Can your firewall thwart today's threats?

Two Avanade consultants outline ways to get maximum protection from your perimeter defenses.

[Via Computerworld Security News] To deal with modern security issues requires questioning conventional wisdom and the best practices that haven't helped us very much. We tell customers to ask themselves if their firewall: Provides deep analysis for the HTTP protocol? Analyzes data originated by HTTPS? Analyzes XML? Restricts HTTP methods? Defeats tunneling applications, including peer-to-peer systems? Allows third parties to extend the firewall to implement countermeasures to emerging threats? Protects the data transports for business-critical messaging, through validation and protocol assurance? If the answer to any of these questions is "no," then it's unlikely the firewall will protect against today's threats.