Evaluation Rented Managed Firewalls KPIs

Performance metrics really matter when it comes to cybersecurity. But, how do you determine if you are getting good value for your money with the managed firewall services you have rented? As a cybersecurity practitioner, knowing the right Cybersecurity Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track helps ensure your measures are effective. In this blog, let us explore these critical KPIs to determine the success of rented managed firewall services. Now it’s time to tap into the power of insights relevant for your security setup!

Uptime & Reliability

Always on — that’s what we demand from a firewall. If you’re renting a firewall from a provider such as P J Networks, the first factors to review should be uptime and reliability.

• Uptime Percentage: The majority of security services offer 99.9% uptime. However, if your rented firewall is going down often, then it’s time to put the consideration of your choice back on the table.
• Backup Choices: Check if your firewall provider has backup options to keep your network secured even in case of service disruption.
• Measures of Redundancy: Seek out redundant systems to cover any failure points and keep the network operating smoothly.

And remember, availability is essentially the reliability of a firewall. You want it to secure you all of the time and not a piece of the time.

Threat Block Rates

Another critical element to contemplate is the Threat Block Rate. The question is how well the firewall prevents malicious activity.

• Total number of Threats Blocked: Check if most of the cyber threats can be blocked by the rented firewall.
• Threat Hat and Match: See whether it manages different classes of cyber threat, such as black software, phishing attempts, and unauthorized access.
• Next-Gen Detection Options: Is your firewall using up-to-date threat intelligence assistance? This may comprise machine learning and AI to identify trends.

For a business, the more threats that your firewall can block, the more secure your data and operations are.

Response Time

Response time is the time your rented firewall will take to respond to a threat. A fast response time can limit the damage an attack can cause.

• Notification Speeds: How quickly does the firewall alert you to an attack or breach?
• Mitigation Time: The time it takes to derive the effective mitigation of the threat when the incident has been identified.
• Intervention Level: Does this require human intervention or can it act autonomously for certain types of threats?

In line with that, we do need to be quick enough to mitigate risks with a proactive response time, that reduces the potential damage of an attack on your business.

Compliance Scores

Compliance standards are key for any business using rented firewall systems.

• Compliance: Ensure your firewall is compliant with the major standards such as HIPAA, GDPR or PCI-DSS.
• Regular Audits: Consider services that provide regular audits and compliance checks—so you stay aligned with ever-evolving regulations!
• Security-focused Reports: Go for solutions that can provide you with comprehensive compliance reports so you can see where you need to improve.

It’s about more than ticking boxes when it comes to compliance. It’s about ensuring that you have a strong security-focused approach in all areas of your business operations.

However, as with any shift, careful consideration needs to be applied and this is where cyber vanguards can undoubtedly apply their expertise to your rented managed firewall in the cybersecurity space using KPIs including but not limited to uptime, threat block rates, response times and compliance scores, to ensure it is playing its part. Be sure to continually validate these metrics to ensure your security systems continue to improve.

Focusing and educating with respect to the above performance metrics can ensure your firewall from P J Networks or other providers is constantly alert and reliable without swaying. So when you measure your firewall, have these benchmarks in the back of your head so you can measure accurately and make the right decisions for the efficient protection of your infrastructure.