Cybersecurity

Your firewall ruleset has grown over years — do you know what's actually allowed through?

We review your firewall rule base for overly permissive rules, redundant rules, shadow rules, and configuration errors — then provide a prioritised cleanup plan.

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The challenges you're facing

Firewall rules accumulated over years with nobody sure what each rule does or whether it's still needed

Any-to-any rules added 'temporarily' that became permanent and now allow unrestricted traffic

No change management for firewall rules — engineers add rules but nobody reviews or removes them

Comprehensive Firewall Rule Base Audit and Optimisation

We perform a structured review of your firewall rule base covering: overly permissive rules (ANY source, ANY destination, ANY service), redundant and shadowed rules, unused rules, rules without business justification, segmentation effectiveness, NAT configuration, and logging and alerting coverage. You receive a prioritised ruleset optimisation plan and optional hands-on rule cleanup.

What you get

Rule Base Export & Analysis

Export and analyse the complete rule base, identify all any/any rules, unused rules, and rule ordering issues.

Traffic Analysis

Review firewall logs to identify rules never hit, rules hit unexpectedly, and traffic patterns that indicate policy gaps.

Segmentation & Architecture Review

Assess network segmentation effectiveness, DMZ configuration, and trust zone boundaries.

Optimisation Report & Cleanup Plan

Prioritised cleanup recommendations with business impact assessment for rule removal or modification.

Technologies & tools

Palo AltoFortinet FortiGateCisco ASACheck PointpfSenseFiremonAlgoSecTufin

Case study — anonymised

Retail Chain — 12 locations

Before

Palo Alto firewall with 847 rules across 12 sites. Review found 341 rules unused for 12+ months, 23 any/any rules with no business justification, and 4 sites with no segmentation between POS and corporate networks.

After

Ruleset reduced from 847 to 389 rules after safe removal. Any/any rules replaced with specific allow rules. POS network segmented across all sites.

Attack surface reduced by 54% (rule reduction), PCI DSS network segmentation requirement satisfied, firewall performance improved 22% from ruleset optimisation

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions from enterprise and mid-market teams across India and internationally.

How do you safely remove firewall rules without breaking anything?

We never remove rules without first analysing traffic logs to verify the rule is genuinely unused (no matching traffic in 90+ days). We also stage removals by first disabling rules and monitoring for 2 weeks before permanent removal. Every change is documented and reversible.

What firewall platforms do you support?

We support Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet FortiGate, Cisco ASA/FTD, Check Point, Juniper SRX, pfSense/OPNsense, and cloud-native firewalls (AWS Security Groups, Azure NSGs, GCP Firewall Rules). Different vendors require different review tooling but the methodology is consistent.

What is a shadow rule and why does it matter?

A shadow rule is a more specific rule that is never reached because a broader rule above it matches first. For example, a rule blocking traffic from a specific host is never evaluated if a previous any/any allow rule matches first. Shadow rules create false security — administrators think traffic is blocked when it isn't.

Should we also review our cloud security groups as part of this?

Yes, and we recommend it. AWS Security Groups, Azure NSGs, and GCP Firewall Rules grow in the same undisciplined way as on-premise firewalls. We can include cloud firewall review as part of this engagement or as a separate cloud security assessment.

Ready to get started?

Tell us about your situation and we'll respond with a tailored assessment within one business day.