What’s the difference between a next gen firewall (NGFW) and a standard firewall?
The goal of any corporate firewall is to keep attackers out of the network while also protecting systems and data. Firewalls, on the other hand, are not all made equal. They all have the same fundamental aim, but the features, capacities, and complexity levels differ greatly.
Traditional and next-generation firewalls are the two most fundamental types of enterprise-level firewalls. As you might assume, next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) are the more sophisticated of the two types, providing the most comprehensive security for business networks.
What are the distinctions between conventional and NGFWs, and how can they help your company?
Before we get into the technicalities, it’s crucial to note that, despite its name, next-generation firewalling is not a new idea. It is, however, the most sophisticated and, hence, the most latest type of firewall currently accessible.
Firewall’s features
A classical firewall is intending to control the flow of traffic into and out of a network by monitoring port, protocol, source address, and destination address.
When we refer to ‘conventional’ firewall functionality, we’re referring to the functions that existed before NGFWs, such as:
- Packet filtering guarantees that all incoming and outgoing packets are scrutinized before being passed through. Those packets that fit the filter’s criteria are transmitted, while those that do not are discarded.
- The manner in which packets are examined is referred to as stateless inspection or stateful inspection (more about that below).
- Support for virtual private networks (VPNs) to make users’ private networks safe while using public networks like the internet.
Is it better to be stateless or stateful?
The firewall can only analyze each packet individually due to stateless inspection, and it is unable to determine the packet’s larger context. Many classical firewalls are stateless (or state-unaware’) in nature.
Stateful inspection enables sophisticated traditional firewalls to identify the operational status of packets trying to access the network. In other words, they are estate-aware, able to distinguish between what is safe, possibly hazardous, and cancerous. As we’ll see further down, NGFWs go above and beyond conventional stateful examination.
A next-generation firewall’s features
NGFWs offer many of the same features as traditional firewalls, plus a few more. To put it another way, NGFWs have additional security layers built in to guard against more complex attacks. They also go beyond the static inspection that traditional firewalls are confine to, allowing them to regulate applications at the application level.
Awareness of the application
An organization’s application awareness allows them to observe packets in context and define application-specific policies.
Intrusion detection and prevention system (IPS)
IPSs can actively halt intrusions once they’ve been detected, by rejecting malicious packets, logging IP addresses, and blacklisting future traffic from them.
Inspection of the entire packet (DPI)
Unlike traditional packet filtering, which just scans the header of a packet, DPI guarantees that the packet’s contents, including its source, are thoroughly inspected, allowing the NGFW to view the whole context of each packet.
Don’t let out-of-date security technologies leave you vulnerable.
Modern enterprises require modern security. The cyber danger landscape is always evolving in tandem with technological advancements, which means that cyber criminals are far from finished. Their job is, if anything, becoming simpler.
It’s also crucial to avoid the prevalent misunderstanding that cloud-enabled enterprises are automatically secure by their cloud-native security solutions. That is not the case; while the chosen cloud environment may be well-protect, every organization has a larger infrastructure that may have vulnerabilities, such as unprotect devices.
Next-generation firewalling is now the most effective option for business cyber security in the cloud age, thanks to its more advanced capabilities for detecting and guarding against attacks.
Explore more insightful articles at Giga Article