FIREWALL SECURITY ASSESSMENT
Assess your Firewall Configuration against security issues that could affect your organisation negatively, leading to information exposure or breach of data. Firewall audit outlines security issues along with risk remediation at a competitive price.
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What is Firewall security assessment?
A firewall security review, also known as firewall ruleset review or risk assessment, is aimed at finding weaknesses in a device’s configuration, firewall rules, management and compliance.
In this cloud era, firewalls are very much a vital component of network security architecture – often the first line of defence in traditional network architecture.
Our firewall security review helps you to understand the weak areas that must be reviewed to limit the exposure to your systems. Assessing the firewall configuration for security configuration issues, vulnerabilities, management or user oversights that when exploited could lead to a breach of network.
Multiple different types of firewalls are used by companies to protect their data and systems. We have WAF (Web Application Firewalls), Application level gateways, Network firewall with stateful inspections, ‘virtual’ firewalls and cloud firewalls.
This advice is a true third party opinion, free from any vendor inclinations or reselling objectives. Our security expertise, sector-specific experience & non-salesy approach to firewall security assessment helps organisations to manage cyber security threats effectively.
Benefits of a Firewall audit
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Identify and limit exposure to your internal systems against evolving threats
- Identify weaknesses in configuration and management procedures
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Service quality underpins everything we do
- Validate your change management/ control process
- PCI DSS, ISO 27001, GDPR Compliance support
Schedule your PCI Firewall Review today
Firewall security risks
Firmware versions, management protocols configuration, file transfers/remote administration protocols are common issues during a firewall audit
Logging and monitoring controls are reviewed to identify flaws in event collection, storage, analysis and threat identification.
Either service provider or customer’s IT team have temporary changes, large/excessive attack surfaces been allowed.
Auditing of firewall rules often shows the presence of noise (unnecessary broadcast protocols), duplicate rules, temporary rules, comments, use of ANY/large rules. A firewall rule defines the traffic that may or may not be required in line with a cyber security policy.
Configuration and use of encryption methods for HTTPS, SSH, VPN transformations (in case of a VPN), data at rest and in transit.
Restrictions on administrative and management interfaces internally (internal network/DMZ) and externally (over the internet) are identified commonly during penetration testing and during PCI firewall reviews (where segmentation is a must).
Authentication and authorisation mechanisms responsible for user authentication, internal integrations (RADIUS/AD/etc), interface restrictions and authorisations
Frequently Asked Questions about Firewall Security Assessment
We welcome all major Firewalls and have vast experience in performing firewall security assessment against different types of devices such as WAFs (Imperva, IBM, Mod sec), Cloud firewalls, CheckPoints to traditional Cisco devices, VPN concentrators and Small business ranges such as Watchguard, Sonicwall.
Firewall reviews whether for PCI DSS compliance or general firewall security testing can be conducted as an ad-hoc exercise or as part of cyber health checks.
Should you wish to read further about pen testing, our in-depth blog article on penetration testing is an excellent source.
Configuration and network traffic allowed through the firewall should be in line with the functional requirements of the business.
Whether it’s business as usual review or after changes, it’s important to find out weaknesses in your firewall configuration and rulebase to identify gaps. These gaps could aid an attacker to initiate unauthorised connections to outside systems in order to exfiltrate data, set up command and control channels or other malicious actions.
It is a common setup to use external partners for the IT needs of a business. We work with you and your third-party vendors to ensure they provide a secure service and are aware of cybersecurity issues affecting your firewall or managed devices.
To conduct an assessment firewall interface or configuration access is important.
No. There is no active attack activity carried out against the device, therefore, it is a completely manual and often passive task (where configuration is provided in a file) not affecting firewall security or state of operations.
A firewall security assessment does not take more than couple of days, based on the firewall functionality and ruleset size. Costs are generally calculated based on the day rate based activity needed to perform this review.
Firewall risk remediation is sometimes a complex process due to the specialist security skill-set needed for IT teams. We do provide remediation advice with our firewall audit results.
Optionally, we provide remediation consultancy to ensure all agreed findings are mitigated in line with best security practices.
Firewall Security Test Methodology
Customer Business Insight
The very first step to firewall security testing remains our quest to gain insight into drivers, business, pain points and relevant nuances. As part of this process, we understand the assets that are part of the scope.
Services Proposal
Execution and Delivery
Data Analysis & Reporting
Debrief & Support
Our Assessment Services
Network & Infrastructure Penetration Testing
- Protect your business against evolving network & infrastructure threats
- Check services, patching, passwords, configurations & hardening issues
- Internal, external, network segregation & device reviews
- PCI DSS, ISO 27001, GDPR Compliance support
- Helps shape IT strategy & investments
Web Application & API Pen Testing
- Assess real-world threats to web applications
- Validate secure design best practices against OWASP Top 10
- Timely check to avoid common pitfalls during development
- Ensure strong authentication, authorisation, encryption mechanisms
- Find loopholes to avoid data leakage or theft
Mobile Penetration Testing
- Assess real-world mobile app security vulnerabilities
- Validate secure design & configuration best practices
- Increased flexibility and productivity of users through secure mobile offerings
- Ensure strong mobile app authentication, authorisation, encryption mechanisms
- Find mobile app or device loopholes to avoid data leakage or theft
- PCI DSS, ISO 27001, Compliance Support
Cloud Penetration Testing
- Better visibility on cloud process aligning
- Secure validation of internal and third party integrations
- Support ever changing regulatory/compliance requirements
- Ensure strong authentication, authorisation, encryption mechanisms
- Demonstrate data security commitment
- Less is more – reduced costs, servers and staff
Digital Attack Surface Analysis
- Attack surface analysis to identify high risk areas and blind spots
- Improve your security team’s efficiency
- Streamline your IT spends
- Lower Risks and Likelihood of Data Breaches
