Today's digital economy is growing at a phenomenal rate.All modes of commerce from entertainment to finance and retail have moved on-line. You name it; there is an on-line business for it. Not only does selling occur on-line, businesses run their operations online and virtually with cloud-based providers such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and others. With so much mission critical infrastructure outside of your network, how can you ensure that your business is secure?
We see in the press daily that global cyber crime is skyrocketing. A massive DDoS cyber attack on October 21staffected 6% of Fortune 500 companies proving how fragile the digital economy is. Political hacktivism played a major role in this year's presidential election. Ransomware is now a top concern for business of all types and sizes. It's no secret that cyber criminals have the resources, expertise, and persistence to infiltrate and disrupt our businesses at any time. As attackers become more sophisticated, they exploit new attack vectors where traditional defenses are no longer effective.
Today's complex networks demand a robust threat detection and containment approach. Safeguarding your network assets and data from today's threats requires detailed visibility into all your network layers, content and resources no matter where they are deployed. It requires comprehensive and up-to-date security intelligence at the ready -combined with a dynamic approach that uses automation to quickly adapt to new threats, new vulnerabilities, and everyday network changes.
Security and IT professionals alike often unknowingly accept that with the widespread availability of next-generation firewalls, dedicated intrusion prevention systems are no longer necessary. The inclusion of IPS functionality in NGFWs has made them the simpler, go-to choice for many small to medium-sized organizations. But for more sophisticated organizations, the decision is not so clear-cut.
IPS functionality embedded in many firewalls and UTMs is not as comprehensive as best-of-breed IDS/IPS solutions. Instead, some firewalls incorporate a subset of capabilities lacking in efficacy, functionality and performance available with dedicated NGIPS solutions. Many organizations with stringent security requirements may find they are best served by deploying both a firewall and an NGIPS to meet their needs. We'll explore these use cases in a future post, but first let's learn more about what an NGIPS is and how it differs from typical NGFW capabilities.
There are a number of reasons to add a physical or virtual NGIPS appliance to your security architecture.
The Cisco Firepower Intrusion Prevention System (NGIPS) threat appliance provides industry-leading visibility and threat efficacy against both known and unknown threats. Threats are stopped by:
A range of purpose-built appliances provides the right throughput, flexibility, and scalability, so that organizations of all types and sizes achieve consistent security effectiveness while maintaining network performance. These appliances incorporate a low-latency, single-pass design and include configurable bypass (fail-to-wire) interfaces.
In today's fast-moving digital economy, now is not the time to take shortcuts with your security architecture. Cyber criminals are working overtime to take down the digital infrastructure for profit, fame or political gain. It is time to double down and stop them in their tracks with Cisco best-of-breed security solutions. Learn more about protecting your organization with NGIPS in our webinar.