Evaluating Enterprise Firewalls for Performance, Security Requirements

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As the threat landscape changes and networking tools become more complex, the requirements for enterprise firewalls are also changing. Evaluating enterprise firewalls demands careful attention to a variety of considerations:

Performance: It’s important to not just take the provider’s word for it when it comes to performance stats. Even testing can be deceiving because firewalls generally perform well in light traffic. Instead, you need to test the firewall performance at scale — with encryption turned on. Approximately 80% of traffic is encrypted, and you need to see if performance levels hold when encryption is turned on.

You should also examine how performance is impacted with all major functions turned on, including user and application identification, anti-malware, and URL filtering and logging. In many cases, the firewall performance numbers that providers offer are achieved with features turned off. Enterprises often choose firewall solutions based on certain features, but then find that they can’t meet performance requirements when they use those features.

Before committing to a particular provider, run as many tests with different types of traffic as possible.

Security Strategy: When choosing enterprise firewalls, there are often two routes enterprises take: 1) enterprise firewalls provided by the existing security solution, or 2) a best-of-breed strategy. The best-of-breed may give you the impression that it’s bolstering your overall security strategy, but working with multiple providers can create an overly complex security plan. You may have unidentified gaps or struggle to coordinate the level of security you need across all of your providers.

Form Factors: Enterprise firewalls used to be a centralized element of the IT environment, housed at the data center. But now that networks have a more open infrastructure, enterprises need consistency across the solution. Providers need to offer the following form factors: internet edge, data centers, mid-size and small branch offices, virtual machine, and cloud-delivered. In addition, most providers won’t have a containerized form factor, but they should have a plan for integration in the future.

Centralized Management: The providers you’re considering may talk a lot about their extensive product line, but this may be meaningless to you if they don’t also offer a centralized management dashboard. It’s important that you’re able to make a change to enterprise firewalls and then push it out across the network.

Automation: While it’s natural to think of automation in terms of reducing the personnel cost for network management, it may be more important in terms of predicting behaviors compared to a baseline and executing protection measures more quickly. Look for automation functions in areas such as workflow, policy, identification, and enforcement.

If you’re shopping for enterprise firewalls, contact us at Truth Comm. We can remove some of the complexity of the process, simply by helping you leverage the right solution for your performance and security requirements.

Why Enterprises Are Shifting to SD-Branch

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Software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) transformed how enterprises manage network traffic, offering a virtual overlay that improves visibility and control over the network. For enterprises with branches extending over a wide geographical area, the benefits of SD-WAN are helpful, but they are beginning to adopt software-defined branch (SD-branch) for their networking needs.

SD-Branch, Defined: The technology takes SD-WAN a step further, integrating many of the functions that make it easier to reduce the branch hardware footprint. As SD-WAN matures, enterprises have sought features such as advanced security for data moving to and from cloud applications and better analytics that offer granular insight into network data.

SD-branch uses a single platform to unite separate functions existing in a branch network, including switching, routing, Wi-Fi, WAN optimization, and firewalls. It’s also anticipated that, as these solutions roll out from developers, they will unify the management consoles, increasing processing power and providing some customization in the product offerings.

Experts anticipate that the impact from SD-branch could introduce even more disruption than what has been seen with SD-WAN. It’s a good idea for enterprises to evaluate their current SD-WAN solutions and assess what they would like to see in a more advanced SD-branch network.

SD-Branch Benefits: While SD-WAN goes a long way toward improving network management, enterprises can expect even more extensive benefits through SD-branch. It will further improve efficiency for bandwidth use, as well as offer integrated security features and improve the quality of service for applications.

One of the most important benefits that enterprises will see is the centralized management that allows for more effective troubleshooting and completing upgrades for branch locations.

Who Should Consider SD-Branch? Most enterprises won’t be tapping into this technology right away, because they will be reluctant to eliminate major segments of branch hardware. The migration is more likely to occur gradually, as SD-WAN providers slowly begin to add the integrated features to their solutions.

Enterprises with greenfield network projects approaching, or those that are planning a network refresh, may be candidates for implementing SD-branch, but, for most enterprises, there won’t be a motivation to launch SD-branch in the near future. Some enterprises may consider it as an option when setting up a new branch location or upgrading smaller branch networking solutions.

