Enterprises often overlook the firewall — that simple black box out at the edge of the network, quietly performing packet inspection on incoming traffic. Newer, more-sophisticated perimeter security products that offer intrusion prevention, vulnerability scanning and active network monitoring are getting far more industry attention than firewalls. However, firewall technology is not outdated or redundant. A well-deployed firewall remains your first line of defense against external attacks. Also, vendors in this market segment are evolving to meet changing security needs by improving baseline performance and adding new functionality.

Firewall technology is on the verge of its most significant change since the introduction of stateful packet inspection, which likely will alter the vendor landscape. This change will be driven by the emergence of deep packet inspection and other application capabilities, and it will benefit agile vendors that can rapidly incorporate the most-desirable new functionalities.

Because of the continuing importance of this technology, as well as upcoming changes in products, vendors and the overall market, we've made firewalls the focus of this issue of the Security & Privacy Spotlight.

Features

"Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Firewalls, 1H03" — Deep-packet-inspection functionality is critical to vendor success in the enterprise firewall market. By Richard Stiennon

"Four Paths to True Network Security" — Intrusion detection/prevention, content switching, and application-specific and traditional firewalls are four network security approaches with a common goal: comprehensive network defense in a single device. By Richard Stiennon

"Magic Quadrant for Personal Firewalls, 1H03" — Personal firewalls secure remote devices connected to enterprises via virtual private networks. By John Girard

"Personal Firewall Market Assessment for 2H03" — The personal firewall market will consolidate and products will be incorporated into other offerings, such as desktop product suites. By John Girard

"Microsoft Security Flaws Highlight Urgent Need for Personal Firewalls" — Personal firewalls are critical to address new Microsoft security flaws. By John Pescatore

"Firewalls: Technology Overview" — Firewalls are enterprises' network gatekeepers and their first line of defense against malicious-code attacks. By Kristen Noakes-Fry

"Security Fears Push Up Sales of Firewalls and VPNs in 2002" — The threat of cyberterrorism caused more large enterprises to buy firewall and virtual private network equipment in 2002, with Cisco Systems leading this combined market. By Andy Rolfe and Caroline Jones

"Firewalls: Comparison Columns" — Firewall products and vendors offer different functionalities and security levels. By Lorraine Reese and Kristen Noakes-Fry

"Cisco Systems Cisco PIX Security Appliance Firewall" — Cisco's PIX Security Appliances include intrusion protection and multimedia/voice security; integration of acquired technologies remains a challenge. By Kristen Noakes-Fry

"Secure Computing Sidewinder G2 Firewall" — Sidewinder G2 combines the Sidewinder and Gauntlet products, and includes stateful inspection, circuit-level proxies and application filtering. By Kristen Noakes-Fry

Ray Wagner

Editor in Chief

Security & Privacy

spotlight.feedback@gartner.com

Mark Nicolett

Contributing Editor

Security & Privacy

spotlight.feedback@gartner.com