When it comes to data protection, small businesses must take a holistic approach. This means integrating various technologies to monitor and control their network traffic.
One of the most critical tools in this arsenal is a firewall. Why should small businesses invest in NGFW? NGFWs provide advanced capabilities that include detailed network visibility, automation, and integrations.
Reliability
Regarding reliability, it is important to remember that a firewall can only be effective when all its features work together. Connecting with other security systems is also vital, so the NGFW you choose should be compatible with software management platforms, help desk ticketing systems, and vulnerability scanners.
Similarly, an NGFW should be able to automatically carry out routine tasks that business owners and IT stakeholders would manually complete. Finally, looking for an NGFW with comprehensive network visibility and session management capabilities is important. This will allow small businesses to better understand and monitor network activity within their organization. This can be especially helpful for identifying threats and malware. In addition, be sure to look for a service that can monitor SSL or encrypted traffic, including HTTP tunneled traffic. This will ensure that even the most hidden forms of malicious traffic can be stopped.
Scalability
In technology, scalability refers to a system’s ability to handle increased volume without decreasing its contribution margin (revenue variable costs). This same concept applies to business systems; companies are constantly changing and expanding, so their systems need to be able to grow alongside them.
When choosing an NGFW for your business, ensuring that the product offers scalability is important. This translates to expanding your security protections beyond your local network and into additional branch locations or remote sites. It also means the ability to add features and capabilities over time.
Ideally, the solution should also offer the ability to monitor encrypted traffic and SSL networks. This is particularly crucial for small businesses that rely on SSL connections to secure their e-commerce operations. Look for an NGFW that supports virtual private networks (VPNs). This enables you to extend your organizational network over any public network, allowing employees to access it using their preferred web browser. This is a convenient way to connect to your company’s data while reducing the risk of hacking and theft.
Security
NGFWs are complex products with many functions, and the ability to use them properly requires a significant investment in time and effort. Organizations should avoid buying an NGFW without conducting a pilot project to test performance against the security features they wish to enable.
Ensure the firewall offers robust security capabilities, including blocklisting and allowlisting application traffic, intrusion prevention, and deep packet inspection (DPI). DPI inspects tiny details in data packets to detect malware or suspicious activity.
Also, look for NGFWs that offer SSL monitoring and decryption capabilities to ensure full visibility of encrypted network traffic. Additionally, an ideal NGFW will provide behavioral analysis to identify threats and prevent them from entering the business environment.
Also, ensure the NGFW can identify and protect against the latest cyber threats continually evolving along with technological innovations. This includes blocking users from accessing sites deemed inappropriate for the business, such as pornography, gambling, shopping, or social media. It should also be able to detect and protect against ransomware attacks by detecting the malicious file or link.
Performance
NGFWs can perform various functions to monitor and control network traffic. For instance, they can help identify the type of data coming in and determine whether it’s malicious. Similarly, they can monitor the status of various devices to protect against DDoS attacks. They can also use dynamic routing to forward data through different routes based on real-time network parameters such as response time, connectivity, etc.
Lastly, they can detect and block threats by performing behavior analysis. This is particularly useful for identifying potential malware and DDoS attacks, which can be difficult to detect by traditional firewalls. Besides being easy to use, many NGFWs are highly customizable and can fit your business’s needs.
Integration
A strong NGFW should be integrated with the right software, hardware, and services to protect your business completely. The NGFW should also support your company’s growth by providing features like SSL monitoring, network intrusion detection and prevention processes, and reputational malware detection.
It should also be able to perform behavior analysis on the traffic that passes through it and detect patterns in attacks, including DoS and DDoS, where hackers send large volumes of requests to one server or system to make it crash. Additionally, it should be able to detect and protect against ransomware by identifying malicious files and quarantining them in a sandbox.
For midmarket businesses, it’s important to consider how a firewall can help improve your cybersecurity. For example, an NGFW should provide features that enable you to reduce the complexity of your security architecture by automating routine tasks like impact assessment activity and policy tuning. In addition, it should support a single portal for management.
