Organizations need a firewall to prevent attackers from reaching sensitive internal resources and internal networks, but traditional firewalls lack the adaptability and reach to protect the entire attack surface, which has expanded significantly due to remote access and cloud-based infrastructure.
By implementing FWaaS, which leverages automation and artificial intelligence to improve on traditional firewalls, as well as other tools, you can vastly decrease your likelihood of suffering a severe attack.
Here’s how FWaaS adapts to the newest cybersecurity trends.
88% of data breaches can be attributed to employee error.
So, implementing zero-trust policies and enforcing them with FWaaS can reduce the risk of an attack. FWaaS can help by providing monitoring and access control, so you will be able to see which employees access data and how they use it — you can also limit access to sensitive data.
Attackers often target employees to gain access to your data because they can hide under an assumed identity to avoid detection. But with FWaaS in place, it becomes much easier to:
You can use FWaaS to restrict users, so a group that doesn’t need to access developer data, for example, cannot interact with the developers’ server.
The number of data breaches in 2023 increased by 72% over 2022 – and the same trend continues for 2024 as well…
As an increasing number of organizations shift to cloud-hosted infrastructure, security professionals are finding that traditional firewalls are insufficient to protect that infrastructure, especially given their increasingly limited resources.
To make this easier, FWaaS solutions use AI and machine learning to better inform firewall rules.
Threats are popping up at a growing pace, and keeping up with them is nearly impossible. Using AI means that the firewall will adjust itself, and it will likely be able to make these adjustments with high accuracy and precision.
A disadvantage of traditional firewalls is their reliance on manual configurations and updates. This slows down your response to threats and reduces the efficacy of the firewall.
FWaaS includes automated monitoring and rule updates, which means you’ll be spending less time addressing security issues and more time investing in your organization. Automation also alerts you to unusual activity and can help with prioritization, which improves efficiency.
Quick responses to cyber threats can make the difference between a successful attack and a thwarted one.
Failing to comply with data privacy regulations like the GDPR and CCPA can result in heavy fines, litigations, customer loss, and, in rare cases, imprisonment. FWaaS protects you from violations by improving your ability to block attackers and safeguard customers’ data.
FWaaS alone will benefit your business, but it is most effective when combined with other tools.
When you choose a FWaaS provider, find out whether SASE is available so that you can combine FWaaS with other cloud tools. SASE creates a centralized platform to maximize visibility into your environment.
This helps you and your security team manage all cloud tools and applications in one place to prevent data silos (and exploitable gaps that siloed applications create).
The challenge of remote work is that it requires an employee to access your server from a place not protected by the office firewall. Rather than depending on credentials, which can be compromised, SASE monitors and evaluates user activity to confirm identity.
To mitigate potential vulnerabilities, FWaaS acts as the first line of defense around the cloud environment, and SASE is used to strengthen security by enforcing best practices during application use and by shielding your internal network.
XDR focuses on endpoints and threat detection rather than on user identity and broad protection. A distinguishing feature of XDR is its narrative focus; when unusual activity occurs, XDR combines context with activity data to provide a cohesive understanding of the threat.
This helps security teams identify the highest-risk threats and understand how they are interacting with your network and applications.
Implementing both XDR and SASE (including FWaaS) is vital to navigating today’s risky threat landscape.
To best combat attackers, you need a comprehensive security strategy and a host of tools that can automatically monitor your network, applications, and infrastructure while also blocking dangerous traffic and controlling internal access.
Perimeter81 offers an SASE solution armed with FWaaS and other tools to keep your organization secure. Online threats aren’t going anywhere, but with our platform, neither is your data.
Contact us to secure your data and organization right now.