Is SD-branch a good solution for your networking challenges? If you’re considering a network upgrade, contact us at Truth Comm to discuss initiating an assessment of your networking needs. We can help you determine whether integrating the benefits of SD-branch into your enterprise will help you achieve your technology objectives.

The Importance of Native SD-WAN Security

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Digital transformation is about more than simply shifting workloads into the cloud or issuing Internet of Things (IoT) devices to your staff; it’s about disrupting business processes for innovation, better productivity, and elevated customer experiences. Enterprises should expect their traditional hub-and-spoke networking approach won’t support this new digital existence. Software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) is offering the necessary network upgrades, and with this new technology comes a need to address SD-WAN security.

In many situations, the network team gets excited about the range of benefits they can expect with SD-WAN: the ability to segment network traffic according to the critical nature of the transmission, improved visibility, and control, scalability, agility, and flexibility. Some enterprises report lower WAN costs as they shift traffic from more costly multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) pathways to public internet for applications that don’t require real-time connectivity, such as email or social media messaging.

What’s often forgotten in the push to implement SD-WAN and gain these benefits is a close look at SD-WAN security. Once the solution is in the process of being deployed, gaps begin to become evident in the security side of the implementation. Part of the issue is that many of the providers supplying SD-WAN don’t offer adequate security for this level of networking. They may only support stateful security and internet protocol security virtual private networks (VPNs).

To address the limited SD-WAN security, enterprises are adding security tools post-deployment. Actions such as adding on an additional firewall or networking gear with IPS isn’t adequate for the level of security necessary across the network. For instance, SD-WAN is often limited to Layer 3 controls, while more advanced controls are not provided, such as Layer 4 and 7 for URL filtering and application inspection.

Enterprises may consider adding a security overlay, but this can be challenging because they may not have adequate resources to launch and fine-tune this type of technology, particularly if it needs to be added at a branch location. In addition, legacy security features may not have the ability to adapt to SD-WAN’s dynamic flexibility and elastic architecture.

The elements of native SD-WAN security: When evaluating SD-WAN solutions, there are a few items you need to ensure are included in the option you select.

  • Next-generation firewall functions, with intrusion prevention system (IPS) inspection, flexible VPN, web filtering, anti-malware and sandboxing.
  • A centralized method for collecting and analyzing threats.
  • An interconnected security deployment across systems.
  • Integration between security tools for advanced monitoring and detection.
  • Continuous assessment of threats.
  • Ability to leverage all security technology to address threats at digital speeds with a dynamic approach.

All SD-WAN solutions are not created equal, which becomes more evident as you examine SD-WAN security. Don’t make the mistake of being forced to patch together adequate security when you’re already well into deployment and implementation. Contact us at Truth Comm for more information about SD-WAN security.

SD-WAN Offerings and Functions Improve With Maturity

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As software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) continues to be adopted by enterprises to address an increasingly complex network infrastructure, there are changes occurring in SD-WAN solutions themselves and in the SD-WAN market. Take a look at a few of the changes influencing how SD-WAN is used and marketed:

Thinning the pack: With enterprises investing in SD-WAN as an upgrade to network infrastructure to support security efforts, cloud solutions and Internet of Things (IoT), the need for an intuitive solution is pushing out those providers that tagged SD-WAN onto other offerings. A provider that simply offers basic SD-WAN will soon find that enterprises aren’t interested in SD-WAN without optimization capabilities or sophisticated segmentation available. Providers that specialize in SD-WAN as a way to drive business initiatives will eclipse those that offer it as a sideshow.

Security focus: Once security teams recognized the potential for segmentation in SD-WAN offerings, they began to expand how it was being applied to protect systems from a breach. For instance, if an IoT device is compromised, SD-WAN makes it easier to isolate network traffic by device or user to limit the exposure of the company to a threat. Many enterprises are creating new security frameworks around SD-WAN’s capability to segment traffic.

Previously, a broadly utilized WAN allowed every application to communicate with all others, introducing vulnerability when a threat was present. SD-WAN makes it much simpler to isolate a threat.

Business drive: One reason that enterprises are interested in implementing SD-WAN is its role in pushing business objectives forward. From optimizing network traffic to prioritizing a video conference call over employees browsing Facebook, the network technology makes it possible to reduce costs, improve the customer experience and equip real-time decision-making.

