One-in-four IT managers could not identify around 70% of network traffic, revealed a new report “The Dirty Secrets of Network Firewalls”. On average, 45% of the network traffic was going unidentified.
The report is result of a survey of 2700 IT decision makers across ten countries, by leading network and endpoint security provider- Sophos.
The most crucial finding of the survey was that most firewalls were failing to do their job adequately. The organizations had lack of visibility into the network traffic. Since, it was not visible, it could not be controlled.
- 84% of IT pros concerned about security due to lack of visibility into network traffic
84% of the respondents agreed that lack of application visibility was a serious security concern for their business and could impact effective network management. It could result in ransomware, malware, data breaches and other advanced threats.
The increased use of encryption, browser emulation, advanced evasion techniques were the factors that impacted the ability of network firewalls to provide adequate visibility into application traffic.
- Organizations spent an average of seven working days per month in remediating infected machines
According to the report, the small-sized enterprises spent an average of five working days to remediate 13 machines per month. On the other hand, the large enterprises spent an average of ten working days to remediate 20 machines per month.
Overall, on average, the organizations spent around seven working days to remediate 16 infected machines per month.
The organizations were looking for an integrated network and endpoint security solution that could halt the threats. 99% of IT managers wanted a firewall technology that can automatically isolate infected computers.
79% of the IT managers wanted better protection from their current firewall, while 97% expected firewall protection from the same vendor which allowed direct sharing of security status information.
- Other risks to businesses due to lack of visibility into network traffic
Other than the security risks, the lack of visibility concerned organizations on other aspects as well.
52% of IT managers said that lack of network visibility negatively impacted the business productivity. They could not prioritize the bandwidth for critical applications.
“For industries that rely on custom software to meet specific business needs, an inability to prioritize these mission critical applications over less important traffic could be costly,” revealed Sophos report.
50% of the respondents who invested in custom applications were unable to identify the traffic. It significantly impacted the return on investment.
- Key findings of “The Dirty Secrets of Network Firewalls” survey:
- An average of 45% of network traffic was going unidentified, and hence couldn’t be controlled.
- 84% organizations concerned about security.
- 53% organizations concerned about productivity.
- 79% IT pros wanted better protection from current firewall.
- Organizations dealt with 10-20 infections per month.
The survey was conducted in October and November 2017, where IT decision makers in ten countries including the US, Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, UK, Australia, Japan, India, and South Africa, were interviewed.
