14 DAY TRIAL // Security is still a major issue for organizations, most of them having problems with the auditing processes and firewall rule changes, shows a recent study.
Tufin Technologies released a report that resulted from questioning 100 network security professionals that are directly involved in firewall management and auditing.
The figures show that a mere 7% of businesses turned to automated processes when it comes to firewall examinations, while 40% struggle for a month or even more each year to perform the much necessary inspections.
Around 67% believe that each rule modification applied to their firewall system represents a potential security breach since about half of the changes later turn out to be incorrect for 85% of the respondents.
A worrying fact is that some don't perform checks at all and 11% don't know how much time it takes to perform an examination, which denotes that they have no proper systems set in place to execute such processes.
Almost half of the subjects claimed they locate overlapping problems manually, but 20% don't know how to locate them at all.
It turns out there are three main reasons why firewall maintenance is neglected. Lack of time, irrelevance to the business and some even believe that their security network team would look bad if they failed or made improper modifications.
“This year’s survey reveals that, more than budget constraints or any other factor, time is the security manager’s most precious resource. We were surprised to learn that half the sample is still doing basic tasks manually such as tightening up permissive rules, looking for shadowed rules or recertifying rules,” revealed Shaul Efraim, vice president of Marketing and Business Development, Tufin Technologies.
“There is no benefit to having experienced administrators spend their days searching for needles in haystacks. Automating these tasks saves a significant amount of time and money, dramatically increases the accuracy and efficiency of operations, and improves the organization’s overall network security posture.
“And, with 86% of the sample managing or planning to manage Next Generation Firewalls in the next 12 months, the time to do it is now,” he added.