Firewall Monitoring Solutions Critical for Maintaining Security and Compliance

2014 might very well go down in the history books as the year of security breaches. From Sony to iCloud to Target (News - Alert) to eBay to Home Depot, malicious activity abounded and it seems no market sector was spared. If these attacks taught business owners anything at all, it’s that the days of buying and installing a firewall and walking away are long gone.

“The traditional business model, whether it be the big resellers or the small ones, is to buy a device off the shelf from your IT reseller, put it in, throw it in the closet and forget about it for three years,” said Erik Knight, CEO of SimpleWan. “Well, how would you know if you’ve been breached? Who would notify you? Who’s watching?”

Those are questions that every company should be asking in light of the plethora of security breaches on major, big-name companies, according to Knight. He spoke to TMC Group Editorial Director Erik Linask (News - Alert) at last month’s ITEXPO Miami 2015 about how companies are being forced to change the way they handle their firewalls, and why they can’t afford to not be vigilant.

SimpleWan specializes in subscription and hardware-based firewall solutions that service providers may offer to customers of all sizes. By maintaining and managing firewalls in real-time through hosted services, providers can stay on top of attacks and issues and take a preventative approach instead of a reactionary one.

According to Knight, the traditional method of installing and using a firewall simply doesn’t work anymore, and it is this “hands off” approach that has enabled all the breaches and attacks experienced by businesses worldwide. What is worse, approximately half of these attacks simply go undetected.

“Even the managed firewall services, you still have to put a human body in there to audit it, and take a look at it and mistakes can be made,” warned Knight. Which is why SimpleWan works with service providers, enabling them to offer its firewall solutions as an add-on service that they may easily manage and monitor. SimpleWan does all the heavy lifting, from ensuring customers are compliant with PCI (News - Alert), HIPAA and other mandates and regulations, to continuously updated threat and malware databases.

“I think the courts are going to look a lot more fondly on businesses that actually try to be compliant and try to do the right thing,” added Knight.  And while there are no guarantees that a firewall monitoring service can prevent attacks and breaches, this type of solution certainly reduces risks while saving customers from spending their own time and resources on managing and monitoring firewalls.