components.

Cloud technology provides:

·  Great resiliency

·  On-demand scalability

·  Security

·  Hassle-free management and control from anywhere to securely deploy, manage, and operate your IT resources.

This feasibility drives customers and organizations to adopt cloud services more rapidly than on-premise solutions. But wait, how do cloud service providers like AWS, Azure, and GCP offer their services and resources to end customers? Who takes care of the storage, network, security, applications, etc?

These data centers are home to vast arrays of servers, storage devices, and other hardware components, all of which require robust security measures to protect against cyber threats.

This is where firewalls come in - while cloud-based security solutions may be able to handle certain types of threats, firewalls remain critical for a more comprehensive security strategy.

The Road Ahead

As more and more organizations migrate their IT resources to the cloud, we'll likely see a decline in the use of on-premise firewalls and hardware appliances. However, it's important to recognize that firewalls will continue to play a vital role in protecting cloud-based resources as well as the physical data centers that support them.

In conclusion, the future of firewalls is closely tied to the growth of cloud technology. While on-premise solutions may become less common over time, firewalls will remain a critical component of network security, whether protecting physical data centers or securing cloud-based resources. As such, organizations need to develop a comprehensive security strategy that includes both cloud-based solutions and traditional firewall technologies.

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