Is Data Encryption Compromising Network Performance? Not with WatchGuard.

New WatchGuard Firebox M400 and M500 NGFW and UTM appliances outperform the competition by 61 percent, delivering uncompromised security to meet the rise of encrypted traffic head-on.

Rising Network Traffic Leads to Compromised Security

Encrypted network traffic growth is exploding! Enterprises and service providers are adopting data encryption as a security precaution – especially as the fallout from the “Snowden effect” continues.

Encrypted data use in the U.S. doubled last year alone.[i] This number is not surprising since cloud services across Google, Dropbox, Yahoo and others are now using encryption as a default setting. Unfortunately, that encrypted data can do more to harm security than maintain it.

According to a Gartner report entitled Security Leaders Must Address Threats from Rising SSL Traffic: “With more and more encrypted traffic, this trend is likely to expand rapidly. Gartner believes that, in 2017, more than half of the network attacks targeting enterprises will use encrypted traffic to bypass controls, up from less than five percent today. [ii]”

Encrypted data must be monitored and secured. But, unencrypting and re-encrypting data at the firewall level reduces performance by as much as 80 percent.[iii] This performance hit is compounded with each UTM security layer added – and even further compounded by surging network performance demands resulting from increased data consumption.

Rising data encryption and the “Snowden effect” can open the door for malware. Photo Source: AK Rockefeller

Each year, Internet traffic grows 21 percent.[iv] The result has pushed average data consumption to 52 GB per person per month.[v] Network performance is increasing to keep pace (42 percent each year[vi]) to enable our growing data addiction.

This exploding network traffic and performance allows more-and-more applications on corporate networks, boosting employee capabilities and productivity. Unfortunately, it also increases risk. More data and traffic on the network means more high-value targets for the Internet’s dark side.

The compromise between network security and network performance is placing many companies in a lose-lose situation – forced to make a difficult decision with very real consequences.

Rising Network Traffic Leads to Compromised Security

Compromise rarely leads to victory with network security. The new WatchGuard Firebox M400 and M500 next-generation firewall (NGFW) and unified threat management (UTM) appliances deliver leading performance to ensure you never have to compromise security for performance.

The WatchGuard Firebox M400 and M500 appliances are 61 percent faster than competing NGFW and UTM appliances with all layers of our award winning defense-in-depth solutions turned on, and 149 percent faster when performing HTTPs inspection.[vii]

WatchGuard M400 and M500 NGFW/UTM appliances outperform competing solutions by 61 percent and are 149 percent faster when performing HTTPS inspection.

The Firebox M400 and M500 appliances run WatchGuard’s Fireware OS, which is built on the latest Intel® Pentium™ and Intel® Celeron™ Processors, allowing performance to continually scale. Customers can now run WatchGuard security appliances with all security layers enabled without sacrificing performance.

Our customers deserve uncompromised security. The WatchGuard Firebox M400 and M500 NGFW/UTM appliances deliver. Click here to learn more.

[i] Sandvine Global Internet Phenomena: https://www.sandvine.com/downloads/general/global-internet-phenomena/2014/1h-2014-global-internet-phenomena-report.pdf

[ii] Gartner, Inc. “Security Leaders Must Address Threats from Rising SSL Traffic” by Jeremy D’Hoinne and Adam Hils, December 9, 2013 Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

[iii] J. W. Pirc, “SSL Performance Problems: Significant SSL Performance Loss Leaves Much Room for Improvement,” NSS Labs, June 2013.

[iv] Akamai state of the internet report 2014

[v] Sandvine Global Internet Phenomena: https://www.sandvine.com/downloads/general/global-internet-phenomena/2014/1h-2014-global-internet-phenomena-report.pdf

[vi] Cisco Global IP network forecast: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/ip-ngn-ip-next-generation-network/white_paper_c11-481360.html

[vii] Miercom Performance Report: http://www.watchguard.com/docs/analysis/miercom_report_112014.pdf