Best Firewall Security Management Solutions

Firewall security management software uses real-time event tracking to monitor network behavior and find potential threats. When the software detects changes to security policy or vulnerabilities, it sends an alert.

Most firewalls come with management functionalities. However, the comprehensive capabilities of firewall software management is what makes it a standalone category. This software supports multiple firewall products, allowing organizations to monitor, manage and control them with a centralized function.

Firewall security management solutions centralize the administration of network security policies across firewalls and similar devices. This enables visibility into network behavior, traffic, users, and actions controlling which users and packages can enter the network.

By bringing all firewalls under a single central management framework, the software delivers a tight and scalable digital security model. In addition, many firewall management software solutions have automation features that streamline and simplify workflows, reducing manual tracking and management processes.

Organizations can benefit from firewall security management tools in a number of ways:

1. Improves network visibility

By managing multiple firewalls, firewall security management (FSM) solutions improve visibility over network traffic. Data constantly coming in and out of your systems creates opportunities for hackers to attack. FSM solutions provide a centralized point of view, normalizing the rules and policies across different firewalls.

These solutions provide increased insight into what enters and exits the network. IT teams use firewall security management tools to check on potentially malicious activity on a network. Because FSM software usually integrates with other network security products like SIEM, IT service management suites, and network monitoring products, it offers complete coverage across a range of network environments.

2. Reduces the risk of data breaches and attacks

Attackers don’t rest, and the number of new threats developed daily amounts to hundreds of thousands. Thus, firewalls are a necessity. But if you want to prevent risky gaps among the different firewalls you have in place in your ecosystem, you need firewall security management software. One of the obvious benefits of FSM software is that you can control and manage policies across multiple firewalls, load balancers, and other products, ensuring airtight security around your network.

3. Optimizes firewall policy management

Firewall security management solutions provide a centralized point of view so you can identify issues in firewall policies. By deploying FSM software, you can monitor how effective your network security infrastructure is, control access, comply with regulations, and enhance risk mitigation.

Some of the features offered by top FSM vendors include:

        1. Coordinating policies across firewalls

This includes planning and managing rules and auditing policies for compliance. The system achieves policy optimization by carrying on the following features:

• Identify unused and hidden rules.
• Search policies across all devices.
• Conduct risk, security, traffic flow, and access path analysis.
• Automate recertification of existing firewall policies to comply with ongoing regulations.
• Review rules and policies.
• Create and pre-approve a rules whitelist.
  
  2. Providing automation features

This set of features includes network mapping, hybrid cloud support, policy orchestration, and change management. Automating features includes policy and workflow optimization.

FSM solutions also provide automatic compliance monitoring, which reduces the time it takes for policy configuration and auditing. Some activities that help achieve compliance include:

• Identify and document existing rules in the firewall policies.
• Leverage defined standards and best practices to audit existing firewall policies.
• Define and implement security controls for analysis and reporting of firewall policies.
• Evaluate and analyze how effective existing rules are that are incorporated into firewall policies.

         3. Continuous monitoring

One of the key features of firewall security management software is providing real-time event monitoring. The centralized console offers a single pane of glass monitoring approach that helps detect anomalies and malicious behavior in real time.

         4. Generating log analysis

Most FSM solutions generate log and analytic reports in real-time. This ensures you can quickly identify security anomalies and detect internal threats.

         5. Automatic updates

FSM solutions usually implement upgrades and patches as soon as they appear.

Other features that appear in top vendor offerings include:

• Automation of security and workflows.
• Detection of indicators of compromise in real time. This software feature helps respond faster to threats.
• Firewall rule cleanup and optimization.
• Configuration monitoring (detects misconfigurations).
• Detection of vulnerabilities and recommendation of fixes. The software detects configuration changes from firewall devices and creates change reports.
• Policy management.
• Security compliance management. Typically, an FSM solution will include compliance reports for major regulations such as PCI DSS, NIST, GDPR, HIPA, SANS Firewall Checklist, and ISO 27001:2013. These reports help you track the compliance status of firewall policies.
• Multi-vendor support.