Overview

A firewall is a network security device or software that is used to monitor and control incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules. Firewall Logs contain valuable information about network and security events. These logs are essential for security and infrastructure monitoring for enterprises. While this data is critical to securing enterprise networks, they are also one of the most voluminous data types security teams use to monitor and secure their networks. They are riddled with data that provides very little analytical value.  This noise in Firewall Logs bloats analytics systems, crushes licensing and infrastructure budgets, and makes finding real security threats much more difficult. At the same time, firewall logs are growing 25% - 35% a year, multiplying the problem.

In this blog, we will review common use cases and problems associated with storing and processing Firewall Logs.  In Part 2 of this blog series, we explore how the Firewall Log data can be optimized for cost and performance without losing any of their analytical value. We will review a customer case study for part 3.

Key Use Cases for Firewall Logs

• Security Monitoring : Palo Alto firewall logs are critical for detecting and responding to security threats. They provide real-time visibility into potential attacks and vulnerabilities in the network.
• Network Performance Monitoring: Monitoring traffic logs helps optimize network performance by identifying bandwidth hogs, congestion points, and inefficient routing.
• Compliance and Auditing: Logs can be used for compliance with industry regulations and auditing purposes, as they provide a record of network activities and security events.
• Incident Response: In the event of a security incident, logs can be analyzed to determine the scope and impact of the breach, aiding in incident response and recovery.
• Policy Verification: Logs help ensure that firewall policies are working as intended and that the network is in compliance with security policies.
• Trend Analysis: Over time, logs can be used to identify trends and patterns in network traffic and security events, enabling proactive measures to be taken.
• Resource Allocation: Traffic logs can inform resource allocation decisions, helping to ensure that network resources are distributed effectively.

Firewall Log Categories

• Traffic Logs: These logs record information about network traffic passing through the firewall, including source and destination IP addresses, port numbers, protocols, and actions taken by the firewall (e.g., allow, deny, drop). Traffic logs are used for monitoring network usage, troubleshooting connectivity issues, and verifying that firewall policies are correctly enforced.
• Threat Logs: Threat logs capture information about security threats and attacks, such as malware, intrusion attempts, vulnerabilities, and other potentially harmful activities. These logs are crucial for detecting and responding to security incidents, identifying potential threats, and strengthening the network's security posture.
• System Logs: System logs contain information about firewall operations, administrative changes, system status, and hardware-related events. They are used for administrative purposes, tracking changes to firewall configurations, monitoring device health, and diagnosing system issues.

How Firewall Logs are Ingested and Processed Today

Firewall logs are commonly sent to Log Management Systems or Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platforms. Examples of these tools include Splunk, Elastic Stack (ELK), IBM QRadar, SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM), McAfee Enterprise Security Manager (ESM), Graylog, or AlienVault USM. Administrators configure log forwarding endpoints, which results in logs for all log types being forwarded to log management stores and/or SIEMs.. Once the logs reach their designated endpoints, system administrators typically build dashboards and alerts to monitor the health of their network.

Common Problems Storing and Processing Firewall Logs

• Soaring Storage Costs: Data volume of logs scale proportionally to the network traffic that hits the firewall. As your organization grows, so does the volume of network traffic. This ultimately results in increased costs to store and process firewall logs. ‍
• Escalating Compute Costs: With larger traffic volumes, it becomes computationally more expensive to process logs in order to detect security threats when they happen. High-sensitivity logs are lost in the large volumes of Traffic, System, and other Firewall Log categories.‍
• Increasing Indexing and Search Costs: Only a subset of logs are relevant in log destinations. For example, SIEM endpoints typically make use of Threat & Security logs to detect potential network security risks. Data sent to analytics systems is increasingly granular. Traffic logs, for example,  are typically generated for every network call made on a firewall. This results in an explosion in the number of events. The high granularity of data results in more expensive search and processing in log endpoints.

How Do You Eliminate the Noise?

Observo helps you take back control of your observability and security data. Our innovative observability pipeline can help you save 50% or more on log management costs by stripping out the noise and allowing you to only process and pay for logs that have analytical value. Check out part 2 of our series to understand how Observo.ai helps reduce the noise and cost of analyzing Firewall Logs. In part 3, we will walk through a customer case study.

‍Learn More

For more information on how you can save 50% or more on your security and observability costs with the AI-powered observability pipeline, Read the Observo.ai Whitepaper, “Elevating Observability with AI.”