Most of the large and small businesses these days have significant top IT infrastructure. The IT infrastructure and digital infrastructure enable a company to compete with even the prominent organizations. The only problem is that hackers out there are always looking for vulnerabilities. It is easier for them to target smaller businesses as compared to larger ones.

One of the most basic protections which you can use is a firewall. When you protect your network behind the firewall, a significant number of vulnerabilities no longer exist. It will allow you to reduce the most obvious loopholes in your system. With that, these days, next-generation firewall options are available. They are known as NGFW in short, and they provide higher security as compared to the traditional firewall options.

We will go into its details below.

What is NGFW?

NGFW incorporate more stringent security mechanisms to monitor and detect the threats automatically. They rely not just on protocol, but also accurate identification of the attacker. It allows you to thwart the danger without any manual intervention.

Importance of NGFW:

We will now go into the details of why NGFW is essential for most of the businesses.

1. User identification

The main advantage of such firewalls is that they can identify the users through their IP address. They also track the network activity of the user. That is why, through the previous and the existing tasks of the user, they can monitor and point out the threats. They also categorize the users based on their activities. If the action of the user does not match with the role of the user, they block the user or generate an alert. In short, if they notice anything out of the ordinary, in most of the cases, automatic blocking of the user is activated. It will allow you to protect your networks 24/7 without any human intervention.

2. Identification of content

Whenever data packets are in transfer to and from your network, the identification of the data packets will take place. If it is something which is confidential, the data transfer will come to an end. It is done to ensure that there is no data leakage. With the help of URL filtering and threat prevention, the system to block any unauthorized data transfer is pretty robust. It allows you to protect your data and ensure that there is no leak of sensitive information about your business. Moreover, you can set up data filters in advance to classify the confidential data and transferable data.

3. Advanced policy control

Firewall policies are an integral part of the firewall implementation process. However, they cannot be set and done since they need to evolve with the changing threat landscape. A firewall policy manager can automate policy management for the best results.

Most of the standard firewall options provide you the opportunity to either block the user or allow it. When it comes to NGFW, you can enable hierarchical permissions which ensures that users gain access to your IT infrastructure depending on what they need to access. You can provide them with the lowest level of clearance to check only the most basic information. Similarly, the administrators will have complete access to your IT system. You can create as many hierarchies as you want with the help of NGFW. It ensures that you can prevent any internal risk as well.

The customization options through hierarchical control ensure that you can place stringent security measures over your IT infrastructure. You can curtail access to information depending on the level of the individual. It will allow you to protect the most sensitive data of your business.

So, instead of using a standard firewall, it is essential to switch to NGFW to enhance your IT security. It will help you thwart many attacks and prevent any data loss which can make your business flourish rather than deal with confidentiality lawsuits. The liabilities arising out of a data leak can be fatal for your business. It is a good idea to switch over to NGFW instead to avoid all such possibilities.