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Understanding Cloud Firewalls: A Brief Overview
In the last decade, there has been an exponential rise in the usage of cloud services. As more businesses adopted more cloud services, the need for securing cloud resources has become vital for them. In this regard, businesses can implement several security tools for cloud security. Cloud firewalls also known as Firewall-as-a-service (FWaaS) solutions are among these must-have security tools for the safety of cloud environments and remote workforce.
Cloud firewalls are similar to traditional firewalls, but they are hosted and operated in the cloud. These firewalls create a barrier around cloud platforms, infrastructure, and applications. Simply, cloud firewalls work by inspecting, monitoring, and filtering all ingoing or outgoing cloud traffic and allow or deny traffic based on predetermined firewall rules. Like traditional firewalls, cloud firewalls’ main purpose is to prevent unauthorized users or potentially malicious network traffic from reaching corporate assets.
In today’s world, the majority of the workforce is still working remotely or in hybrid arrangements and companies have multiple cloud deployments and use cloud services for their daily operations. Traditional firewalls are insufficient to protect remote workers and cloud environments and solely trusting cloud providers’ security measurements can leave cloud resources and remote workers vulnerable to attacks. That’s why businesses are in need of Cloud Firewall security for remote workers and cloud environments. Once cloud firewalls are implemented, they can provide secure access to the resources that are hosted on-premises as well. Also, they have advanced capabilities to deal with cyber threats and can enable robust protection against Distributed Denial-of-service, zero-day threats, and malware attacks.
On top of these, unlike hardware firewalls, cloud firewalls don't require any on-premise setup, they have a cloud-native architecture and are hosted in the cloud and maintained by cloud firewall providers. In this regard, as the infographics show, cloud firewalls are cost-efficient as they cut the costs of building and maintaining the solution on-premises. Cloud firewalls can be integrated quickly, these can be scaled up easily and accommodate the growing volume of user traffic and they have high availability. Apart from these, they prevent network congestion problems and enable a better user experience. By all means, Cloud firewalls are must-have components for cloud and remote work security.
Integrating cloud Firstly, Cloud firewalls enable granular control regarding user access meaning that businesses can create firewall rules that operate on the virtual private gateway level and block or grant access to certain internal and external internet resources. These rules can be based on source and destination IP addresses, port and protocol numbers. These rules can be applied to user groups or single members, and cloud firewalls can allow or deny access to users based on predetermined rules.
Secondly, while using a cloud firewall, businesses can determine who can access corporate resources and who can’t. Also, businesses can limit users’ reach within the organization's internal network meaning that administrators can limit users' access to only necessary resources nothing more. This way, they allow businesses to put user-based policies.
Thirdly, cloud-based firewalls can have intrusion prevention systems (IPS), and deep packet inspection (DPI capabilities). IPS’ features can help businesses detect malicious activity or suspicious traffic and block it.
Meanwhile, DPI tools allow businesses to inspect packets in detail, and detect known and unknown threats that are hidden in packet's payloads.
Lastly, cloud-based firewall service simplifies operations by having centralized management. Administrators can manage everything from a single place and secure segments, cloud environment, and cloud applications by carrying out security policies across edges and endpoints.
Step 1: Identify Your Network Assets
You should start the process by identifying network assets. These assets can be servers, devices, and applications. Group these on their function, confidentiality, and degree of risks. Once you separate your network assets, it will be easier to control as you can assign each zone with related security policies.
Step 2: Define Rulesets and Build Firewall Zones
Secondly, you should define your rulesets and build firewall zones. This will allow you to apply the right rulesets to suitable network assets.
Step 3: Configure Firewall Services
Thirdly, you should configure firewall services like IPS, DPI NTP, etc. and
Step 4: Test and Update Cloud Firewall
Lastly, you should test your firewall configuration before deploying it. Testing will help you see if everything is functioning adequately or not. This way you identify problems and take the necessary actions. Also, you need to update your firewall regularly.
Adopt the least privileged access principle:
Applying the least access privilege is essential. This way, you can limit employees' access to the corporate resources that are required for their daily roles.
Employ network segmentation:
By segmenting the network you will create different checkpoints for network traffic and create a multilayered defense.
Monitor firewall performance
Regularly monitoring and assessing firewall performance is an important best practice. You can use automation to optimize firewall performance.
Update firewall rules
Over time your company can grow and increase the number of network assets or face new cyber threats. To handle these you need to keep firewall rules up to date.
Although cloud-based firewalls offer significant advantages like granular access control, high availability and scalability, threat intelligence, and centralized management, there are quite a few challenges surrounding cloud firewall integration and management. The most common difficulties include integration issues with existing security solutions, managing firewall rules and policies, and data security and privacy.
Integration issues with existing security solutions:
Since modern organizations operate with hybrid network environments, they also run hybrid cloud deployments. Therefore, cloud firewalls must be integrated with on-premise network security oftentimes. In this case, businesses might face integration issues for public cloud firewalls as they must ensure that managed local resources and network assets interface with cloud security.
Also, local IAM (Identity Access Management) tools might produce compatibility issues with cloud firewall solutions. To get rid of integration challenges, organizations carefully implement the right type of cloud-based services such as firewall as a service, SaaS firewalls, NGFW, and SECaaS. If compatibility issues with existing IAM solutions persist, firewall coverage can be compromised and cause performance problems in the organization's network.
Firewall rules and policy management:
As existing applications and software expand the network perimeter, the attack surface also grows. Especially, increasing cloud deployments might hinder visibility for administrators. Users may add APIs or service accounts and SaaS applications without central administrators' knowledge. These unknown assets can cause significant dangers to network security. So, organizations must extend security policies to all cloud resources and applications.
Data security and privacy concerns:
A major challenge with cloud firewalls is that they lack data encryption. Few data protection features lead to complacency. Organizations might secure network perimeter by controlling access with cloud firewalls, but the lack of data encryption can result in data theft easily. That’s why cloud-based firewalls must be integrated with essential DLP technology and data encryption tools.
Emerging technologies shape the future of network security solutions, especially firewalls. With AI and machine learning (ML) technologies organizations can automate the processes and functions of cloud-based firewalls. Simply, AI and ML will lead the way for future developments.
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