Summary
This chapter provided you with the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively audit your organization’s NGFWs. You have gained a better understanding of NGFW features, such as application awareness and threat intelligence integration, and learned targeted auditing techniques for systems such as Palo Alto PAN-OS.
Throughout the chapter, you discovered how to identify common configuration pitfalls, ensure compliance with security policies and best practices, and optimize firewall rules for improved efficiency and risk mitigation. You are now better prepared to interpret network traffic logs, discern between benign and malicious traffic, and evaluate the real-time effectiveness of firewall rules.
As IT ecosystems evolve, so must an auditor’s approach. In the next chapter, you’ll look into the nuances of auditing cloud-based environments, learning about service provider platforms, their unique security models, and how to adapt your methodologies accordingly...
