The 2026 Firewall & Network Edge
Health Check

Is your firewall hardware under a current support contract with firmware updated in the last 30 days?

End-of-life hardware and unpatched firmware are the #1 exploited vector in SMB breaches.

Have you conducted a "Rule Audit" in the last 6 months to close ports used by former vendors or old projects?

Stale rules from departed vendors or cancelled projects are silent open doors into your network.

Are you actively blocking incoming traffic from high-risk regions where you have no active business?

Up to 40% of attack traffic originates from regions most businesses have zero commercial ties to.

Does your firewall inspect encrypted traffic (HTTPS), or is 80% of your data entering the network unmonitored?

Most modern malware uses encrypted channels. Without SSL inspection, your firewall is largely blind.

Is MFA mandatory for every VPN and remote admin login?

Credential theft is the leading cause of breaches. MFA blocks over 99% of automated attacks.

Is your IPS tuned to "Block" mode for known exploits, rather than just "Detect/Alert"?

Detection without blocking is a smoke alarm with no sprinklers. Your team gets an alert while the breach proceeds.

Can your system identify unauthorized IoT devices or personal routers connected to your corporate LAN?

A single unsecured personal router can create a rogue wireless access point that bypasses your entire security stack.

Are logs exported to a tamper-proof off-site location to meet audit and insurance requirements?

Insurers and regulators require immutable, off-site logs. On-device logs can be deleted by an attacker post-breach.

Does your system switch to 5G/LTE or a secondary ISP within seconds of a primary line failure?

Downtime from a failed internet connection costs regulated industries far more than the cost of a secondary link.

Does your network slow down significantly when high-level security features are enabled?

An under-spec'd firewall forces a choice: security or performance. Enterprise-grade hardware eliminates that trade-off.