TRENDING
to have prioritised access to the applications
they need,” said Schiappa.
variety of factors such as the increasing
use of encryption, browser emulation and
advanced evasion techniques.
“Increasing network visibility requires a
radically different approach. By enabling the
firewall to receive information directly from
the endpoint security, it can now positively
identify all applications, even obscure or
custom applications.”
Dan Schiappa, Senior Vice President and
General Manager of Products at Sophos,
said: “If you can’t see everything on your
network, you can’t ever be confident that
your organisation is protected from threats.
IT professionals have been ‘flying blind’ for
too long and cybercriminals take advantage
of this.
The Dirty Secrets of Network Firewalls
survey was conducted by Vanson Bourne, an
independent specialist in market research, in
October and November 2017.
“With governments worldwide introducing
stiffer penalties for data breach and loss,
knowing who and what is on your network is
becoming increasingly important. This dirty
secret can’t be ignored any longer.”
On average, organisations spend seven
working days remediating 16 infected
machines per month while smaller
organisations (100 to 1,000 users) spend an
average of five working days remediating 13
machines. Larger organisations meanwhile
(1,001 to 5,000 users) spend an average of
10 working days remediating 20 machines
per month, according to the survey.
Schiappa said: “A single network breach
often leads to the compromise of multiple
computers, so the faster you can stop the
infection from spreading the more you limit
the damage and time needed to clean it up.
“Companies are looking for the kind of next-
generation, integrated network and endpoint
protection that can stop advanced threats
and prevent an isolated incident from
turning into a widespread outbreak.
“Sophisticated exploits such as MimiKatz
and EternalBlue reminded everyone that
network protection is critical to endpoint
security and vice versa. Only direct
intelligence sharing between these two can
reveal the true nature of who and what is
operating on your network.”
Dan Schiappa, General Manager and Senior
Vice President for End-User Security at Sophos
protection from the same vendor, which
allows for direct sharing of security status
information.
Security is not the only risk
to businesses
Following security risks, lost productivity was
cited as a concern for 52% of respondents
when it comes to a lack of network visibility.
Business productivity can be negatively
impacted if IT is unable to prioritise
bandwidth for critical applications.
For industries that rely on custom software
to meet specific business needs, an
inability to prioritise these mission critical
applications over less important traffic could
be costly.
A total of 50% of IT professionals who had
invested in custom applications admitted
that their firewall could not identify the
traffic and therefore were unable to
maximise their return on investment.
IT managers are very aware that firewalls
need an upgrade in protection. In fact, the
survey revealed that 79% of IT managers
polled want better protection from their
current firewall. Lack of visibility also creates a blind
spot for the potential transfer of illegal
or inappropriate content on corporate
networks, making companies vulnerable to
litigation and compliance issues.
A total of 99% want firewall technology that
can automatically isolate infected computers
and 97% would like endpoint and firewall “Organisations need a firewall that protects
their investment in business-critical and
custom applications by allowing employees
22
INTELLIGENTCIO
The survey interviewed 2,700 IT decision
makers in 10 countries and across five
continents, including the US, Canada,
Mexico, France, Germany, UK, Australia,
Japan, India and South Africa. All
respondents were from organisations of
between 100 and 5,000 users. n
“
WITH
GOVERNMENTS
WORLDWIDE
INTRODUCING
STIFFER
PENALTIES FOR
DATA BREACH
AND LOSS,
KNOWING WHO
AND WHAT IS ON
YOUR NETWORK
IS BECOMING
INCREASINGLY
IMPORTANT.
THIS DIRTY
SECRET CAN’T
BE IGNORED ANY
LONGER.”
www.intelligentcio.com