This post is part of a blog series where we examine the 10 things to test in your future next-generation firewall. These 10 points will help ensure your next firewall matches the needs of your organization in its current and future states.
In the market for your next firewall? How do you navigate the risks and opportunities cybersecurity presents to your organization? How can you determine if the features of your new next-generation firewall are what your organization needs to grow and move forward?
The answer is simple: You test it.
Organizational security should not be approached with a one-size-fits-all mindset. Every organization has unique needs, and their security architecture should reflect that. Security tools, services and features should be flexible enough to address these individual needs while remaining true to the capabilities advertised.
Our new paper “10 Things to Test in your Future NGFW” discusses 10 points to consider and actively test in your current security infrastructure as well as your future NGFW. Using these as guidelines for cross-functional conversations, you can determine if your potential security investments are easy to implement, alleviate operational burdens, and offer your organization the best protection and value, today and in the future.
Our first point is preventing credential theft.
Prevent Credential Theft
Users and their credentials are among the weakest links in an organization’s security infrastructure. As such, the majority of breaches involve credential theft at some point in the attack lifecycle. With credential abuse as part of the attackers’ toolset, their chances of successfully breaching go up, and their risk of getting caught goes down.
Why Should You Advocate and Test This Capability?
Preventing credential theft, which often occurs via phishing attacks, reduces exposure to one of the most prevalent forms of targeted attacks on organizations. These measures are crucial when dealing with targeted phishing attacks, which typically go after non-technical employees through previously unknown phishing sites.
Move Beyond the Status Quo
Most organizations work to stop these attacks primarily through employee education, which is important but does not eliminate the risk of human error.
Technology products commonly rely on identifying known phishing sites and filtering email; but these methods are easily bypassed as checking for known bad sites will miss newly created ones, and attackers can evade email filtering technology by sending links through social media.
A next-generation firewall with machine learning-based analysis can accelerate protection. If the analysis identifies a site as malicious, your firewall should be updated to block it.
Still, there will always be never-before-seen phishing sites that are treated as “unknown.” To protect your network and users, it’s critical to prevent submission of credentials to unknown sites. By using credential filtering, organizations can whitelist authentication to authorized applications and block credential submission to unknown sites.
Recommended RFP Questions
- Can the NGFW prevent the use of corporate credentials on unknown websites?
- Can the NGFW block users from submitting corporate credentials without storing a copy of the hash in the firewall?
- How quickly does the NGFW analyze previously unseen phishing sites and update its protections?
- Does the NGFW log user attempts to submit credentials in HTTP post?
Learn more about the 10 things to test for in your future NGFW.