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The sheer volume of data breaches continues to escalate at a phenomenal rate. Cyberattacks on all businesses, but particularly small to medium-sized businesses, are becoming more frequent, targeted, and complex. According to Accenture’s Cost of Cybercrime Study, 43% of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, but only 14% of those businesses are prepared to defend themselves. 

Security teams and professionals are tasked with safeguarding organizations against a myriad of cyber threats – from ransomware attacks to sophisticated nation-state espionage campaigns. Cybercriminals have a stronghold in the battle against cybercrime, and despite organizations best efforts to defend against threats, they continue to rely on legacy and next generation firewalls, exacerbating cyber defense issues.  

Firewalls alone are no longer fit for purpose. Their role is to inspect traffic using linear search capabilities where the engine relies on a static and constrained IP reputation list. Firewalls are not inherently dynamic, and legacy firewalls cannot scale because they are extremely limited in the number of rules they can deploy and the stateful assumptions they make on risk. In this high flux environment, firewalls cannot process substantial amounts of intelligence to maximize the shielding of known threats, nor can it triage the areas of threats. Moreover, advanced threats often use malware variants capable of disabling the firewall, allowing the threat actor to take full command of the network and access mission-critical data. 

Why are Firewalls failing?  

• Lack of context / granularity  

Firewalls lack the awareness needed to differentiate between legitimate and malicious traffic. With cybercriminals employing increasingly sophisticated tactics, such as polymorphic malware and advanced evasion techniques, simply blocking or allowing traffic based on static rules is no longer sufficient. 

• Encryption versus decryption 

The widespread adoption of encryption protocols, such as HTTPS, has become a double-edged sword for cybersecurity. While encryption helps protect sensitive data in transit, it also provides cover for cybercriminals seeking to conceal their malicious activities. 

• Lack of threat intelligence 

Effective cybersecurity relies on timely and relevant threat intelligence to identify and respond to emerging threats. Legacy firewalls often lack robust integration with threat intelligence feeds, hindering organizations’ ability to leverage up-to-date information about known threats and indicators of compromise (IOCs) to enhance their security posture. Without real-time threat intelligence, organizations are left playing catch-up with cyber adversaries. 

• Complexity and lacking flexibility

Legacy firewalls are notorious for their complexity and rigidity, making them difficult to manage and adapt to evolving threats and business requirements. Over time, configuration errors, misconfigurations, and outdated rule sets can accumulate, creating blind spots and vulnerabilities in the firewall defenses. Without continuous monitoring and maintenance, legacy firewalls become liabilities rather than assets in the fight against cyber threats. 

This is where Centripetal’s intelligence powered cybersecurity comes in. 

For more information contact sales@centripetal.ai or request a demo here .