We've heard this one before, firewall management has always been a time consuming and manpower draining task.

Let's imagine a Strategy Role Playing Game (SRPG) where our network is our kingdom, expanding quickly and as we do, our defenses get harder to manage. A sentry at each gate on the line of defense requires large labor resource, this vital resource could have been utilized in crucial tasks, if we had more sophisticated security defenses. We also then require leaders to manage these sentries and ensure every gate has adequate security. Now with a vast kingdom consisting of numerous gates, managing sentries can be very difficult, with greater challenges when threatened with impending attack.

This is similar to how our IT networks are set up with large portions of our staff dedicated to monitoring our networks, managing firewall rule sets across multiple firewalls, sifting & analyzing firewall logs to determine intrusions.

As the Help Net Security article indicates, IDC's survey found that most IT managers / administrators found that they were unable to perform firewall rule sets gap analysis due to the large number of rules. Respondents also indicated that losses from data breaches were equivalent to more than 75 percent of their costs for operating firewall architecture.

Now, in our SRPG,  would we turn a blind eye to any spies entering our lines of defense? How would we determine if all our gates are adequately equipped, have all sentries reported for duty?

Like the wizard who will give you that extra special item which you unlocked after some hard hours at work, I give you ManageEngine's Firewall Analyzer. Just let Firewall Analyzer (FWA) do the sifting and analyzing of firewall logs. Don't get lost with those firewall rules, FWA lets you determine which rule sets are actually effective in protecting your network. Optimize your firewall architecture by analyzing the reports generated by FWA and meet compliance audit requirements.

Need to know who's trying to attack your network, need to watch over those who pass through your gates (firewall), setting up alerts like this will give you enough time to actually enjoy some SRPG. Of course, not while your working right!

Head over to www.fwanalyzer.com to download a free 30 Day Trial and defeat those firewall monsters.



Disclaimer: This author doesn't imply that playing SRPG at work is acceptable!