Perhaps the most significant incident was Stuxnet – although there have been others. In June, Stuxnet was widely reported to have taken over Iran’s computerised systems, that operated its centrifuges, and having done so destroyed 1,000 used to enrich uranium. In a plot that would have made Ian Fleming proud, this event proved beyond doubt that a cyber-event can actually result in physical damage. The gauntlet could be considered well and truly thrown down as, in October, the U.S. government accused Iran of launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against U.S. financial institutions in retaliation.

For years many have warned that cyberspace is a dimension of vast potential, for both good and bad – and now we know it to be true. Nations and organisations will need to reconsider their security strategies, and increase their investment to both defend themselves and improve their cyber-ammunition. Countries all over the world are dedicating significant government resources to protect their critical infrastructure, and the IT security industry is closely engaged, developing technologies specifically designed for cyber warfare. As unfortunate as the reality of cyber war is, preparing for it will continue to be a wellspring of innovation.

The walls became stronger

With network firewalls unable to differentiate between various forms of modern Internet applications (mostly running over HTTP on port 80), their relevance has been called into question. However, the perimeter still needs to be protected. Thank goodness then that a new technology stepped up to the plate. NGFWs, or Next Generation Firewalls to give them their full title.


The strategic value of NGFWs was highlighted in Gartner's 2012 Firewall Magic Quadrant, with several firewall vendors including Check Point, and Cisco launching their own. NGFWs provide the ability to set access policies based on users and applications, thereby re-establishing the firewall as a fundamental security device. While application-aware firewalls have been around for some time, Palo Alto Networks’ investment in innovation and market education has resulted in widespread adoption of commercial grade NGFWs. By the end of 2012, most large enterprises will have adopted this technology to varying extents, or at least plan to.

There is no doubt that NGFWs have revitalised the firewall industry, and will continue to do so, however many organisations have yet to fully utilise the application awareness component of them, making it hard to foresee their true impact.

I believe that NGFWs could potentially displace the need for other types of solutions, or accelerate the convergence of network security and application management across other fronts. For that reason I think it’s a very exciting time to be in the firewall marketplace with many reasons to ‘watch this space’.