Consider a company that introduces a new Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) solution that offers shared workspaces. SD-WAN allows automated policies to be set up so that a virtual team sharing information in that shared workspace is prioritized over other types of non-critical transmissions. This empowers real-time decision-making that speeds up productivity and pushes the customer experience to new levels of satisfaction.

Early adopters: Those who implemented SD-WAN in its early stages may be contemplating an additional investment in a more mature solution. While these tools offered some improvement over traditional hub-and-spoke network infrastructure, they need more features to get the level of visibility and control that experienced WAN providers offer.

To learn more about changes occurring in SD-WAN offerings, contact us at Truth Comm. We can help you identify the main goals you need to address with an SD-WAN solution and guide you through the process of choosing the right option for your implementation.

Cloud Security Strategies Should Include a Stable Agent Partner

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Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) deserve the headlines they’ve generated over the last few years, and these technologies have been used to shore up cloud security for many organizations. However, technology alone can’t solve all the issues that IT teams encounter where security is concerned.

The Machine Learning Method

When you want to collect data and then analyze specific features of it to set up and train models, machine learning is your friend. You can augment your models to accomplish various outcomes, and this is something that is of great use to enterprises that have massive amounts of data.

But machine learning isn’t specifically for large companies — it can also be leveraged in small- to medium-sized businesses that want more automation in their business model.

The Cloud and AI

What was once a rarity in the cloud environment is now the norm for cloud providers. They’re embracing AI for more enhanced security services. For example, providers have adopted Amazon’s AWS (Amazon Web Services), which is a mix of Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service, for continuously monitoring their systems for added protection against actions that are not authorized.

For organizations that want added layers of protection running in the background, AI and AWS can be of great interest, especially for hyperscale cloud providers due in part to the massive amounts of data that move across their networks.

Other Methods for Protection

Despite all of the advancements of AI and machine learning, there are a number of third-party security providers who are not willing to say it’s a fix-all for organizations looking for more protections. Rather, they would like to see the technology more in tune with various binary decisions, because many malware detection solutions offer exceptional scanning tools that can protect the most sensitive information.

While a robust method of adding more layers of cloud security is never a bad idea, the cost can be considerable, which is why some organizations have found a reliable and sensible method of running simple statistical analysis on a regular basis rather than rely on AI and machine learning for everything.

Employee Training

The latest technologies can provide a great amount of assurance for enhanced cloud security, but without the right employee training, the time, effort and cost put toward hi-tech tools can be thwarted.

Educating the workforce on how they become the weak link in a system can protect against unforeseen insider issues. Education, technology and a third-party provider of managed services can combine for a more comprehensive cloud security solution.

At Truth Comm, we are the agent that can put your organization in touch with the cloud security solutions you need to maintain the integrity of your data and your reputation. Contact us and let’s get started on a safer, more efficient way of protecting your system.

The Importance of Managing Microdata in a Big Data Era

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Big data is impacting every area of business. No matter where you go or what you do, your behaviors are being captured for a variety of purposes. While your online buying behaviors are being tracked to help retailers maximize sales opportunities, you may also appreciate some of the benefits, like being offered a similar product with a better customer rating.

As a result of the advanced technology for collecting data, analyzing it and using those analyses to inform business decisions, data has become increasingly important for businesses. Your data related to customer files, product pricing and inventory and sales history needs to be protected with a security strategy designed for big data.

What some companies risk is the vulnerability of microdata as they pursue solutions to protect their big data assets. The massive files related to product pricing and inventory will always receive prioritized attention in terms of security, but what about the sensors that pick up inventory information? For instance, if you are storing bulk degreasing solutions that will later be bottled and the sensor on the vat of solution is malfunctioning, is that microdata somehow captured?

To get a sense of the role of microdata, it’s helpful to think in terms of credential data. Every system requires credentials for users to access applications, and these types of microdata files are critical. You’d never want them compromised or exposed. Without these files, there’s no access to anything else, yet they often represent one of the more vulnerable areas in enterprise IT.

Determining how to protect microdata is becoming a greater concern for enterprises as sensors and Internet of Things (IoT) technology are implemented to streamline business processes. There also need to be plans in place to protect the data should a sensor fail or the network isn’t prepared to handle the flow of data from sensors.

