Managed Firewall Use Cases

State Sets Tighter Controls After Data Breach

State Sets Tighter Controls After Data Breach

When a significant data breach at a state Department of Revenue led to a call for a complete security program review, Lumen identified priorities and areas of focus, and offered solutions to address critical vulnerabilities.

Among the recommendations were a technology refresh over a 5- to 7-year timeline that involved the total security infrastructure. This put the state on a path to establishing reliable and auditable information security controls for all agencies’ IT systems and data.

To help provide continuous monitoring, regular vulnerability scanning, and patching, Lumen implemented a suite of security services, including Managed Firewall (customer specifies security policy and Lumen configures firewall rules), Security Log Monitoring, Vulnerability & Risk Monitoring, and Incident Management & Response Services.

Lumen consolidates firewall logs and security events to help enable the detection of threats across an organization. Seasoned security analysts also provide global 24/7 monitoring with optional incident escalation.


Fundamental Protection for Compliance Mandates

Fundamental Protection for Compliance Mandates

Firewalls are fundamental to protecting network traffic, including the flow of sensitive data, and are required for compliance to mandates like PCI DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR.

Companies that don't have the personnel resources available to manage their firewall can close data security gaps and better prevent data breaches by using a managed firewall service. Lumen Managed Firewall network security starts with commercial-grade, clustered, highly available firewalls for stateful packet inspection (aka dynamic packet filtering. This technology monitors the state of active connections and uses the information gathered to determine which network packets to allow through the firewall.

Stateful inspection firewalls process application layer data and are considered more secure than packet filtering firewalls. A stateful firewall examines IP and TCP header information as well as packet content up through the application layer, remembers something about them, then uses this information when processing future packets. If the firewall verifies that the connection is safe, it allows the host operating system to route the packet.


IPS Offers Flexibility, Cost Savings

IPS Offers Flexibility, Cost Savings

Firewall technology has greatly advanced from simple packet filtering. Lumen supports integrated Intrusion Prevention Screens (IPS) on Palo Alto, Fortinet and Cisco platforms. Other types of perimeter-based security important to enterprises are now viable as firewall components, reducing the overall cost and complexity of managing different platforms.

Intrusion prevention screens are implemented to block well-known web-based attacks. With an effective IPS in place, systems can be virtually patched and protected from known, unknown, zero-day, and ransomware vulnerabilities.

Lumen Managed Firewall IPS gives businesses the flexibility to deploy a patch when one becomes available and suits their needs. It also offers protection before a patch exists, as is the case with end-of support systems and applications.