Pub. 12 2021 Issue 3

wvbankers.org 14 West Virginia Banker L et’s Talk about the Bank’s Firewall. With the evolution of network security technology, there are more sophisticated firewalls available called next generation firewalls (NGFW). An NGFW is a network security device that provides more security than the traditional firewall appliance. The NGFW results from the increase over the years in cyber threats that have become more sophisticated in finding ways to breach traditional firewalls and ultimately gain access to company networks. So, What Does a Traditional Firewall Do? It allows or blocks traffic based on state, port, and protocol and filters traffic based on administrator-defined rules. The traditional device mainly controls the flow of traffic based on the rules that were set or configured. Depending on the type of protocol being run, these devices would accomplish the objective using a “stateless” or “stateful” method. A stateless method for traffic monitoring only focuses on individual packets, using preset rules to filter traffic. A stateful method for traffic monitoring will oversee and detect states of all traffic on a network to track and defend based on traffic patterns and flows. With traditional firewalls, the more effective version of the two types would be the stateful firewall. However, a traditional firewall still does not go as far as a next generation firewall in helping a bank with cyber threats. Here are some things to consider with cyber threats for 2021: • Due to COVID-19, cyber threats are on the rise, according to PurpleSec. • Remote work increased, which resulted in more security vulnerabilities, according to IBM. • According to CPO Magazine, more than a half-million Zoom user accounts were compromised and sold on the dark web. Statistics Regarding Data Breaches. While assessing the needs of the NGFW appliance, the Bank should consider the following statistics on data breaches: • Based on the ID threat resource center, there are over 11,000 recorded breaches since 2005. • In 2020, the average time to identify a breach was 207 days, according to IBM. • Around 43% of cyberattacks target small businesses, according to Cyberint. • The global average cost of a data breach, according to IBM, is $3.86 million. Now Let’s Talk about the Next Generation Firewalls A next generation firewall does the same as a traditional firewall and so much more. NGFWs are the third- generation and current standard for By Trista Cline, Arnett Carbis Toothman LLP Let’s Talk About Firewalls