Companies spend a lot of time protecting big data. There are disaster recovery strategies and backups intended to protect against data loss or theft and corruption. Yet little time is ever dedicated to the actual applications, configuration files or a variety of other small data entities that can be vulnerable and cause a loss of data.

Replication and Duplication: It’s important that both big data and microdata be replicated and duplicated on a regular basis to protect the integrity of the data. Incremental backups are important for being able to go back to a certain time and pull that data, but only a complete duplication of data allows for enough protection.

To learn more about the protection of vulnerable microdata files or about a broader big data security strategy, contact us at Truth Comm. We are your trusted partner and can help you leverage the best technology to protect all types of data critical to your business success.

Managing Compliance With Cloud Solutions

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As cybersecurity breaches make more common appearances in the headlines, it’s impossible to overstate the role that security and compliance issues are playing in the decisions CIOs make for their organizations. Protecting client data is a priority, but there are also other considerations to weigh when choosing the right technology to support compliance.

For instance, the way that data is stored, accessed and analyzed has a big impact on a company’s agility. If the data is locked up so tight that it can’t be readily accessed for decision-making, that can slow down critical advances that spur growth.

One of the big influences in compliance currently is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that went into effect May 25. The rules laid out by the European Union include some stringent measures governing the ways that companies can handle data, and more clearly defines what constitutes personal data. GDPR requires companies to allow consumers the right to be forgotten, as well as mandatory disclosure any time there is a data breach.

It’s important not to treat compliance as a task that can be checked off a list. Instead, it should be a continuous monitoring and management focus, with companies striving to reach the next level of protection they can provide for customers.

There were likely some organizations that reached the deadline for GDPR and then found that their budgets were woefully inadequate for what was required to handle data appropriately. Some will spend the following months playing catch-up as they strive to implement every compliance requirement and avoid penalties.

Send in the cloud solution. While no software will make adhering to GDPR easy, there are tools available to make compliance a more streamlined area of management. The ability to set policies in a system and then have it handle data accordingly makes it easier to locate, categorize and correctly handle different types of data.

One of the challenges of cloud technology, in general, is that when using a public cloud solution, the company may really not have any idea where any specific piece of data is being stored. With a cloud solution designed to handle compliance issues, tracking the location of a data item is much more simple.

In addition to helping with compliance concerns, a cloud solution can also aid in the overall strategy related to handling the flood of data and how to best use it to create strategic growth or improve the customer experience.

If your organization is struggling to keep up with compliance, or you simply recognize the need for a more streamlined way of handling it, contact us at Truth Comm. We look forward to helping you handle your current compliance and prepare for the ongoing nature of compliance management.

Cybersecurity Is Essential for Every Business. Is Your Data Secure?

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In today’s digital age, businesses are turning toward technological mediums to promote their services. There are more options across various platforms than ever before, whether it is social media or electronic advertisements. However, more options mean more chances of cyberattacks. Thus, you must be prepared to defend yourself.

No business is exempt from vulnerability. Regardless of the size of the business, cyberattacks can strike at any time. Recovery is difficult, especially for businesses that are not prepared. It is vital to be ready for uncertainty and risk in the future.

A business’s data breach costs a fortune – both financially and commercially. The price of a data breach immensely affects customers as well. Not only must businesses deal with the dollar amount, but they also must compensate for lost credibility, assets, confidential information, credit scores, and customer loyalty.

Smaller, growing businesses are in even more danger. For example, some businesses that operate as vendors for larger companies have more risks; they usually have less indemnity and emergency preparation. If targeted, the data breach would also negatively affect the larger company.

Protection against potential threats and IT hazards should be a primary concern for each business. Cybersecurity needs to go beyond mere consideration; it must be a necessity and is it is crucial for a company to preserve, maintain, and secure data.

The pressure to meet and uphold cash flow, customer, and management needs is one reason companies must improve and boost their security. Every business needs both defense against and preparation for the worst possible outcome.

Often, businesses fall into the false presumption that cybersecurity is not essential because they never consider potential harm or believe that cybersecurity is too pricey. However, no business is truly safe from data breaches. Additionally, businesses will save more in the long run if they invest in cybersecurity; thus, the expense of rebuilding a company – both in finance and credibility – will outweigh the price to pay for protection against threats.

Your business should consider a cost-efficient defense against data breach: freelance security experts. These experts can strategize effective solutions, locate vulnerable spots, develop preparations and plans, and implement proactive solutions. Take the necessary steps to guard your company against any possible cyberattacks.

