Why Legacy Firewalls Are Ineffective in Securing Applications and Data in the Data Center

Rethinking Firewalls: Security and Agility for the Modern Enterprise, sponsored by Guardicore, was conducted to learn how enterprises perceive their legacy firewalls within their security ecosystems on premises and in the cloud. Ponemon Institute surveyed 603 IT and IT security practitioners in the United States who are decision makers or influencers of technology decisions to protect enterprises’ critical applications and data. Respondents also are involved at different levels in purchasing or using the firewall technologies.

Following are findings that reveal why organizations are rethinking their legacy firewalls.

• Legacy firewalls are ineffective in securing applications and data in the data center. Only 33 percent of respondents say their organizations are very or highly effective in securing applications and data in the data center. Legacy firewalls are also mostly ineffective at preventing a ransomware attack. Only 36 percent of respondents say their organizations are highly effective in preventing such an attack.
• Legacy firewalls are ineffective in preventing cyberattacks against applications. Only 37 percent of respondents say their organizations’ legacy firewalls’ ability to prevent cyberattacks against critical business and cloud-based applications is high or very high.
• Legacy firewalls do not protect against ransomware attacks. Only 36 percent of respondents say their legacy firewalls are highly effective at preventing a ransomware attack. Only 33 percent of respondents say their organizations are very or highly effective in securing applications and data in the data center. 
• Legacy firewalls are failing to enable Zero Trust across the enterprise. Only 37 percent of respondents rate their organizations’ legacy firewalls at enabling Zero Trust across the enterprise as very or highly effective.
• Legacy firewalls are ineffective in securing applications and data in the cloud. Sixty-four percent of respondents say cloud security is essential (34 percent) or very important (30 percent). However, only 39 percent of respondents say the use of legacy firewalls are very or highly effective in securing applications and data in the cloud.
• Legacy firewalls kill flexibility and speed. Organizations are at risk because of the lack of flexibility and speed in making changes to legacy firewalls. On average, it takes at least three weeks or more than a month to update legacy firewall rules to accommodate an update or a new application.  Only 37 percent of respondents say their organizations are very flexible in making changes to its network or applications and only 24 percent of respondent say their organizations have a high ability to quickly secure new applications or change security configurations for existing applications.
• Legacy firewalls limit access control and are costly to implement. Sixty-two percent of respondents say access control policies are not granular enough and almost half (48 percent of respondents) say legacy firewalls take too long to implement.
• The majority of organizations in this study are ready to get rid of their legacy firewalls because of their ineffectiveness. Fifty-three percent of respondents say their organizations are ready to purchase an alternative or complementary solution. The two top reasons are the desire to have a single security solution for on-premises and cloud data center security (44 percent of respondents) and to improve their ability to reduce lateral movement and secure access to critical data (31 percent of respondents).
• Firewall labor and other costs are too high. Sixty percent of respondents say their organizations would consider reducing their firewall because of the high costs. Fifty-one percent of organizations are considering a reduction in its firewall footprint because labor and other costs are too high (60 percent of respondents). In addition, 52 percent of respondents say it is because current firewalls do not provide adequate security for internal data center east-west traffic.

Conclusion

Organizations are rethinking the use of legacy firewalls. Fifty-three percent of respondents say their organizations are ready to purchase an alternative or complementary solution because of the desire to have a single security solution for on-premises and cloud data center security (44 percent of respondents) and to improve their ability to reduce lateral movement and secure access to critical data (31 percent of respondents).

For a deeper analysis of these findings, we hope you will download the full report and look forward to your comments.

Warmest regards,

Dr. Larry Ponemon & Susan Jayson

Tags

• Cyber Attack
• Security
• Security Strategy