As part of your IT security solution, firewalls play an important part in protecting your network and endpoints. But, like many other forms of technology, they have seen beneficial changes that have significantly enhanced their protective capabilities. The firewalls of today are much stronger and smarter than ones past.
The Need for Next-Generation Firewalls
Next-generation firewalls have been created due to necessity. It’s a fact that the computing environments of today are being bombarded with sophisticated and intense cyberattacks, the level of which can easily find their way past the weaknesses of traditional firewalls. As it is, firewalls have now evolved to meet these stealthier threats head on.
Traditional firewalls are continuously failing when matched against today’s cyber threats. They are unable to inspect the data payload of network packets and differentiate between the varying kinds of web traffic in a network. Traditional firewalls also have a difficult time distinguishing legitimate applications from attacks, meaning they must reject it all or allow everything. While traditional firewalls used to serve a purpose, they simply can no longer keep up with today’s advanced security needs.
Differences Between Traditional and Next-Generation Firewalls
One main difference between these two firewalls is the application awareness they each have. Newer next-generation firewalls are much more application aware, unlike traditional ones that rely on application ports to determine applications that are running, along with the types of attacks to be on the lookout for. Next-generation firewall devices don’t assume that a specific application is running on a designated port. It will monitor traffic on every layer and determine what type of traffic exactly is being received and sent out.
Identity awareness is another big difference between old and new firewalls. With next-generation firewalls, you can track the identity of local traffic devices and users using current authentication systems. By doing so, you can control the types of traffic allowed within the network and the traffic leaving it, too. Furthermore, it is possible to control what a specific user is allowed to send and receive with next-generation firewalls.
Related: How to Future-Proof Endpoint Security
Next-generation firewalls also simplify security infrastructure. Many security vendors sell additional security solutions every time a new application or threat appears on the scene. What that does, though, is add complexity to a network and cost to a business. It doesn’t truly solve the root of the problem. The next-generation firewall comes equipped with anti-virus, deep packet inspection, spam filtering, and much more.
Along with the above differences, next-generation firewalls have extra security features that are not part of traditional firewalls. They have an integrated signature-based intrusion prevention system, which can specify which cyberattacks to scan for and report on, they have visibility of the full stack (which helps control applications used), and they possess granular control.
Firewalls are evolving, and it’s time your IT security solutions evolve, too. Traditional firewalls are being bypassed daily by undetected threats that can harm your organization and school. Protect yourself better with a next-generation firewall.
