McAfee Report Reveals Organizations Choose Network Performance Over Advanced Security Features
October 29 2014 - 12:01AM
Business Wire
System Administrators Admit to Disabling Key
Network Firewall Features in Response to Complaints about Poor
Application Performance
McAfee, part of Intel Security, today published a new report
titled Network Performance and Security, exploring the challenges
organizations face in deploying security protections while still
maintaining an optimally performing network infrastructure. Issued
at McAfee’s FOCUS 14 conference, the report uncovered that an
alarming number of organizations are now disabling advanced
firewall features in order to avoid significant network performance
degradation.
As part of the report, 504 IT professionals were surveyed, with
60 percent stating that the design of their company’s network was
driven by security. However, more than one-third of respondents
admitted to turning off firewall features or declining to enable
certain security functions in an effort to increase the performance
of their networks.
“It is unfortunate that turning off important firewall features
because of network performance concerns has started to become
common practice,” said Pat Calhoun, General Manager of Network
Security at McAfee, part of Intel Security. “At McAfee we believe
this is unacceptable. Companies simply should not have to make that
kind of trade-off.”
According to the report, the most common features disabled by
network administrators include deep packet inspection (DPI),
anti-spam, anti-virus, and VPN access. DPI, the feature most
frequently disabled, detects malicious activity within regular
network traffic and prevents intrusions by blocking offending
traffic automatically before any damage occurs. It is essential for
robust threat defenses, and is a key component of next generation
firewalls, which now represent 70 percent of all new firewall
purchases1.
“When I hear about people turning off security they paid for
because of performance decreases -- this upsets me so much,” said
Ray Maurer, Chief Technology Officer at Perket Technologies. “I get
a bad feeling knowing I had to remove security in the name of
performance. I have a hard time sleeping because it is not a matter
of if a network will be compromised, but when.”
Many organizations choose to turn-off DPI because of the high
demands it places on network resources, yielding upwards of a 40
percent degradation of throughput, according to third-party
research firm, Miercom2. McAfee Next Generation Firewall, however,
with DPI enabled sustained one of the highest firewall throughputs
in Miercom’s testing. Overall, McAfee Next Generation Firewall
sustained much higher throughput performance with security features
enabled when compared to other products in this class. Competing
products tested exhibited an average of 75 percent or more
performance degradation for DPI, anti-virus and application control
when enabled2.
According to Calhoun, “With the number of confirmed data
breaches climbing more than 200 percent in 2014 over the previous
year, it has never been more critical for organizations to embrace
the advanced protections available to them with next generation
firewalls3. At McAfee, we make it possible to deploy security
technology to its full potential, without sacrificing usability or
productivity.”
To read Miercom’s Throughput and Scalability Report for McAfee
Next Generation Firewall, visit: www.mcafee.com/ngfw
About Intel Security
McAfee is now part of Intel Security. With its Security
Connected strategy, innovative approach to hardware-enhanced
security, and unique Global Threat Intelligence, Intel Security is
intensely focused on developing proactive, proven security
solutions and services that protect systems, networks, and mobile
devices for business and personal use around the world. Intel
Security is combining the experience and expertise of McAfee with
the innovation and proven performance of Intel to make security an
essential ingredient in every architecture and on every computing
platform. Intel Security’s mission is to give everyone the
confidence to live and work safely and securely in the digital
world. www.intelsecurity.com.
[1] Gartner finding cited in “Next Generation Firewalls and
Employee Privacy in the Global Enterprise,” SANS Institute,
September 21, 2014.
http://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/legal/generation-firewalls-employee-privacy-global-enterprise-35467
[2] “Throughput and Scalability Report, McAfee NGFW 5206, v5.8,”
Miercom, October 9, 2014.
http://www.mcafee.com/us/resources/reports/rp-miercom-throughput-scalability-ngfw.pdf
[3] Verizon, 2014 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR).
http://www.verizonenterprise.com/DBIR/2014/
Note: McAfee is a trademark or registered trademark of McAfee,
Inc. in the United States and other countries. Other names and
brands may be claimed as the property of others.
McAfee, part of Intel SecurityHeather Haas,
408-346-5735Heather_Haas@McAfee.comorZeno GroupAshley
Dolezal, 650-801-0931Ashley.Dolezal@zenogroup.com
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