Key Differences Between Traditional and Next-Generation Firewalls
Traditional firewalls and NGFWs both incorporate core firewall capabilities and play a similar role in a corporate cybersecurity architecture. But, significant differences exist between the two that impact their ability to provide protection against modern cybersecurity threats.
Inspection Depth
Traditional firewalls and NGFWs operate at different levels of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. These differences in inspection depth include:
- Traditional Firewall: Traditional firewalls inspect network packet headers, looking at OSI Layers 2-4. These headers include source and destination IP addresses and port numbers, which can be used to identify network protocols. This enables an organization to prevent certain types of traffic from entering or leaving its network or to allow or block traffic from certain locales.
- NGFW: NGFWs operate all the way up to the application layer or the OSI layer 7. By inspecting the contents of network packets and understanding application-specific communications, they are able to identify malware, data exfiltration, and other threats that traditional firewalls would miss.
Application Awareness
With the rise of SaaS applications, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and APIs, a growing percentage of Internet traffic travels over web protocols (HTTP/HTTPS).
Traditional firewalls and NGFWs have significant differences in their abilities to monitor this traffic, including:
- Traditional Firewall: Traditional firewalls are intended to filter certain types of application traffic, but they do so based on port numbers. They lack the ability to identify application traffic flowing over standard ports, such as social media or video conferencing traffic using the HTTPS protocol (port 443).
- NGFW: NGFWs inspect the contents of network packets and can recognize and control application-specific communications. This enables the application to granularly control application network traffic, blocking certain types of traffic or limiting the amount of bandwidth that they use.
Advanced Features
Security integration is the future as companies attempt to streamline security management and enhance visibility. But, traditional and NGFWs have very different levels of security integration:
Traditional firewalls are typically deployed alongside intrusion prevention systems, malware analysis sandboxes, and other key security solutions. This collection of point solutions is more difficult to manage and can introduce visibility and control gaps.
NGFWs, on the other hand, commonly integrate IPS, application control, URL filtering, and other security features.
They can also offer various other capabilities, including:
- TLS Inspection: NGFWs offer the ability to inspect TLS-encrypted traffic. This can help identify and block malware or data exfiltration hidden in encrypted traffic.
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP): NGFWs incorporate DLP capabilities, which detect attempted exfiltration of sensitive or proprietary information from the corporate network.
- IoT Threat Prevention: Unmanaged or rogue Internet of Things (IoT) devices can contain vulnerabilities that leave the business vulnerable to attack. NGFWs can detect and quarantine these devices so they don’t pose a threat to the business.
- SD-WAN Security: NGFWs can include SD-WAN capabilities to optimize network routing. Combining SD-WAN with security functions creates a more secure and usable corporate WAN.
- Compliance Management: Companies must manage security gaps and report certain data to maintain regulatory compliance. NGFWs can simplify compliance by helping to identify compliance gaps and collect information required for regulatory reporting.
Threat Intelligence
Threat intelligence is vital for identifying the latest threats and cyberattack campaigns. But, traditional firewalls and NGFWs use threat intelligence in very different ways, including:
- Traditional Firewall: Traditional firewalls typically rely on outside systems to provide useful threat intelligence. For example, the firewall administrator may become aware of a new threat campaign and update the firewall’s rules to address it.
- NGFW: NGFWs can ingest threat intelligence feeds and act upon the provided information. This includes automatically adjusting their rules to detect and prevent new and emerging attacks.
Reporting and Management
Reporting is critical to corporate security and regulatory compliance. Firewalls differ in their level of reporting capabilities, including:
- Traditional Firewall: They usually only offer basic logging and reporting capabilities. Security analysts must use other tools or manual processes to convert this into a usable form.
- NGFW: NGFWs provide more detailed and customizable reports with insights into application usage, threats detected, and security events. This helps security teams track metrics, demonstrate ROI, and generate required compliance reports.
Quantum Force - AI-Powered Firewalls and Security Gateways
An NGFW firewall is crucial to protect against modern cyber threats. For more information on what to look for in a firewall, check out this buyer’s guide. Check Point Quantum Force NGFWs offer industry-leading threat prevention and AI-powered security.
For more information about how Check Point NGFWs can enhance your company’s cybersecurity, request a demo.
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