In the evolving landscape of cybersecurity, next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) have become essential for organizations looking to protect against increasingly sophisticated threats. To understand more about the importance of NGFWs, we spoke with Mr. Sankalp Kumar, a top cybersecurity professional with over seven years of experience at prominent companies, including McAfee, Juniper, and Fraunhofer. Currently leading critical aspects of in the industry, Mr. Kumar has also developed cybersecurity solutions utilized worldwide by government agencies, the military, and major corporations.
Here is our interview with Mr. Kumar, where he shares his insights on next-generation firewalls and their critical role in today’s security landscape.
Q1: How would you define a next-generation firewall, and what distinguishes it from a traditional firewall?
Mr. Kumar: “A next-generation firewall goes beyond basic packet filtering and stateful inspection, adding layers of security through advanced features like deep packet inspection, application awareness, and integrated threat intelligence. Unlike traditional firewalls, NGFWs focus on both network traffic and the applications that generate it, providing a more comprehensive security approach.”
Q2: What are the essential features that make NGFWs more effective in protecting modern networks? Could you elaborate on specific technologies like deep packet inspection (DPI) and intrusion prevention?
Mr. Kumar: “Deep packet inspection (DPI) is a cornerstone of NGFWs, as it analyzes packet content to detect threats at the application layer. Intrusion prevention, when combined with DPI, actively prevents attacks rather than merely detecting them. SSL decryption has also become essential, as much of today’s traffic is encrypted. Automated threat intelligence helps NGFWs stay updated on the latest threats, ensuring proactive defense.”
Q3: In the current landscape, with the rise of zero-day threats, how do NGFWs enhance a company’s security posture?
Mr. Kumar: “NGFWs enhance cybersecurity by identifying and blocking advanced threats like zero-day attacks and sophisticated malware. With built-in intrusion prevention and real-time threat updates, they can stop many threats before they reach the network, significantly reducing the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access.”
Q4: Application awareness in NGFWs allows companies to monitor and control application traffic and user behavior. How would you implement this functionality in a high-traffic enterprise network?
Mr. Kumar: “Application awareness in NGFWs allows companies to monitor and control application traffic and user behavior, even in high-traffic environments. By enabling policies based on applications and users, NGFWs can restrict access to risky apps and prioritize bandwidth for essential ones, helping secure critical enterprise data.”
Q5: How do NGFWs handle the balance between strong security enforcement and high performance, especially in low-latency environments?
Mr. Kumar: “Performance optimization is critical, especially in high-speed networks. NGFWs are designed with features like parallel processing and hardware acceleration, balancing security and performance. For scalability, adopting NGFWs as part of a cloud-native or hybrid solution can distribute firewall functions across the network, allowing for better traffic handling as demand grows.”
Q6: How do NGFWs improve upon traditional intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS)? Could you discuss how NGFWs use machine learning or AI to enhance real-time threat detection and mitigation?
Mr. Kumar: “NGFWs significantly enhance traditional IDS/IPS capabilities, adding intelligence-driven threat detection that uses machine learning to detect patterns associated with malicious activity. AI can further improve NGFWs’ ability to spot anomalies in real-time, creating a dynamic and adaptive layer of defense.”
Q7: What challenges do NGFWs currently face, especially regarding encrypted traffic inspection and privacy concerns? Do you think NGFWs are effective against insider threats?
Mr. Kumar: “A key challenge NGFWs face is inspecting encrypted traffic without violating privacy policies. Another is balancing security with user experience, as extensive filtering can impact network speed. While NGFWs are effective against external threats, they may be limited against insider threats, where other solutions like user behavior analytics and endpoint security are also needed.”
Q8: How do you see NGFW technology evolving over the next 5 to 10 years, particularly with advancements in AI and cloud-native architectures?
Mr. Kumar: “NGFWs will likely integrate even deeper AI capabilities to predict and adapt to new attack methods in real-time. As cloud-native environments grow, NGFWs will also evolve to become more containerized and distributed, ensuring they can protect assets across both cloud and on-premises networks. I expect NGFWs will merge with broader security frameworks, such as zero-trust, providing end-to-end protection across a distributed network.”
Q9: How can NGFWs aid organizations in meeting compliance requirements (like GDPR, PCI-DSS) while still allowing business flexibility?
Mr. Kumar: “NGFWs can enforce strict security policies aligned with regulatory requirements like GDPR and PCI-DSS, while offering flexibility through custom rules for different departments or roles. Within zero-trust, NGFWs serve as a vital layer that authenticates and authorizes access on a continuous basis, helping companies secure critical assets with greater precision.”
Q10: For a company looking to implement an NGFW, what factors would you prioritize in evaluating and selecting a solution?
Mr. Kumar: “When evaluating NGFWs, it’s essential to look at performance under load, ease of management, integration capabilities, and response speed to threats. Testing NGFWs in a real-world environment and measuring metrics like latency, false positives, and detection rates is ideal to ensure the solution will meet your organization’s specific needs.”
Sankalp’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sankalp-kumar
