What Is the Future of Firewalls?

jlmale0 writes "When I mess with my WAP/router at home or coordinate with the network team at work, it seems like I'm stuck in 1995. We're still manually listing IP address/port combinations for our firewall rules. There's a certain simplicity to this when dealing with a single system, but there are firewalls everywhere these days. What's available for managing complex firewall arrangements? What's being developed? Can I take a Visio diagram, run it through a script, and get a list of firewall rules? What about a GUI that illustrates the current system configuration and then lets me drag and drop systems across firewalls, and have the individual firewall ports automatically configured? What about tying a firewall into an authentication system so that when jdoe logs in, only then are the firewalls opened to pass her traffic? What about managing distributed firewalls so that one repository of rules opens up your system's firewalls, the DMZ firewall, and the public firewall all at once? Let's get a conversation started. What cool projects do I need to know about? What cool management features would you like to see? What's next for firewall management?"

Comments

When you finish your MBA- it'll all become clear.

[bsane]

When you finish your MBA- it'll all become clear.

Re:When you finish your MBA- it'll all become clea

[RobDollar]

Do you get a free Belkin 54g with your MBA?

What's next for firewall management?

[Centurix]

I haven't looked, but I'm sure there's and iPhone app for that.

Just run it through a Chinese server

[countertrolling]

They'll firewall it for you..

I've got the fix for you

[RJHelms]

Create a GUI interface using Visual Basic. See if you can track an IP address

Re:Feature, not bug

[clintonmonk]

Things that are stupid, slow, and require physical access are that much more secure... in bed.

Re:Future of Internet and firewalls

[Crackez]

BitterOak's Sig:
"If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?"

No, You can be modded up for being a Unix Sysadmin, Unix Developer, or M$ hater. All of the others you mention are downward.

New advances in firewall technology

[bl8n8r]

There are currently a number of applications being developed by DORKA which will allow PHBs to manage their own corporate firewalls from an Excel spreadsheet or Microsoft JET database. The applications are being developed from a usability standpoint rather than a security standpoint which allows all traffic to be allowed by default (IPv6 is ignored for simplicity because nobody understands it anyway). When the software detects a DDoS, Intrusion, or Security Breach in progress, it will send an email to the managing PHB and trigger a rule to route BLAME packets through Layer 8 instead. All there is to the interface is a red button marked "Easy" a Yellow button marked "Out To Lunch", and a red button marked "WTF?". You should find it very exciting.