At Truth Comm, your business’s security is one of our priorities. Our aim is to educate you so that you can make the best and safest decision for your business. Contact us today to secure your future.

BYOD: Best Practices and Best Policies

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Smartphones, tablets small and large – they’re everywhere today, including the workplace. The bring your own device (BYOD) movement is now well established, and it’s offering organizations flexibility they didn’t have before. However, there can also be some drawbacks if policies aren’t put in place.

Employees are using their mobile devices for work and play, which can pose security issues. Breaches, which occur because a “door” was left open in a mobile device, are becoming more common. In the healthcare industry where privacy is highly regulated, fines are quite large. Consider a provider in Dallas that had to pay over $3.2 million in a privacy breach issue that was caused by an unencrypted and password-deficient mobile phone.

Beefing Up the Policy

BYOD policies help to keep organizations from falling victim to what can be a wide open door for hackers to breeze through. Policies take into account the various security risks and liabilities, as well as acceptable use, support, passwords and encryption.

Perhaps one of the biggest components of a BYOD policy is in regard to education and awareness. This involves everyone in the organization, from the newest on the team to top executives, because it only takes one person clicking on the wrong link or leaving their device unprotected to create a Trojan Horse scenario.

Also consider who has access to what data. Your policy should account for the various levels of sensitive materials your company stores, and address who should and shouldn’t be able to gain access to it and what your organization will do when data becomes compromised.

Best Practices

Some organizations have best practices set up regarding what devices can be on the company’s network. For example, personal devices like iPhones, iPads and BlackBerry and Android devices, which can be a threat to the security of the organization, must remain offline in the sense that they are not tied into the company’s network.

Best practices for some organizations include not giving various employees access to email on their phones, as this is where phishing scams do their damage.

Another best practice is to approach security from the point of view that considers the technology and applications within a device instead of the device itself. For example, cloud-based applications are fairly ubiquitous now, which means it’s less about the device and more about the virtual infrastructure and how it’s accessed.

At Truth Comm, we’re committed to assisting our clients with all the confusing telecom options out there. At the same time, we know our clients are also concerned about security. Contact us today and let’s talk about the needs that are unique to your organization.

The Security Problems Caused by Employee Cloud Adoption

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For the last two decades, business security strategies have largely been focused on the perimeter. Firewalls and email filters have worked well to ensure that hackers and questionable sites have no power to disrupt business activities. Your staff knows how to recognize phishing and they are prompted to change passwords on a regular basis. The problem is that none of these measures protect your company from the dangers of employee cloud adoption.

What seems harmless to your employees can be disastrous for the enterprise network. For instance, imagine you have a new sales rep that used a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) solution at their old job. In their excitement to be successful, the sales rep clears the cost of the subscription with their sales manager and away they go, credit card in hand and ready to get started.

Sales goals are met, the sales manager is pleased, but before long, dozens of customer files are in the cloud without the protection of your security measures. As more sales reps hear about the success of their colleague with a cloud CRM, they begin to access the solution and enter their own customers’ data. As a result, employee-level cloud adoption takes off and countless data points are now unprotected.

With a perimeter security approach, this type of employee cloud adoption can go on for years without detection by the IT team. It’s easy to imagine it happening in sales, but on every team and in every department, there’s the potential for downloading a cloud finance tool or a scheduling app that seems completely harmless but presents another area of vulnerability for your organization.

One potential way this type of employee cloud adoption can impact a company is the simple availability of the data. Imagine a sales rep moves on to another company, and they discover that their password still works on the CRM. Now they are working for the competitor, but they have access to customer files, marketing plans, and pricing strategies.

The best IT policies won’t prevent employee cloud adoption, and your perimeter approach won’t secure your network in the cloud age. You need a high level of visibility into network traffic, and you need a tripwire that recognizes when a cloud-based solution is interacting with your internal network so that you can determine user access and other security protocols that protect your infrastructure.

Truth Comm provides the network support you need to protect your enterprise. To learn more about the potential for a security breach through employee cloud adoption, contact us for an appointment.

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Address: 115 East First St. Suite 2E Hinsdale, IL 60521
Support: troubletracker@truthcomm.com
Email: contact@truthcomm.com

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