Is a firewall a thing of the past? People have been questioning the utility of firewalls for years. Columnist and editor Roger A. Grimes wrote that “firewalls need to go away” in May 2012. Grimes reasoned this was because firewalls “have always been problematic, and today there is almost no reason to have one.”

Is Grimes right? Is there no more use for firewalls anymore?

How Do Firewalls Work?

Traditional firewalls control traffic entering and exiting the network based upon source IP address, destination IP address, port and protocol. These types of solutions define traffic as flow, not isolated packets. Therefore, these tools can apply rules to traffic flow and help security experts make decisions based on them. Firewalls of the past also use packet filtering to inspect ingress and egress traffic (otherwise known as north-south traffic) for connections initiated by potentially suspicious sources along with virtual private networks (VPNs) as a means of gaining secured entry to the network.

Recently, some users have turned to next-generation firewall (NGFW). These come with the same protection as a basic firewall, but add onto it in several ways. For instance, they use application awareness to set rules for specific applications instead of port numbers and IP addresses. This allows them to block unwanted applications. It even works if attackers rotate through different port numbers and IP addresses, tactics that could hop traditional firewalls. Many NGFWs also come with threat intelligence for staying on top of emerging threats.

The Cloud: Where Firewalls Fall Short

The majority of traditional firewalls and NGFWs aren’t as effective in the age of the cloud. Businesses are moving their data and systems outside of the data center to locations they don’t own. At the same time, employees are using their personal devices located outside of the network to access that data and those systems more often. Together, these facts have erased the concept of the single network perimeter, where most traditional firewalls and NGFWs have stood guard for years.

In doing so, the cloud has also helped to redefine what’s needed from a network security tool such as a firewall. Remote work makes it possible for attackers to target the network from anywhere in the world. They could leverage a real employee’s compromised account for malicious ends. Therefore, organizations need the capability to inspect east-west traffic for signs of suspicious activity, such as a malicious actor abusing a real account to move laterally through the network.

The Latest in Cloud-Based Firewalls

The emergence of the cloud has certainly challenged previous tenets of network security. But, it hasn’t gotten rid of the concept entirely. Entities need to secure their cloud-based systems just as they need to protect their on-premise assets. The means of doing so might be different, but the underlying concepts are the same.

The same is true for the firewall. The cloud has merely shifted the discussion to the need for firewalls that are equipped to provide protection over more virtual landscapes.

With that in mind, many organizations are investing in a NGFW hosted in the cloud or other ‘virtual firewalls.’ These types of solutions are useful for their many configuration options. These enable admins to microsegment the cloud network as their cloud landscapes constantly change. This helps keep critical data and systems safe against cloud-based threats.

Virtual firewalls can maximize security even further if you pair them with other tools. For instance, you can use these tools’ micro-segmentation abilities to lay the groundwork for building a zero trust network. Once you mark some assets as trusted, you can then use the cloud-based solutions to forbid attacks and other unapproved connections that originate from outside the circle of trust. This will help keep the cloud secure going forward.

The Firewall is Here to Stay

Is there an end in sight for the firewall of the past? Maybe. But not for the concept of the firewall and for allowing access and blocking unknown connections. As the network continues to evolve and become more complex, the firewall will have to change in order to provide a new quality of network security. That’s already what’s happened with the cloud, and that’s no doubt what will happen with whatever changes the network undergoes next.

More from Cloud Security

How I got started: Cloud security engineer

3 min read - In today’s increasingly cloud-focused business environment, cloud security engineers are pivotal in protecting an organization’s critical data and infrastructure. As experts in cloud security, they leverage their expertise to ensure that the ever-expanding amount of cloud data is safe from emerging threats and vulnerabilities. Cloud security professionals combine their passion for technology with a deep understanding of security principles to design and implement robust cloud security strategies. What experience do these security experts have, and what led them to the…

“Authorized” to break in: Adversaries use valid credentials to compromise cloud environments

4 min read - Overprivileged plaintext credentials left on display in 33% of X-Force adversary simulations Adversaries are constantly seeking to improve their productivity margins, but new data from IBM X-Force suggests they aren’t exclusively leaning on sophistication to do so. Simple yet reliable tactics that offer ease of use and often direct access to privileged environments are still heavily relied upon. Today X-Force released the 2023 Cloud Threat Landscape Report, detailing common trends and top threats observed against cloud environments over the past…

Lessons learned from the Microsoft Cloud breach

3 min read - In early July, the news broke that threat actors in China used a Microsoft security flaw to execute highly targeted and sophisticated espionage against dozens of entities. Victims included the U.S. Commerce Secretary, several U.S. State Department officials and other organizations not yet publicly named. Officials and researchers alike are concerned that Microsoft products were again used to pull off an intelligence coup, such as during the SolarWinds incident. In the wake of the breach, the Department of Homeland Security…

What you need to know about protecting your data across the hybrid cloud

6 min read - The adoption of hybrid cloud environments driving business operations has become an ever-increasing trend for organizations. The hybrid cloud combines the best of both worlds, offering the flexibility of public cloud services and the security of private on-premises infrastructure. We also see an explosion of SaaS platforms and applications, such as Salesforce or Slack, where users input data, send and download files and access data stored with cloud providers. However, with this fusion of cloud resources, the risk of data…